It’s notoriously hard to keep a January resolution all year long, but I made one that I can’t forget. Weather reports remind me that Colorado farmers watched crops die in 2018 from lack of water. The World Meteorological Organization reports that the past four years have been the hottest on record. Three hundred scientists from 13 federal agencies published a joint study late in 2018 that warming climate will increase wildfires, destroy infrastructure, worsen air quality, ruin crops, lead to more frequent disease outbreaks, and shrink the economy.
No, my New Year’s resolution is not to hoard food and water. I resolved not to eat dairy or meat because the World Resources Institute reports that growing dairy and meat pollution will make it impossible to keep the average global temperature low enough to prevent catastrophe. Dairy and meat also use about 70 percent of our agricultural land, and are one of the worst causes of biodiversity loss, deforestation, and water pollution.
I can’t forget this resolution because I go to work so I’ll have enough money for a decent retirement — without crumbling roads, choking smoke-filled air from wildfires, food shortages and spiking prices, and disease epidemics.
Julia Weingardt
Loveland