We Are the Weather

Sadness and joy aren’t opposites of each other. They are each the opposite of indifference.

“We have to do something,” we tell one another, as though reciting the line were enough. “We have to do something,” we tell ourselves, and then wait for instructions that are not on the way. We know that we are choosing our own end; we just can’t believe it.

We eat as families, communities, nations, and increasingly as a planet. Individual consumer choices can activate a “complex, recursive dynamic”—collective action—that is generative, not paralyzing. While the act of suicide can influence others, it is a final influence. We couldn’t stop our eating from radiating influence even if we wanted to.

Yes, there are powerful systems—capitalism, factory farming, the fossil fuel industrial complex—that are difficult to disassemble. No one motorist can cause a traffic jam. But no traffic jam can exist without individual motorists.

And we have to acknowledge that change is inevitable. We can choose to make changes, or we can be subject to other changes

No animal products for breakfast or lunch. It might not amount to precisely the reductions that are asked for, but it’s just about right, and easy to remember.

In other words, it is about $200 cheaper per year to eat a healthy vegetarian diet than an unhealthy traditional diet. Not to mention the money saved by preventing diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cancer—all associated with the consumption of animal products. So, no, it is not elitist to suggest that a cheaper, healthier, more environment

When we think about food waste, we need to stop imagining half-eaten meals and instead focus on the waste involved in bringing food to the plate. It can require as many as twenty-six calories fed to an animal to produce just one calorie of meat.

It’s a shame that instead of having a minority of climate atheists, we have a majority of climate agnostics.