i decided to go vegan yesterday. 

over the last few years i've cut down on my meat consumption considerably, tried to buy clothes second hand or from sustainably sourced brands and also tried to cut down on my air travel. Some time ago I was startled by how seemingly every action we take has significant consequences for the Earth's climate. Beef was the first thing that I knew had to go. Of the entire mass made up by mammals on this planet, livestock constitute 60% of that alone. This requires untold destruction of habitats just to farm them, and even more destruction (for soy) to feed them. About 70-80% of global soy farming goes to feed livestock, so don't feel too bad about your soya milk. Destruction of land for agriculture seemingly knows no bounds. 56% of the total China landmass is used for agriculture, 44% in the US, 20% in Europe, and to top it all of livestock are responsible for emitting a methane equivalent of > 3 gigatonnes of CO2 every year.

with over 1 million species of plant and animal facing extinction and untold consequences for human kind, you have to wonder, why aren't we doing anything about it? We've been talking about this issue for over 40 years and if anything we're getting worse, not better. Attempts to change attitudes through films and documentaries make people shed a tear for an hour and then it's back to business as usual. I'm sick of it. It seems at this point hopeless. So why should I care? why should I continue to study climate change, or go vegan or cut out air travel? So I can suffer the same fate as the rest of humanity and go down saying we told you so? Fuck knows. To be honest I couldn't give two fucks about human kind and it's never ending capacity for greed. I just know I feel sick when I see animals suffering at the hands of human beings. From poaching, to wet markets, to the Yulin festival, to the Taiji slaughterings, it makes me ashamed to be part of the same species. Human beings have claimed dominion over all land and creatures since time immemorial, without right or reason other than a false sense of divine entitlement. Fuck us.