When it comes to global climate change, we tend to focus on the impact of fossil fuel use and hot-button issues like fracking – Rightly so.
But the under-addressed elephant in the room is animal agriculture, which is responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions — more than the exhaust from all transportation combined.
If every American dropped just one serving of chicken from their diet per week, it would save the same amount of CO2 emissions as removing 500,000 cars from the road.
A well-publicised 2014 study analysed the climate impacts of actual diets in the UK, and found that vegetarians cause half the food-related emissions of those on a regular diet, with vegans trumping this by a further 25%.
Therefore a plant-based diet can cut your carbon footprint by a full 50%.