Welcome to the second part of this two-part special collaboration on palm oil (Part I here!). Both of these posts are a collaboration with fellow science blogger Beth from Green Ambition, so if you enjoy what you read here check out her site! In part one, we examined the reasons behind palm oil’s undeniable negative …
Author Archives: avleveri
Palm Oil I: Friend or foe?
Welcome to this two-part special series on the impacts and production of palm oil. Both of these posts are a collaboration with fellow science blogger Beth from Green Ambition (https://greenambition.co.uk/) so if you enjoy what you read here check out her fantastic site! Introduction Over the last decade, palm oil has become the most widely …
Veganuary: going cold tofu on meat and dairy
Okay, so I thought that perhaps a nice way to summarise what I had learned about veganism so far in previous blog posts would be to do it for myself. And what better time than the glorious period of failed resolutions that is January? I joined the approximately half a million people (since 2014) who …
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Sustainability and veganism III: the economy and society
Veganism is supported by many as a way to increase the sustainability of our food system, all the way from production to consumption. The dietary and environmental implications of this have already been discussed (see part I on nutrition, and part II on environmental impacts), but such a huge change in the way we see, …
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Sustainability and veganism II: the environmental impacts of diet
According to a study by Oxford University, going vegan is the single biggest way to reduce your impact on the planet (The Guardian, 2019). Our current food system causes biodiversity loss (through deforestation of woodlands for pasture land), competition for land, water and energy with other industries, and greenhouse gas emissions (Peters et al., 2016). …
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Air quality and exercise: should I be worried?
Introduction to air quality Anthropogenic activities are a major cause of air pollution. Whilst historically it was the actions of the industrial sector which led to major air pollution events (such as the famous Great Smog of London in 1952) in the Western world, today the transport sector plays an increasingly devastating role in making …
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Sustainability and veganism I: nutrition and health
What is veganism? “Food consumption is an environmentally significant behaviour, accounting for around 20-30% of Western greenhouse gas emissions” – Beverland, Wahl & De Groot, 2015 Veganism has been suggested as a solution to many of our sustainability problems; including climate change, biodiversity loss and antibiotics resistance. As such, over 1% of the UK over-15 …
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What makes a sustainable diet?
Sustainability and diet Sustainability is one of those environmental “hot topics”, which is so often talked about but rarely specifically explained. According to the Brundtland definition (presented in the Brundtland Report of 1987 to the UN General Assembly), sustainable development is: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future …
How to solve a food crisis
A food crisis is a sharp rise in rates of hunger and malnutrition at a local, regional or global scale, for reasons which may include increased food prices or poor crop yield due to drought or flooding. There is a high probability that we are already facing the onset of a huge food crisis, as …
Ancient woodlands: why should we care?
Ancient woodland is an ecosystem in which more threatened wildlife than in any other UK terrestrial habitat dwells. Across Europe, ancient woodlands are rare, but can be found in the form of remnants of “wildwood” or primeval forests, such as the Białowieża Forest on the border between Poland and Belarus, which once spanned the European …
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