Let’s face it. Climate change is very real and if the Committee on Climate Change’s first report is anything to go by, we urgently need to take drastic steps to help save the planet. According to the report, the UK needs to cut its greenhouse emissions by at least one fifth in a decade, and the focus is (surprise, surprise) on cars, building design and gas-electricity-gobbling appliances.

So, we decided to send a letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling urging him to impose a tax on meat. Aside from the abject cruelty inflicted on animals in the meat industry, production is a leading cause of climate change, decimates the world’s dwindling resources and uses huuuge amounts of energy. Just the other day, Sir Paul McCartney and Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, had their letter published in The Independent stating that eating less meat is the “single most effective way” to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.

We second that, and argue that in addition to reducing the rate of climate change, a tax on meat would help repay the escalating national debt and tackle the ballooning obesity crisis in the UK. The link between the increase in meat consumption and the obesity explosion, heart disease and certain types of cancer in the last 30 years, is becoming clearer with every new scientific report that hits the headlines. Animal flesh should be taxed in the same way that other health-damaging substances such as alcohol and tobacco are. So, if you’re going to eat yourself to the operating table with fatty meats, at least contribute towards the cost!

If you were told how you were going to die, and it was in a way that could be prevented, would you do something about it?

A new atlas has just been published that’s set to rock the world of the living, by telling us the way that we’re likely to die. Not the most pleasant reading (and I recommend you don’t take this to bed with you), but utterly fascinating all the same! It’s called The Grim Reaper’s Road Map and analyses the death records of around 15 million people between the years 1981 and 2004. A thousand separate neighbourhoods were examined, and nine causes of death – cardiovascular, cancer, respiratory, infections, mental disorder, transport, suicide or undetermined, and homicide. And the results are pretty shocking, especially when you get past the teens and into the adult years.

So why do we care here at PETA? The maps show that as we move into the late twenties, we begin to see cancer creeping into the picture and from there on it just gets worse and worse for cancer and especially cardiovascular disease. On many of the maps these two causes of death are dominant. Once you get to the (ages) 65-69 map, cardiovascular is the most common cause of death across almost all of the UK (pictured). Scary stuff huh?

So I’m here to play devil’s advocate and tell you how you can cheat death (well, it’s not fool-proof, but every little helps, right?). There is no need for people to be dying in a way that can be prevented. It’s just silly, when are there are so many accidents to be careful of as well! A major way to help is to look after your diet, and yep, going vegetarian or vegan is a good a way as any. According to Dr T. Colin Campbell, nutritional researcher at Cornell University and director of the largest epidemiological study in history, “The vast majority of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases and other forms of degenerative illness can be prevented simply by adopting a plant-based diet.” The risk of developing heart disease amongst meat-eaters is 50 per cent higher than that of vegetarians. In fact, researchers have found that the longer and more often people eat meat, the greater their risk of heart disease.

Let’s mess up the map and make it harder for Mr Death to find us! I wonder what a map of the animal kingdom would look like? I’m thinking the homicide ‘colour’ would reign supreme…

. . . The more you eat, the more you . . . well, live longer actually.

Headlines today are telling us that eating a Mediterranean diet full of beans, fruit, vegetables, and olive oil is miraculous for our health. Wait, so you mean fruits and vegetables are good for you? Who knew!?!?

Some of the (perhaps really not so startling after all) advantages of a vegetarian diet highlighted by recent studies include:

• More pulses (beans, peas, lentils etc) and less red meat = risk of cancer reduced by 12 percent
• More olive oil and less butter = lower incidence of heart disease, and cancer reduced by 9 percent
• Broccoli has also been found to reduce the risk of prostate cancer

Beans on toast anyone? Or maybe one of the recipes we shared the other day? Tuck in and live long!