It’s hard not to be overwhelmed – the Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest and a key ally in fighting climate change – and right now, it needs our help more than ever before. Here are some ways that you can make a difference, both now and forever.
Go vegan
Animal agriculture is responsible for up to 91 per cent of the Amazon’s destruction (rainforestfoundation.org) – this is because the land and trees are cut down for cattle pasture. “The Amazon is being burnt to create low-price cattle grazing – at such an incomprehensibly enormous cost,” explains Jim Richards, CEO of non-dairy milk brand, Milkadamia (milkadamia.com). “Plant-based diets encourage the cycle of planting and growing of plants which return carbon back into the soil. Demanding regeneratively grown produce supports the biomass that creates new topsoil. Raising animals for food pollutes and degrades soil, and is the least efficient use of land and water.” Plus, one year of being vegan saves 7,300lbs of CO2 and 10,950sq.ft of forest – there really has never been a better time to be plant-based.
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About Be Kind
Hello,
If you’d asked me earlier this year what images
the Amazon rainforest conjured up in my mind, it
would be densely packed, lush green trees, brightly
coloured macaws and chatty toucans living alongside speedy
squirrel monkeys and majestic jaguars. Perhaps naively, I assumed
that the world’s largest rainforest was a constant – a protected
part of our natural landscape, somewhere we can all close our
eyes and see images of, like the Alps or the river Nile.
But, over the last few months, this idyllic picture of the
Amazon has been destroyed, replaced with haunting and
horrifying images of blazing fires and ominous plumes of smoke.
Often described as the lungs of the planet, the Amazon now
looks like it’s starting to choke. The anthropogenic impact we
have had on some of the most vital natural resources on the
planet is really starting to show.
The notion of constants is changing, too – our glaciers
are melting, our rainforests are being destroyed, our rivers are
polluted and our coastlines eroded – the landscape of our planet
as we know it looks set to continue to transform and degrade.
As bleak a future as I’m describing, it’s not all doom and gloom
and there are many things we can do to help. We want the future
generations to close their eyes and picture the toucans, not the
burning embers of what was once the greatest rainforest on
Earth. We need to act, and we
need to do it now.
Have a great month,
Phillipa
Editor