What inspired you to become more green?

It was a Winter's day, I am sat in the car whilst Mum has popped into the shop to buy something.  The car parked in front of ours has the engine running and I am drawn to the exhaust fumes spewing out.  The longer Mum is shopping the more I watch and wonder what happens to the fumes, as surely they can't just keep filling the air?  Not long after I was watching the TV and saw a news story about Acid Rain and a connection was made.  Huge areas of forest were being destroyed by the rain that had become so acidic it killed the trees. This acid rain was, in part, created by nitrous oxides in the atmosphere that come from ... you guessed it ... car exhaust fumes.  I was probably about 12 years old.

Why going vegan won't save the world ...

... but not wasting food, changing what meat we eat and altering our lifestyles will certainly help.

Some proponents of a vegan lifestyle state that if the world's population were to turn vegan we would save the world from climate change and cite the following reasons why they believe this is the case:

1. Livestock farming (especially for beef) produces methane (a greenhouse gas) via the natural digestive process of the animals ie cow farts. Methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO₂.

2. Areas of rainforest are being felled at an alarming rate with the cleared land used for cattle farming.  The forests previously would have absorbed CO₂ and when the soil is cultivated before being turned to pasture, it releases nitrous oxide and methane that are both stored in the soil. Nitrous oxide is 300 times more potent than CO₂ as a greenhouse gas.

3. A hectare of land can feed many more people if it produces plants as opposed to animals.

Sounds convincing but there is another side to these arguments.

What EXACTLY is Climate Change?

I am sure we have all heard the term Climate Change but do you really know what it means and what effect it will have on the earth?  Are each of us really responsible and is there anything, as individuals, we can do to minimise its negative effects?

If you search for a definition of Climate Change you will find various ways to describe what it is and this one is typical:

Climate Change

A change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.