In April, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change dropped a gargantuan report examining how humans might mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. The entire report runs almost 3,000 pages, but the bit you really need to know about comes 50 pages in and lists all the ways we can reduce emissions right now.
Switching to wind and solar energy are listed as the two highest-impact shifts. But a little lower down there’s an odd one: “shift to balanced, sustainable healthy diets.” If that phrasing strikes you as mealymouthed, that’s because it is. An earlier version of the report included a recommendation that people switch to plant-based diets, according to a report from Reuters. But this advice was watered down in the negotiations after lobbying from the US, Brazil, and other countries with large meat industries. In the executive summary, plant-based diets are relegated…
