Photo borrowed from wearetheweatherbook.com
Jonathan Safran Foer has been writing about vegetarianism for over a decade. I read his book “Eating Animals” a while back but admittedly didn’t finish it. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve tried going fully vegetarian many times but always go back to meat. I think my difficulty is due to a combination of factors; I’m not thrilled about this situation, but it’s the truth. For now I’ve been practicing the OMD method, and have found that more sustainable.
However I was instantly intrigued by Foer’s latest book, “We Are The Weather,” because I wanted to learn more about the connection between our eating habits and climate change. I am not a huge non-fiction reader (I tend to gravitate more towards novels) but found this book very easy and super interesting to read. He’s good about providing personal details and anecdotes while getting his information and points across to the reader. For one, he posits that people cutting meat will be more globally effective than buying electric cars.
Many things struck me about this book but I was affected by one particular story about a Supreme Court Justice and WWII. According to Foer, this Justice was told about the atrocities happening in Europe (the Holocaust) but found them so impossible and awful to believe that he did nothing to stop them. Foer likens this situation to climate change – something so ephemeral and catastrophic that we can’t/won’t believe it’s coming. The total effects aren’t super imminent (although recent weather events like extreme fires say otherwise), so our panic response hasn’t been triggered. However he argues this isn’t a good excuse – we must do something now because the truth and facts don’t lie. Ignoring our future won’t work.
Even if you don’t plan to stop eating meat, or if you’ve already cut back, I really recommend this book. (Or perhaps you will be inspired go go vegetarian! If so, Hannah offers a sample meal plan here.) All in all, “We Are the Weather” makes you think about your current daily actions and how they will affect your future. You will feel inspired to make some changes and impress this need upon others. That is what we all need to be doing right now. We cannot wait. – Rachel
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