Pause before you have your next steak

About four months ago, a photograph went viral on the internet. Which is not saying much, because photos and posts go viral almost every day in these times of social media.

That photograph, however, was different, as it neither tickled our funny bones nor was it about the quirky ways of celebrities.

The photograph by wildlife photographers Samuel Blanc and Agnes Breniere of Horizon Partages, in fact, depicts a tragic reality of our times: a polar bear consuming a dolphin.

But aren’t polar bears known to feed on beached whales? If so, what is so unusual about a polar bear consuming a dolphin?

There is something strange, however. Polar bears are not naturally predisposed to consume dolphins. They are natural hunters, not scavengers. They do feed on whales, but only toward the end of the summer and only when seals, their main diet, are scarce. Whales are a good source of blubber, which helps them endure the harsh winter during hibernation.

Polar bears may have resorted to hunting and consuming dolphins because their territory is shrinking as a consequence of the melting arctic ice and food scarcity — and also because dolphins have been forced to move farther north to escape the rising temperatures.

It’s no longer a secret why ice in the Arctic and Antarctic as well as in glaciers across the world is melting: climate change.

And aggravating climate change is the continuous, rather increasing, emission of greenhouse gases, for which we humans are squarely responsible.

Most of these greenhouse gases are emitted by vehicles, industries and power plants. But 14.5 percent of these gases come from animal agriculture. Animal agriculture consumes a huge percentage of the world’s freshwater resources, too. Besides, it is also responsible for air and water pollution, and deforestation. For example, 0.4 hectares of tropical rainforest can store up to 200 metric tons of carbon dioxide, but deforestation has been going on at an astounding rate to make way for grazing livestock.

As individuals, we can curb, if not prevent, the emission of greenhouse gases, by making informed choices about the food we eat. Studies show that to produce 1 kilogram of beef, we may need between 5,000 and 20,000 liters of water and 7 kg of grain; the corresponding figures for pork are 500 to 4,000 liters of water and 4 kg of grain.

Which means that, by cutting meat consumption, a person can drastically reduce his or her carbon footprint. But this has been common knowledge for quite some time. That we can also reduce water wastage by slightly changing our lifestyles has also been common knowledge.

Yet very few, if any, have ventured to give up even part of the comforts of life that our planet has bestowed on us to prevent that very same planet from going to ruin.

Given that we are addicted to the comfortable ways we have adopted by choice to lead what we call a normal life, our future appears all but doomed.