Vegan Meals Each Day Keep the Smoke Away, PETA Poster Advises New Yorkers

The Science Is Clear: Animal Agriculture Brings Wildfires and Other Climate Disasters

For Immediate Release:
June 9, 2023

Contact:
Brittney Williams 202-483-7382

Only days after Canadian wildfires smothered the Big Apple in thick orange smoke, causing the city’s worst air quality in decades, PETA will be placing a public appeal for personal action in Manhattan, pointing out that eco-friendly vegan eating helps keep skies clear. The hot tip comes after the Biden and Trudeau administrations both linked the intensity of these wildfires to the climate catastrophe—which is largely driven by animal agriculture, according to the United Nations’ and others’ reports on global warming.

“No one should feel helpless after waking to a sepia-toned hellscape, because each of us has the power to abate the climate catastrophe and end the razing of the rainforests for meat production by choosing vegan foods,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is urging everyone to prevent disasters by severing ties with the planet-destroying and animal-abusing meat and dairy industries.”

Clearing land to raise animals on and to grow crops to feed them is a leading cause of deforestation, and the massive amount of water used in animal agriculture contributes to the dry conditions that allow wildfires to spread. According to the United Nations, about a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are linked to food production and the largest percentage of these emissions come from the meat and dairy industries. A study published in the journal Earth System Science Data on Thursday found that greenhouse gas emissions are at an all-time high, threatening to push the world into “unprecedented” levels of global heating.

In addition to slashing their carbon footprint, every person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals each year daily suffering and a terrifying death. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.