Like many of us, I have been feeling frustrated about the state of our climate and the future of our planet. I often feel that the government has been slow to act, and political differences keep getting in the way of making definitive improvements. Then, I had a friend tell me the other night that it probably doesn’t really matter what we each do on an individual basis to attempt to mitigate damage to the environment, so we better hope that technology and the government can save us. That didn’t sit right with me. While I do believe that tech and the government are key to making big changes, I do believe that each of us holds more power than we often realize to change the future for the better. One thing that we can all do, starting with our next meal is to choose to eat mostly, if not entirely, plant-based. The smaller amount of water and land use, the lower amount of air, water, and land pollution, and the greatly reduced carbon and methane foot prints are some of the key benefits of choosing to eat this way. A recent film I enjoyed and recommend on this topic is ”Eating Our Way To Extinction”, narrated by Kate Winslet and available for streaming on Amazon and iTunes, among others. It gives moving examples of the harms against the environment and how eating a plant-based diet can really help.
Jeffrey M Pierce, MD 