So I urge everyone to take a moment to think about how eating vegan foods rather than meat, eggs and dairy products will help save the environment. 

According to the United Nations, vegan foods require fewer resources and produce fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than meat and dairy products. 

The president of the Worldwatch Institute has even said that the “world’s supersized appetite for meat” is one of the main reasons why greenhouse-gas emissions are still increasing rapidly.

Although the carbon tax helped cut carbon emissions, about 10 per cent of Australia’s emissions are still the result of enteric fermentation – that is, the belching and farting of cows and sheep. 

If we want to halt climate change, we need to change our diets. Research shows that vegans have considerably smaller carbon footprints than meat-eaters.

Vegans also waste less water – a NationalGeographic.com report indicates that the average vegan indirectly consumes more than 2000 litres of water a day less than someone who eats a lot of meat and cheese. 

UN officials say that everyone should go vegan in order to alleviate hunger, combat the worst impacts of climate change and conserve water, land and fossil fuels. 

Some scientists predict that people will have to go vegan by 2050 in order to counter severe environmental destruction. 

World Environment Day is a good time to start.

Des Bellamy,

special projects co-ordinator,

PETA Australia