Fighting Climate Change with Your Fork

Keith and I received an e-mail from Micah Parkin, the leader of the Colorado chapter of 350.org, asking for people to submit stories about local action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  We submitted our story, which has now been published in their blog, and which we reprint below, with hyperlinks added.

Keith wrote:  “My wife and I got solar panels in our backyard, thus generating all of our own electricity, some years ago; and we also massively insulated our house, cutting our heating requirements by nearly 2/3.  We also ride our bikes on errands; before we retired, Keith rode the bus and Kate rode her bicycle to work.  But the most effective single local action we’ve undertaken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to go vegan.  According to an article in WorldWatch magazine, over half of all greenhouse gas emissions are due to livestock agriculture (“Livestock and Climate Change,” November/December 2009).  We also encourage others to go vegan. We’ve started a local meetup group, “Denver Vegans” (DenverVegans.org), which helps everyone from people who are just interested in cutting back their consumption of animal products to fully committed vegans.  This is about as local as you can get — you can fight climate change three times a day just with your fork.”

Sincerely,

Keith Akers & Kate Lawrence
Denver, CO