Google's Earth Day Advice Encourages Choosing Plants over Meat

Each year, Earth Day - April 22 - marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970, and is now observed in 192 countries.

Google regularly updates their homepage logo to mark special events, known as Google Doodles, sometimes they are local to a specific country, and sometimes they are worldwide.

The Earth Day Google Doodle was seen worldwide and advised making small changes in your life such as eating less meat, opting for carpooling, and unplugging unused electronic devices could go a long way in helping save the planet.

To mark the occasion, Google also issued a statement:

Today, we honor the rich, vast Earth that’s sustained generations before us and continues to nurture life and inspire wonder. At an estimated 4.543 billion years of age, the Earth is still the only known object in the Universe known to harbor life. It’s also the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets. That’s quite an awe-inspiring roster of qualities, if you ask us.

Today’s Doodle follows the story of a fox who dreams about an Earth that’s been polluted and adversely affected by climate change. The fox wakes with a startle, and urgently starts making small lifestyle changes to care for the Earth. Along the way, the fox enlists friends – including Momo the cat, and Google Weather’s favorite frog – to join its quest to protect and nurture the environment.

To combat things like coral bleaching and pollution, the three eco-rangers are inspired to take action such as eating less meat, carpooling, and unplugging unused electronic devices. That’s some heroic work for tiny animals!

The foods we choose to put on our plates could have more of an ecological impact than many of us realize. Everything we eat has an environmental footprint – it takes land, water and energy to grow crops and raise livestock.

Eliminating meat and dairy products from our diets will have a huge impact in protecting the environment. The UN advises a global move to meat and dairy free diets, and also advises that countries start to tax the meat industry instead of subsidising it.

These days, there are lots of vegan substitutes – like plant burgers that sizzle, smell and even bleed like the real thing — that can deliver the meaty taste you might crave as you work on eliminating meat from your diet.

Opting for plants over animals is better for your health too - with the American College of Cardiology recently recommending choosing plant-protein over animal protein to protect our heart health.

Last year Google also predicated an upcoming plant-based revolution.