Tonight, many of us will be turning off our lights at 8:30pm for Earth Hour. While this will make for a nice romantic meal, if you truly want to combat climate change, cross off meat, eggs and dairy foods from your shopping list. The reality is: you cannot be an environmentalist and eat animal products.

Foods derived from animals, whether eaten by candlelight or not, require more resources and cause more greenhouse gas emissions than plant-based foods do. Each year, humans kill 60 billion land animals for food – that’s about 7 million animals every hour. All these animals produce massive amounts of waste, which releases powerful greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. The livestock sector is the single largest source of both methane and nitrous oxide, greenhouses gases that are 25 and 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide, respectively.

A person who follows a vegan lifestyle produces the equivalent of 50% less carbon dioxide than a meat-eater and uses 1/11th of the oil, 1/13th of the water and 1/18th of the land, which is why the United Nations has stated that a global shift towards a vegan diet is essential to combat the worst effects of climate change.

So blow out the candle, turn on the lights and get into the kitchen and cook a vegan meal this Earth Hour. It’s the best thing any of us can do for the environment as well as for animals.

Not sure what to cook? Check out former RCMP officer Dan Moskaluk‘s Whole Food Plant Based resources.