There Is No Planet B by Mike Berners-Lee, published in 2019, and updated this year, is a book for anyone concerned about the climate emergency. As the introduction says, “This is an evidence-based practical guide to the make or break choices we face now”. Subjects covered include food, energy, transport, business technology, truth, and values, among others.
The chapter on Food is well worth reading. The book makes a strong case for seriously reducing meat and dairy products in the diet, but does not insist on a vegan diet. Nevertheless, for many, a vegan diet will be the logical response to these issues.
Berners-Lee highlights the inefficiency of meat production: soya contains many of the nutrients we need, and can be eaten directly, but when we feed soya to a cow or sheep we only get about one tenth of the weight back in meat. And soya for animal feed is a major cause of Amazon deforestation.
The Carbon footprint of meat is also highlighted. A chart on p24 shows when producing equivalent weights of protein, the Greenhouse gas emissions from a beef herd are 40 times higher than those of beans and pulses.
