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Eating Bugs to Save the Planet?

Would a change of diet stop climate change?

By:  |  August 22, 2019  |    472 Words
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(Photo by Patrick Aventurier/Getty Images)

How much meat do you eat? Many Americans eat meat every day, but this common food could soon be replaced by… insects!

While some people around the world eat insects, most Americans would find this idea to be, well, gross. Even though it might seem disgusting to eat bugs instead of meats like beef or pork, some people say that one day we might have to change our diets.

Have you ever thought about how meat gets from the farm to your table? A report on climate change says that people around the world need to eat less meat, because farming animals uses a lot of land and resources.

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(Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

The United Nations (UN) has released the Special Report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL), which says the world’s nations to change the way they use land, and to farm less meat. The report also says that farming and forestry cause 23% of human carbon emissions, which many scientists think causes climate change. According to the report, changes to land usage and diet must be part of the solution to catastrophic climate change.

This is not the first time the UN has suggested changes to our food to save the planet. In 2018, a team of scientists recommended replacing meat with insects. Beef takes a lot of resources and energy to farm, but insects can produce a healthy diet with fewer resources.

Some countries, like Germany, are thinking about putting more tax on meat. This means the German government may decide to charge extra money to buy meat. Since people may not want to spend extra money, the tax might make them buy less meat.

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(Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

While these suggested changes to agriculture  have been prompted by climate change, not all scientists agree that climate change is a problem. Fossil fuels like coal and oil send carbon into the environment, which many scientists think is causing the Earth to get warmer. However, it has also been found that 60% of global human emissions have disappeared!  No one knows exactly how this has happened, but some theories suggest the carbon has been absorbed by the oceans, or soaked up by plants. A 2018 study suggests that carbon in the atmosphere is actually making plants grow! According to the research, over the last 35 years, new vegetation has grown in amounts that could cover two times the size of the US! This is because plants consume carbon dioxide (CO2), a chemical that many people think contributes to climate change.

Luckily, we don’t have to stop eating meat yet, unless we want to. What do you think it would be like to eat insects – delicious or disgusting?

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