“When we protect nature”: Greta Thunberg on changing the ways we farm, eat, and treat nature

What does the COVID-19 pandemic have to do with the climate crisis and the worldwide loss of wildlife habitats? Activist Greta Thunberg argues that industrial agriculture, which supports meat- and dairy-heavy diets, plays a significant role in these interconnected crises. In this five-minute video, Thunberg challenges her audience—us!—to adopt a plant-based diet and change our fundamental relationship with nature.

Tom Mustill, director, featuring Greta Thunberg, "Our Relationship with Nature Is Broken," 22 May 2021.

 

1. Thunberg offers several examples of how industrial agriculture affects our health and our planet, including how it contributes to carbon emissions, habitat loss, and spillover viruses. Explain one consequence of industrial agriculture that surprised you. Why did you find this surprising?
   
2. One solution Thunberg offers is reducing our consumption of meat and animal products. How do you respond to this proposal? Do you agree, disagree, or both? Use a template from Chapter 4 to compose your response. What might be challenging about adopting a plant-based diet, both for individuals and for our larger society?
3. Thunberg directly quotes António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to support her argument (2:27). Thunberg introduces Guterres’ quote, yet she does not follow the quotation with a thorough explanation of what the quote means. Use a template from Chapter 3 to finish this quote sandwich by restating Guterres’ quote in your own words and explaining how it connects to Thunberg’s argument.
4. Tom Mustill, who directed this film, uses sound, video, and graphics purposefully to add layers of meaning to this argument. For example, at 2:15, images of diverse species are replaced by the repeating pattern of chickens and cattle, two of the most common livestock animals raised on industrial farms. Watch the film again and pay attention to the images, graphics, videos, and sounds Mustill uses for rhetorical effect. Choose one multimodal element in the video that you think is particularly effective. How does it enhance Thunberg’s argument? How do you react to this rhetorical device as an audience member?

Comments

[Ashley]

We protect nature and the argument that Thunberg's has in this blog. WE use the words and how that change in the article. The purpose of this article is to learn more about the nature.

[Amelia Theodore]

In this video Thunberg explains the importance of life on earth and how we as humans have industrialized the environment they live on. We do this by building industrial plants, cutting down forests, and damaging habitats. Thunberg then exclaims that having a plant based diet will help our lively hoods so that the habitat can recover itself. I agree and also disagree with this statement; because of the fact we need to have protein in our diet and fruits and vegetables have barely any protein in them. However, having a plant based diet will help the overall health of ourselves and will also recover our environment. The only problem is us, we consume so much junk food and no one really wants to do anything to stop this. In this video Thunberg should have emphasized the quote "-suicidal war on nature," and touched based on the meaning behind this and what her position was based on evidence provided earlier in video. The part I loved most about this was the awareness of diseases transferred by animals. Thunberg exclaims if we treat these animals correctly and properly we can reduce the chance of another global spillover.

[Latise]

Thunberg's argument on the industrialization of Earth's environment is well taken. Like Thunberg and Amelia, I agree that incorporating more plant-based meals could be a simple, yet meaningful change to our plant. Additionally, Thunberg's concluding points really resonated with me. In the video, Thunberg states that we have the opportunity to make a change, and that most of us can do something. Two years ago for health purposes, I made the decision to become a vegetarian. Just recently, I have learned the global impact of my decision as it relates the decreasing emissions. Thunberg and Amelia affirm that a plant based diet can help restore the overall health of our bodies and our environment.

[Taha3point0]

While I agree with everything she has said in the video, I would suggest talking about the consequences of inaction. While I believe Thurnberg's point of view and the global evidence confirms her conclusions, She fails to understand that global change cannot occur from the grassroots. I know she is trying to inform the public and, by doing so, galvanize others to action; however, cooperation runs the world, and they do not care if half the world population is in danger of dying as long as they are making money. A big farm, big agriculture, and fossil fuel companies control policy-making in most countries; until that changes, we will continue to march toward an extinction event.

[Taha3point0]

@ Latise: I love the fact you are a vegetarian(I became a vegetarian in 1999 and a vegan in 2008); however, until more than half the word join you and the other half reduce their intake of meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products by half the impact on the problem at large will remain insignificant. Please understand, I would never tell anyone to become vegan; however, to save ourselves, we, as a whole, need to rethink our way of life.

[R.A. Henery]

I found Thurnberg’s statements in this video informative, and I agree with a large amount of what she mentioned. I agree that reducing our consumption of meat and animal products is beneficial to the environment as recent studies by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine have shown that a global shift to a plant-based diet could reduce greenhouse gases caused by food production by 70% by 2050. Though I concede that adopting a plant-based diet can be expensive, personal health benefits will outweigh the cost in the long run.

[R.A. Henery]

@Taha3point0 I agree about your point about inaction. However, grassroots changes are what are actually pushing the corporate changes. Over the past few years, it is easily noticeable that major food corporations have joined the plant-based bandwagon. Even though their motives may be monetary their push towards these changes will surely have an impact on the environment.

[R.A. Henery]

@Latise Like you I became a vegetarian for the health benefits without giving too much thought to the environmental benefits. However, I am also now aware of the impact of that decision on not only dietary choices but the environment.

[Pooya Naraghi]

@Taha3point0 I agree that Thurnberg should also inform the audience of the consequences of inaction as it relates to climate change to make a more compelling argument for change, and I agree that if the status quo of large entities responsible for much of the world's excessive carbon foot print does not change we'll never resolve this crisis.

However in my opinion change (as history has shown us) always occurs from the bottom up. New policy to force large corporations to reduce their carbon footprint is needed, and the only way to do that is for the masses to elect officials that understand the climate change crisis and have enough empathy to try and stop it. The majority of the population needs to understand the real consequences of climate change and what it will take to stop it as the first step, and that's where grassroots activism such as the work Thurnberg does comes into the picture.

[Taha3point0]

@R.A. Henery My optimistic side wants to believe we have until 2050 to change things, but according to EPA new projections on CO2 levels and the world's refusal to make meaningful policy changes, I am afraid we only have another five to ten years before climate change is irreversible. I agree that grassroots movements are powerful, but they are notoriously slow-moving and lack continuity; we need new laws specifically designed to reduce CO2 levels. Next, we need a law that prevents the destruction of Earth and laws to help us restore the natural state of our oceans and rainforests.

[Taha3point0]

@ Pooya Naraghi:
I agree with your point and the earlier statement about grassroots movements; I am a great admirer of Dr. King and the freedom fighters. However, we have run out of time. If this were twenty years ago, I would say absolutely, let us work on electing the suitable candidates to congress and senate and let us petition the UN to create policies, and let us make signs and protest in front of cooperation and demand they change.

Now is too late; unless we can reduce the percentage of CO2 in air and water by half in the next five years, we are in trouble. The kind of trouble that starts wold wars.

[PMitas]

@Taha3point0 Although much of your argument is true and well-founded, I content that many companies have changed their business model because of public opinion. For example, Nestle changed their formula in May of 2010 because of a campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube.com. Nestlé's' no deforestation footprint' policy is a direct result of consumer pressure on the chocolate giant.

[Thya]

Greta Thunberg mention a lot of great idea about the way to protect the nature. its really matter on what we carry home from the market since it can affect our environment for the long run. Moreover, as we know the meat and animal products will affect the global greenhouse gas emissions.

[Ethan Roberts]

Like Greta says, if we stay at this rate it is bad for nature, however she fails to say what will happen if we do fail to take action. How do we know what the consequences be? Where is the evidence?
Also, she talks about everyone needing to go plant based and pets a cow the whole time.

[Teddy D.]

While the complete movement to a plant based diet could "fix" our climate and land use problems, the healthiest diet a human could consume should always be balanced. We need livestock and their meat to survive.

[JuiceBoxAfro]

I like what the little girl said. Plant based diets can make a big change in our world as well as our bodys. She also needs to understand that not every one has the money to eat only plants and people make a living off farming. I feel a better way to fix our climate is burning less fossil fuels. As well as rely more on solar energy. I agree with what Teddy D said "the healthiest diet a human could consume should always be balanced. We need livestock and their meat to survive". Every thing needs to be done in a balance but we should try to incorporate more greens to our diet but not go fully vegan.

[jetsfan23]

In the video “when we protect nature” by Greta Thunberg she expresses how the environment is going through drastic changes for the worst. One of the main points she brings up in this video is the issue with animals. The stats show many of the farmers use drugs to make the animals grow at alarming rates. These animals that are supposed to grow to full size in 3 months are growing as fast a month to full size. Another issue about the meat in this country is a lot of animals are in very confined spaces. These confined spaces are hardly ever cleaned and have many diseases that go onto these animals. These animals get sicknesses such as salmonellosis(salmonella), Escherichia coli (Ecole), and rabies. Many of these farmers are aware of these circumstances but still do this to make their profit. I agree with how Thunberg says we are creating the perfect conditions for disease. This statement shows perfectly how humans create these issues. Most of the issues we have in this world is since humans don’t know how to regulate the usage of their materials and the animals. I feel people should respect nature more because we only get one world. Many things that are happening in this world are frightening. The deforestation causes an increase in carbon dioxide. This deforestation causes more houses to be built which causes the need to get more food and it leads to a whole cycle of never-ending destruction of this planet. One of the statements I disagree with was that she said that humans should go on an all-vegan diet because if humans do this, we wouldn’t be able to get all our natural vitamins we need to survive, I feel if we learned how to better regulate our environment and produced food the right way, we wouldn’t have anything to worry about.

[Nathaly Hernandez]

Thunberg offers different examples of industrial agriculture that affects our health and our planet, and one of the consequences of industrial agriculture that surprised me was the spillover viruses that are from the food that we consume. This surprised me because usually the food that we buy in stores such as animal products need to be up to health and food codes before being safely distributed in stores, but what has also surprised me was also surprised were how climate, ecological, and health crisis were all interlinked and they are all from the effect of the industrial agriculture. I absolutely agree with Thunberg’s solution of reducing our consumption of meat and animal products. I have already been following a vegan diet at the start of 2021, due to the same reasons that have been proposed in the video, along with other moral values that I firmly believe in. I think what might truly be challenging about adopting a plant-based diet for our larger society is due to the health benefits and preferences that the majority of the population hold towards animal products. Oftentimes people believe that meat and other products are the only resources that provide vitamins and nutrition rather than searching for substitutes or oftentimes, many just do not like the taste of these substitutes and always prefer the real thing because it simply has a better taste. From my experience as being a vegan, I often face criticism from friends and family due to my change in diet and lifestyle because of the same beliefs that I am not getting enough nutrients for my body even though i the truth since the majority of the food that I buy is organically grown or vitamin replenishes to ensure my body is getting everything it needs to function properly. In order to prevent environmental and health risks corporations must do better in regulating processed foods in order to ensure safety to consumers.

[haley]

In Greta Thunberg’s tweet, “When We Protect Nature” she shares a video of how we can protect nature from issues like climate change and environmental problems. In this video, she explains that climate issues are related to diseases like measles and HIV. She relates 75% of diseases back to animals because of the way animals are treated on farms and such. With destroying habitats by cutting down trees and not treating nature correctly, it creates the perfect conditions for disease to spread. She is arguing that we can protect nature by starting to treat it correctly and removing ourselves from the equation which will allow nature to recover. As a society, we have a big impact on the condition of nature solely based on our choices and with just little change, we are able to allow nature to return to its former state.

[Sean]

3 years back I began reflecting on my self and my choices. After gathering a moral inventory I developed a creed over time. At first it was simply that I wanted to leave this world as I found it for the future generations. As we see now how the dairy and meat industry has caused to our climate and even inviting pandemics and the sick that comes with consumption of such products. Over time I came to terms that humanity overall has not shown Compassion for its earthling neighbors, only viewing them as a product or plaything. Throwing any regard of their life out the window. Humans themselves are the most invasive species on the planet, The over 500 species that have already been wiped out by the likes of us. It is essentially what I'd call a modern day holocaust.

[Chloe Nguyen]

Greta Thunberg presented aspects of the environment that are suffering terribly. Climate change is becoming more and more complicated. I agree with her that land, war, flood, storm, landslide, monsoon, nuclear disaster, oil spill, tidal wave, tornado, volcano, and wildfire. One could never have imagined in this long list a terrifying reality. An environmental disaster is a disaster caused by adverse human activity. The impact of human interference in the ecosystem has resulted in utter damage to the planet and its environment. The weather was either record hot or cold, and record-breaking temperatures were never seen before. Dry periods and periods of heavy rain are longer. The leading cause of the climate crisis is greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the amount of carbon dioxide and methane in the air. Human production activities cause the most significant impact leading to the climate crisis. Greenhouse gas emissions are produced by burning fossil fuels and released into the atmosphere. The production of meat, dairy,... cement, and other industries emit a considerable amount of emissions that are not strictly controlled. Humans are running in an industrial economic race. And constantly build a system of factories everywhere. Emissions are increasing, accompanied by severe deforestation. This causes the amount of CO2 in the air to grow and not be resolved. Nature has given us so much, but we do not appreciate and appreciate it. People who know how to enjoy nature will be favored by nature. But if people are greedy and blindly abuse the generosity of heart, nature will turn away from humans. Protecting nature is protecting people's living environment, ensuring the long-term development of human society. To protect wildlife, people first need to change their perception, build a nature-friendly lifestyle (reducing actions that degrade and pollute the natural environment), rational and economic exploitation of natural resources, etc.

[Michelle Liu]

The video “When We Protect Nature” by Greta Thunbe posted on Twitter addresses how we treat the environment that may have an extremely bad change. Her ideas on industrial agriculture are agreed upon. It is surprised to be noticed the impact on aminals. The activities in industrial agriculture are tremendously large. Even though the human body requires a small number of calories to remain healthy, there are still a huge number of animals being killed as food. Those animals are born to be food for humans as meats. They live on farmlands and those animals live in confined spaces. Those small living spaces are difficult to clean and it is easy to get infectious diseases that go on to the animals. Then the animals get illness consequently. The farmers may not be awarded of the animals enough to notice they have infectious diseases and are accidentally transported to food processing. Climate change is always a popular issue in human society. However, one does not notice that growing aminals in farmland for food is also a huge contributing factor to climate change. Whether growing animals on farmland or adopting cattle ranching, it is clear to see that those animals release a large amount of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a kind of greenhouse gas. The increasing amount of greenhouse gas is the main factor that leads to climate change. The deforestation of farmland for food, obtaining resources, and commercial activities all cause a destructive impact on the environment. Deforestation destroys the habitat of wildlife animals and swallows biodiversity and decreases the ecosystem. Cutting down trees causes fewer trees to be able to absorb greenhouse gas through the respiration of photosynthesis. It lowers the ability to reduce the hot days in future decades. In addition, if people burn trees to have deforestation, it will release massive greenhouse gases as well. Therefore developing a plant-based diet is a good idea to be considered in order to build a green planet.

[Ruby Gonzalez Ramirez]

I agree with a lot of what Great Thunberg says in the video. She makes a lot of good points and explains the connections between different aspects of our environment very well. However, her solution is very unrealistic. Our economy is mostly run by large agricultural and energy corporations, and they seem to only care about making money to support a lifetime of luxury for themselves and their family. They will not stop farming or meat/dairy products and will capitalize on those who won't start a plant-based diet. Besides that, meat and dairy are a large part of cultures around the world. They contribute to religious and celebratory meals and basic eats. Its very unlikely everyone will simultaneously start a plant-based diet.

[Ayomide Dada]

In this video "when we protect nature" Thunberg explains the importance of nature, the harm or damages we cause to nature. I agree and disagree with what she said about not eating animals, and depend on plant. Although it a good thing and a good way to keep nature healthy. But, the problem is us. we can't just all of a sudden leave animals that serves as meat and start having a plant-based diet. we were raised to feed on animals, and we were being taught that they serve as meat, and we a fixed mindset on that. Even though having a plant-based diet is healthy for nature. I don't think people are ready to change from a fixed mindset to growth mindset. Even if they are ready, it going to take a lot work and processing.

[Mary Salami]

Greta Thunberg explains the impact we are making on the environment around us. Although I agree with most of the points she has talked about, I disagree that we should start a plant-based diet. Many people eat meat around the world, and it is praised in many cultures. I do agree that we should help to make nature/animals produce the viruses we see in the world these days. I found that very interesting. Taking care of the animals would definitely help reduce the possibility of viruses. It'll cause a lot of challenges to change the diet because of what meat provides us that plants cannot as well.