Beyond Four Weeks

My vegetarian experiment is nearly over. Sunday at midnight, it will have been four weeks since stopping the consumption of meat. But I am certainly not going to jump back into the carnivorous diet I had before. I've seen that I do have the ability to make changes in my life that have a positive impact on the environment and humanity's sustainability. Right now, I'm thinking that I'll be an every-other-day vegetarian, thereby cutting my meat consumption to half of its normal levels. I can still enjoy meat (which I do truly love), but I won't do it excessively. Also, when I do eat meat, I plan on making it the "center-piece" of the meal less often. I'm going to be back in my hometown this summer, and I'm going to try to convince my parents to do the same thing.

And who knows, perhaps I'll ween my meat consumption even further in the future. I may one day become a week day vegetarian like Graham Hill (see previous post). Regardless, I feel that what I'm doing is certainly a step in the right direction.

And it is small steps like this that we all need to take to ensure environmental integrity and a civilization that will be able to continue into the future. If every person takes a small step, the combined effects are incredible. Even if Americans used automobiles 25% less, the environmental benefits would be tremendous. People tend to become apathetic, assuming that massive change is not possible. But humanity has unbelievable ability to force change through unified action.

This confidence in the ability to change must be coupled with, however, the abandonment of the 19th century industrialist mentality that consumption can, and should, continue infinitely. It is ridiculous to believe that there are infinite resources to provide for humanity, and, moreover, the collection of these resources has no repercussions in terms of surrounding environmental damage or disruption. We have witnessed the edges of the forests, counted the number of fish. We are in a finite, closed system and must work within its boundaries.

Vegetarianism is just one way where we can recognize that there must be responsibility in terms of consumption. I truly hope you consider your responsibility in creating a more sustainable society in whatever way you see fit.