Written by David Steele

The scientific community is sounding the alarm, and they’re doing it LOUDLY! Sadly, still, most of us are not paying attention. But if we did pay attention – and start to act appropriately – we can turn this around!

In the last few months, four major scientific reports on the state of the planet have been published. These include the 2025 State of the Climate Report, the Planetary Health Check 2025, the UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2025 and the EAT-Lancet Commission 2.0. All come to the same fundamental conclusion:

Earth’s ability to support life as we know it is at serious risk. If we are to avoid ecological catastrophe, we must take strong action to put ourselves back within planetary boundaries.

Both the State of the Climate Report and the Planetary Health Check open with the declaration that our planet’s vital signs are flashing red. The UNEP Report documents our failure, to date, to respond as needed; it notes that we must reduce GHG emissions by 35% by 2035 to keep warming below 2 degrees.

The EAT-Lancet report paints a similar picture and highlights data that shows that we must dramatically reduce our consumption of animal products if we are to have any hope of tackling global warming. It outlines a dietary plan by which we might accomplish that. It is not alone in this call for dietary change. All four reports call out aspects of animal agriculture as major causes of our predicament.

The good news is that we can turn things around, but we need to act now!

We must dramatically reduce our use of fossil fuels. For us, personally, that means minimizing our driving and flying to the maximum extent that we can. We must support the move to renewable energy sources.

We must also dramatically reduce our consumption of animal products. Doing so is one of the easiest actions we can take. It’s also the most quickly effective.

The major greenhouse gas emitted from animal agriculture is methane. Over a 20 year period, it has over 80 times the warming effect of CO2. It also disappears much faster than CO2. Methane is mostly gone after just 12 years; CO2 sticks around for hundreds.

Indeed, when one considers its actual warming effects while it’s in the atmosphere, it is straightforward to calculate that animal agriculture is responsible for roughly 30% of the immediate global warming we are experiencing. Dramatically reducing animal agriculture would, thus, quickly take a big bite out of that warming. It would buy us time to make the cuts in fossil fuel use we also need so very much to do.

And it gets better.

We could leverage this shift away from animal agriculture to pull much of the CO2 now in the atmosphere, right out of it.

According to a study published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, rewilding just 30% of the land now used for agriculture could remove half of the CO2 emitted by the burning of fossil fuels since the dawn of the industrial revolution. Since 75% of agricultural land is used to raise and feed farmed animals, that’s a very realistic prospect. And, as the study’s authors emphasize, it would be among the cheapest possible ways by which to remove that carbon.

So, let’s do it!

Let’s collectively pull animal products from our plates. We’ll still have to slash our fossil fuel use, that’s for sure, but we’ll have more time to accomplish it and making the transition will be a whole lot easier.

The fact is, that if we don’t do it, then nature will do it for us – and, as the recent reports make all too clear, that transition will be very unpleasant, indeed.

For your convenience, here are links to the four recent reports and important highlights from each:

The 2025 state of the climate report: A planet on the brink

(https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/75/12/1016/8303627)

• Global temperatures are at record highs
• Climate-feedback loops are increasingly at play
• Forests are burning at record rates

On the positive side, the authors note that

• Climate change mitigation strategies are available, cost effective, and urgently needed.
• “Social tipping points can drive rapid change. Even small, sustained nonviolent movements can shift public norms and policy, highlighting a vital path forward amid political gridlock and ecological crisis.”

Planetary Health Check 2025   

(https://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org/)

• Seven of the nine planetary boundaries – beyond which the Earth’s ability to sustain us are at risk – have been exceeded.
• These include climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, freshwater depletion, overuse of agricultural fertilizers, and the release of artificial chemicals and plastics into the environment
• Animal agriculture is a main driver for exceeding four of them and a major contributor to a fifth

Still, they highlight hope.

Quoting Johan Rockström, a senior author of the report, “Even if the diagnosis is dire, the window of cure is still open. Failure is not inevitable; failure is a choice. A choice that must and can be avoided.”

UNEP Emissions Gap 2025: Off target

(https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2025)

• Countries are far from meeting Paris Climate goals
• Annual emissions must drop by 35% by 2035, compared to 2019, if we’re going to keep warming below 2°C 
• To keep warming below 1.5°C, emissions must drop by 55% in the same period
• Alongside dramatic reductions in fossil fuel use, curtailment of agricultural emissions, especially from animal agriculture, are essential.

EAT-Lancet Commission 2.0:securing a just transition to healthy, environmentally sustainable diets for all

(https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)01290-4/abstract)

• Food systems transformation is essential for solving climate, biodiversity and health crises
• “Food drives five planetary boundary transgressions, including land system change, biosphere integrity, freshwater change, biogeochemical flows, and approximately 30% of greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change
• Calls for the adoption of the ‘planetary health diet,’ rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes, with only small amounts of meat, fish and dairy.