Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PETROLHEAD LEWIS: LET’S ALL GO VEGAN
F1 hero on mission to make fans save world
AFTER driving F1 cars at six miles to the gallon and buying a jet to fly between LA and London, Lewis Hamilton believes he is now making amends by being vegan.
The 34-year-old Mercedes team driver appealed to fans to switch to a plant-based diet – as he did in 2017 – telling them it is the “only way to truly save our planet”.
He insisted that going vegan “can be done so quickly.. all you have to do is put your mind to it”.
Hamilton warned the “extinction of our race” was “becoming more and more likely as we over use our resources”. In his Instagram post, he told his 13.1 million followers: “The world is a messed up place. World leaders either uneducated or don’t care about the environment at all.”
He said farming was the largest pollutant “by over 50 per cent”, ahead of “the travel industry combined”.
Days earlier he had posted photos of himself with his collection of sports cars with the caption, “Happy Sunday world. Who wants to come for a ride with me?” In 2013, he bought a red jet for an estimated £25million and frequently posted pictures of himself and his bulldog Coco flying between London and Los Angeles.
The plane generated an average 1.67 tons of CO2 for each 5,400-mile flight.
He sold the aircraft earlier this year. And in his Instagram post, he said it had taken him 32 years to understand “the impact” he was having on the planet.
He wrote: “I’m figuring out daily what I can do to play a better part. I want my life to mean something and honestly up until now my life’s had no meaning.
“Honestly I feel like giving up on everything. Shut down completely. Why bother when the world is such a mess and people don’t seem to care.
“I’m going to take a moment away to gather my thoughts. Thank you to those of you who do give a damn.”
In an earlier post, he wrote: “Pollution coming from the amount of cows are being produced is incredible.
“They say it is more than what we produce with our flights and cars, which is kind of crazy I think.”