Australians Refuse to Stop Eating Meat to ‘Save the Planet’: Study

Australians are more willing to do other things to reduce their carbon footprint than reducing or eliminating meat consumption.

Shoppers look at the meat produce at Costco Perth in Perth, Australia, on March 19, 2020. Paul Kane/Getty Images

A new study has found that Australians do not want to give up eating meat in the name of saving the planet from the “climate crisis.”

La Trobe University has released new research, which surveyed over 700 Australian Facebook users between 18 and 84 years old about their beliefs on climate change and the impact of meat consumption on the environment.

To the researchers’ surprise, while many respondents were concerned about climate change, they believed reducing or stopping meat consumption was the least effective way to tackle the problem.

‘I Like Eating Meat’: Most Australians Say

The study cited strong objections to vegetarian diets from the respondents, which came from their eating habits.

Specifically, 74 percent of the people surveyed said they simply liked eating meat, and 73 percent said their family consumed this type of food.

Nearly six in ten (58 percent) did not want to change their eating habit, while 48 percent said humans were meant to eat meat.

Other barriers to non-meat diets included limited choices when people eat out (65 percent), a lack of information about vegetarian diets (41 percent), and the meat-eating habits of friends (54 percent).

“We were surprised that two-thirds of participants said that limited options when eating out were a barrier to vegetarian diets,” study co-author Matthew Ruby said.

“At the time of this present study’s data was collected, there was a wider variety of available vegetarian food than at any point in history.

At the same time, the researchers found that Australians were more willing to do other things to reduce their carbon footprint.

For example, the respondents thought using more energy from renewable sources was the most effective way to address climate change, followed by buying fewer new things, using public transport, and recycling more.

It is also worth noting that only half of the survey participants believed that agriculture and animal husbandry were a contributor to climate change.

Meanwhile, the research tried to increase awareness about the impacts of meat consumption by citing a number of studies saying livestock accounted for nearly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

It also cited some studies claiming that a predominantly plant-based diet, with little or no red meat, would be “most beneficial for individual health, the global community, and the environment.”

Is Climate Change Really A Problem?

While governments and organisations around the world are pushing for the “climate change” and “climate crisis” narratives, many experts have pointed out that these problems do not exist.

In an opinion piece for The Epoch Times, Don Challenger, a retired chemical engineer in the United States, said his long-time scientific research showed that certain activities of the sun have the largest influences on the Earth’s climate and that carbon emissions had little to no effect on global warming.

In addition, Mr. Challenger said the quantity of CO2 produced by man was very small compared to the total amount that existed in the atmosphere and oceans, which came from the respiration of animals and other biological organisms, the release of geologically sequestered sources such as carbonate rock, the burning of forests and jungles, and from volcanic activity.

A butcher holds up a tray of Australian rump steaks at his store in Melbourne, Australia, on May 12, 2020. William West/AFP via Getty Images

He also noted that it was misleading to classify CO2 as a greenhouse gas because there were many other gases and elements in the atmosphere (such as methane gas and water vapour) that had more significant impacts on global warming.

“Climate change is happening, has always happened and will continue to happen,” Mr. Challenger wrote.

“We are probably still emerging from the last ice age. There is no doubt that glaciers are retreating and the ice cover is shrinking, at least in the northern hemisphere.”

Meanwhile, in a recent speech to the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Conference in London, California-based energy expert Michael Shellenberger revealed data debunking the myth about a climate “apocalypse” promoted by mainstream media worldwide.

Mr. Shellenberger said there were currently fewer bushfires and areas affected by bushfires around the world compared to many years ago.

The expert added that less than one percent of species on the Earth had been lost since 1500, while deaths from natural disasters declined by over 90 percent.

“When you add up these two things, declining costs, declining deaths, you end up with declining overall weather and climate disasters,” he told the conference.

Governments Pushing for ‘Green’ Agriculture Policies

The report comes as many governments have implemented “green” agriculture policies with devastating impacts on farmers and consumers.

A recent documentary by The Epoch Times has exposed a decades-old master plan to disrupt the world’s food supply, which could trigger a global crisis.

The film revealed a United Nations agenda aiming to end private farming and create dependence on a one-world government that will control the world’s food supply.

It also explained how governments were using the climate agenda to take control of private farmlands while blaming climate change for continued increasing food prices across the globe.

Some examples of the green agriculture policies implemented by governments in the film were the drought regulations in California, the “nitrogen crisis” in the Netherlands, and the bans on chemical fertilisers in Sri Lanka.

Jana J. Pruet contributed to this article.