My second-week of being a vegetarian has been a lot more successful. I decided to scrap all the frozen goods and begin preparing actual meals at home, going to local grocery stores and buying fresh ingredients. I've experimented with tofu a lot recently; cooking tofu fried rice, and...tofu fried rice. Really all I've been eating.
I'm honestly still really struggling. Not as much as before, but I didn't realize how major meat was as a part of my diet. Especially as someone who is so short on time.
But as I've read into how much planetary resources I was saving, I've once again been convinced that the vegetarian way is worth it. I mean look at this chart below.
According to vegaroo.co by being a vegetarian I'm saving 300 grams of carbon dioxide, 6750 Liters of water, 22.5 sq ft of forest land, and 187.5 kilograms of waste (compared to the average American).
These numbers blow me away. If we as a community can make this much change just as a small area in the Northwest, imagine what can be done globally.
References:
[1] https://www.seattle.gov/opcd/population-and-demographics
[2] https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/tacomacitywashington
I'm honestly still really struggling. Not as much as before, but I didn't realize how major meat was as a part of my diet. Especially as someone who is so short on time.
But as I've read into how much planetary resources I was saving, I've once again been convinced that the vegetarian way is worth it. I mean look at this chart below.
According to vegaroo.co by being a vegetarian I'm saving 300 grams of carbon dioxide, 6750 Liters of water, 22.5 sq ft of forest land, and 187.5 kilograms of waste (compared to the average American).
BUT, let's look at this on a yearly basis. How much could I reduce my carbon emissions in a year?
(We'll calculate these by taking the weekly totals and multiplying them by the 52 weeks per year.)
- 15,600 Grams of Carbon Dioxide!
- 351,000 Liters of Water!
- 1,170 Sq Ft of Forest Land!
- And 9,750 Kilograms of Waste.
These are ludicrous numbers! But let's say all of Seattle & Tacoma commits to being vegetarian. Two cities with around a population of a million people[1-2]. That'll be roughly a million times more than my personal yearly numbers if everyone were to become vegan.
- 15,600,000,000 Grams of Carbon Dioxide
- 351,000,000,000 Liters of Water!
- 1,170,000,000 Sq Ft of Forest Land!
- And 9,750,000,000 Kilograms of Waste.
These numbers blow me away. If we as a community can make this much change just as a small area in the Northwest, imagine what can be done globally.
References:
[1] https://www.seattle.gov/opcd/population-and-demographics
[2] https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/tacomacitywashington
Your stats dont seem to be correct. How does your 3 days of week of not being vegetarian change these statistics?
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize one person going vegetarian could make such a huge impact! 109,500 grams of carbon dioxide reduction in a year is huge (even though I know we emit millions of grams) but still! Makes me wonder what would happen if a little over half of the worlds population went vegetarian.
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