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Ready for camp! On July 24th I will be heading to the San Juan Mountains in Colorado as a member of the 2022 Footprints Running Camp. Footprints is a week-long camp that combines trail running and environmental activism. How does that work? Well, we applied with an environmental problem that we are passionate about solving, and at camp, after morning runs in the mountains, we work alongside mentors to design and develop projects to address that problem.
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The problem that I am focused on is this: people in the US need to reduce meat consumption by 90% and dairy by 60% in order to avoid runaway climate change. Globally, the average citizen will have to eat 90% less pork, 75% less beef, and 50% fewer eggs (Springmann, Nature). However, consumption of animal products is on the rise (FAO). So the questions I’ll be thinking about at camp are: How might we get people to eat fewer animal products? How might we get people to move towards a diet that is as vegan as possible?
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I’m excited to work on one of the most socially entrenched and emotionally charged drivers of climate change. The one that, far too often, gets left out of public discourse and policy discussions. I’m excited to work on it because, when it comes to actions that we as individuals can take to protect our planet, the evidence is clear. In the words of the lead author of the most comprehensive analysis on farming and the environment to date, “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use, and water use.” (Poore, Science)
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Time to get to work 💚🌎🌱