10.19.2018

James Cameron & Suzy Amis Cameron on Fighting Climate Change

Hollywood power couple James and Suzy Amis Cameron are fighting climate change, one meal at a time. They join the program to discuss how that one meal can change the planet.

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And the thing that stuck more than anything is that one person having one plant based meal a day for one year saves 200,000 gallons of water and the carbon equivalent of driving from Los Angeles to New York.

I'm fascinated by that because you say and some of the scientists say that actually changing your diet is even more effective than changing the kind of car you drive.

And also this report basically saying that livestock accounts for 14 and a half percent of global greenhouse emissions.

And it suggests that consumers as you say 30 percent less in other words a third less, one meal a day.

That's correct.

Absolutely. So 14 and a half percent to put that in perspective makes it the second largest sector for greenhouse gas emissions next to electrical generation.

And it puts it in front of all of transportation combined.

So all ships or planes or automobiles and everything. So while it's wonderful to buy an electric car and so on you're you're only attacking a smaller part of the problem.

But changing our our diet our nutrition is something we can do instantaneously if we choose to do it.

And so it's the quickest way that we have for grabbing the thermostat of the planet and turning it down.

All it takes is the the will the desire to do it.

And that's where I think a book like Suzy's comes in very handy.

Just remind everybody what it is about meat and the raising of meat to be eaten that causes environmental damage.

Oh gosh. All the way around the world.

So if you've got biodiversity loss deforestation ocean acidification dead zones climate change glaciers melting.

You know you can connect the dots from all of those environmental issues back to animal agriculture.

It sounds crazy bold but it's true. It's the it's the single like they're cutting down rainforests in Brazil to make cropland to grow feed for animals for livestock.

And it's ridiculously inefficient compared to just humans just eating the plants directly.

It's like cutting out the middleman in a business deal.

Now you did mention glacier's which brings me to the greatest glacier of all time which is the one that the Titanic plowed into.

OK that's a little bit of a thin transition right.

I mean it's good. I could be a script writer.

No just kidding.

But seriously you you met on that film and many of your films, James, are do have the environment somewhat or very much tied into their narrative whether it's the Titanic or Avatar.

But first of all tell me how you met and a little bit of what brought you to the environmental part of your relationship.

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