“If We Don’t Change We’re F*cked’”: Greta Thunberg Calls for the World to Go Vegan
“We are part of nature. When we protect nature, we are nature protecting itself.”
Credit: For Nature/Mercy for Animals
Environmental activist, Greta Thunberg, has called for a global shift to a plant-based diet to prevent more ecological and health crises.
Speaking to viewers in a new video titled "For Nature," produced in collaboration with animal advocacy group Mercy for Animals, Thunberg discusses the negative impact of animal agriculture on our present health crises, climate change, biodiversity loss, and animal suffering.
“The climate crisis, ecological crisis and health crisis they are all interlinked," says Thunberg. “The way we make food, raising animals to eat, clearing land to grow food to feed those animals, if we continue, we will run out of land and food’ not to mention causing the destruction of ‘the habitats of wild plants and animals, driving countless species to extinction”.
In the video, the climate activist also highlights the statistics that reveal the alarming scale of our animal consumption. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the animal agriculture sector slaughters 60 billion land animals and more than 200 million tonnes of sea creatures each year. Thunberg also urges her viewers to consider the “thoughts and feelings” of animals raised for food, most of whom spend their “short and terrible” lives inside industrialised factory farms.
”Our relationship with nature is broken. But relationships can change. When we protect nature - we are nature protecting itself.”
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) May 22, 2021
Thank you @MercyForAnimals for sponsoring this film by @tommustill and me.#ForNature #BiodiversityDay pic.twitter.com/2tXPFaeqWq
Raising animals for food also accounts for around a quarter of global emissions. In contrast, adopting a vegan diet may prevent up to eight billion tonnes of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere every year.
Thunberg points out key ways in which our continued consumption of animal products hurts the environment, stating that “83% of the world’s agricultural land is used to feed livestock, yet livestock only provides 18% of our calories.” By changing towards a plant-based diet “we could feed ourselves on [76%] less land. And nature could recover.” she says.
Thunderg is not alone in these calls; according to the UN, a global shift towards a vegan diet is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change.
And while the picture may seem bleak, Thurnberg also delivers the message that there is still hope. “We need a system change. But we can fix this,’ she says ‘Because we are part of nature. When we protect nature, we are nature protecting itself.”
Help change our food system. Host a vegan night with family and friends this season. Visit Species Unite’s Vegan Nights to download your free plant-based dinner guide.
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The footage was reportedly recorded at Marshall BioResources in North Rose, New York, where up to 22,000 dogs - mostly beagles - are being bred for animal experimentation.