Even as a kid, I was fascinated by the Amazon rainforest, which was why it was always one thing that I cared about protecting. Rainforests in general deserve protection, but unfortunately, in the society we live in, they receive little protection. Some consumer products contribute more to rainforest destruction than others. 

I’d like to highlight some of the worst products for rainforest destruction so that vegans can decide for themselves if they should avoid those products.

Businesses that make no money off something can’t continue—you vote with your dollars. If you support products that continue with this destruction, we will get more of the same. 

1. Palm Oil

Much of the deforestation for palm oil happens in Southeast Asia in countries like Indonesia—the number one producer of palm oil—and Malaysia—the number two producer of palm oil. 

In 2023 alone, 74,100 acres were cleared in Indonesia alone to make way for palm oil plantations, according to one report (1). 

When buying palm oil, it supports the loss of our rainforests, which also means we lose our biodiversity and contribute to global deforestation, a major contributor to climate change. 

When you combine beef, soybeans, and palm oil, they contribute to an estimated 60% of the global deforestation.

Alternatives

I would like to quickly highlight vegan-friendly alternatives for this choice so that you can make the switch. Vote with your dollars for environmentally friendly options. Here are a couple of alternatives:

2. Vanilla

3. Soy

Like with palm oil, the unsustainable part happens as they clear the natural forests to make way for new cultivation areas. To be fair, there are sustainable methods for cultivating vanilla.

That’s why instead of posting alternatives here, I’ll just talk about how to find sustainable vanilla. 

Look for products that have a label that says certified Fairtrade. This means that the products came from a farm committed to sustainable farming practices. They will also work with local farmers to ensure that ethical labor and forest conservation practices continue to be followed. 

4. Cacao

One of the other issues with making chocolate is that it has high volumes of palm oil, cocoa, and soy. All of these things are contributing to rainforest destruction. 

One of the dangers here is where they use middlemen, which conceals the source of unsustainable practices. 

Due to growing public concern about chocolate and deforestation of our rainforests, some chocolate companies have committed themselves to rooting out deforestation and tackling social issues like child labor. 

The US Department of Labor (4) puts the number of children working on chocolate plantations at 1.56 million. 

Ethical Chocolate Companies

The companies highlighted below use responsible farming practices, and they don’t use child labor for harvesting their chocolates:

You can also look for the Fairtrade label since it ensures that the cocoa was sourced ethically.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this shows you the products that destroy the rainforests. Raising awareness of these products is one of the ways to take action.

None of this is to say that you can’t have a vanilla latte once in a while or eat a chocolate bar, but the point is to consume consciously. Having these things less can also help you to reduce your environmental impact.

Many vegans choose to adopt or rescue pets that animal shelters would have euthanized had they not stepped in. This practice saves the lives of animals and many vegans love it because it gives them the opportunity to save animals. Having adopted a cat from an animal shelter, here’s a couple of essential things I learned in the process. Knowing these things will make it easier for you. 

1. Choose Your Adopted Pet Carefully

With that in mind, not every pet will be right for everyone, and you need to consider things before adopting them. 

For example, adopting a snake from the animal shelter would force you to feed it mice—some feed snakes live mice to simulate hunting—vegans may struggle hugely with the cruelty of this, depending on their beliefs. 

Another example would be if you adopted a cat. Not every vegan wants to feed cats meat-based cat food, but cats are obligate carnivores, which makes it harder to feed them a vegan alternative. 

Some people will simply give them regular food, but it’s important to understand your personal convictions ahead of time so that you can do this without feeling bad. 

Besides the moral reasons, you also need to think about what animal will fit with your personality the best. For example, a lively and energetic dog might be perfect for one person but a nightmare for the next. 

Before you adopt the pet, you might spend time with it in the designated area, which many shelters have. Doing this for a while will give you a sense of that animal’s personality and temperament.  

You need to think about your home as well. A studio apartment for a big dog can become a bad match, so you want to think about these things ahead of time. 

2. Fill out the Adoption Application

This person will review your application and ask you further questions to ensure that you would be the right choice for this animal. 

The amount of care given here is because every year, 6.5 million animals wind up abandoned or lost, and they wind up going to animal shelters across the country, according to The Zebra (2). This extra care before the adoption reduces the risk. 

Before you adopt an animal, the counselor will also cover potential health or behavioral problems the animal might have. For example, the dog you want to adopt may have been in an abusive home in the past, so you would need to avoid doing certain things. 

3. Paying the Adoption Fee 

They typically charge an adoption fee because it allows them to continue providing for other animals in the shelter. The things included in an adoption fee will normally be things like:

4. Prepare Your Home for Your Rescued Pet

You should also beware of if you have a balcony because your pet could fall from the balcony. 

If you have other pets in the home, you will want to introduce them to each other slowly. To avoid fighting or aggression, you might introduce them with some type of barrier in the beginning like with a closed door. 

Many animals thrive off routine, so you may want to establish a schedule that will make your rescued animal feel more comfortable and secure in their environment. Many animals like cats and dogs don’t like significant changes, and it can make them feel insecure. 

Final Thoughts

Many vegans choose to rescue animals or adopt them since it avoids the exploitation of animals while saving them from suffering in animal shelters where they may ultimately be euthanized. For those concerned about having to feed meat to an animal, you might rescue animals that eat a more vegan diet like guinea pigs or bunnies. 

Loving animals is what pet adoption is all about and caring for pets that may not have had a good home if you hadn’t chosen to make a difference in their lives.

One of the biggest signs that animals carry some of the same traits as humans is the fact that they can express empathy in certain situations. The trait is admittedly complex, but researchers have observed this in many different animal species. You see it more prevalent in social animal species that evolved as a way to maintain social cohesion. 

I thought this would be an interesting topic to show how we share many things with animals, and it also highlights in an indirect way why ending animal cruelty through veganism is so important. They sometimes experience the same things that we do.

Cases of Feral Children

Tarzan is a fictional story, but the Jungle Book was inspired by the case of Dina Sanichar. He was a feral boy discovered as being raised by wolves in a cave in 1867. 

His earliest years were spent believing he was one of the wolves. Many of these cases happen because of abusive parents or because they were orphans that didn’t receive the proper love and care. 

An animal, taking compassion on the vulnerable child, came in and raised them. It raises fascinating questions about the boundaries between humans and animals.

In most cases, feral children will never develop language skills or only limited language skills because their brain at the most critical time, never had much for human contact. Instead, they will communicate with animal sounds. Many of them never learn to walk on two legs.

Some known examples of feral children besides Dina Sanichar include:

This shows you a couple of examples where animals were compassionate toward humans in their situations. You can look up the cases to see these were real examples of animal empathy. Now, let’s take a look at examples of animals that showed compassion toward other animals.

Mama Cat Adopts 4 Baby Squirrels

One of the interesting things about this case is that cats will sometimes even eat squirrels, so it came as a surprise when Pusha, a cat in Bakhchisaray, Crimea, adopted four orphaned baby squirrels that were brought to her by concerned locals who saw that the orphaned squirrels needed a mother.  

In the video below, you’ll even see her nursing the baby squirrels right alongside her own litter of four kittens:

One can debate the reasons for why animals would adopt other animals like this—whether it’s empathy or something else—but it raises some interesting questions without immediate answers. 

Dog Saves Baby Deer from Drowning

Dogs are capable of incredible animal empathy, and you’ve probably even seen cases where a dog saved a human from an attacking bear, or they saved a human from getting bit by a rattlesnake that the human couldn’t see. 

In another case, I saw a pet dog save a toddler from an attacking neighbor’s pitbull. 

That highlights examples of dogs with animal empathy toward humans, but they have also been shown to have empathy toward other animals. 

In the video below, it shows a dog that saves a baby deer from drowning:

The labrador jumped into a fast-moving river to drag the baby deer out of the water before it drowned. 

Gorilla Saves 3-Year-Old Boy

In this case, a boy fell into a zoo enclosure and a female gorilla came in and cradled the boy who had fallen. What’s interesting about this case is the lucidity of the gorilla. It knew where to take the child to help him. The gorilla took the boy to a service door where the zoo personnel were able to reach him safely. 

Here’s a video of the news incident, which happened in 1996:

Cheetah Gets an Emotional Support Tortoise

Humans aren’t the only ones that have emotional support dogs. Cheetahs are known for forming friendships with dogs, and zoos even often pair cheetahs up with dogs because it helps the cheetah to feel calm and secure.  

Most often this happens with rescue dogs or pure labradors or German shepherds because they can tolerate the kitty play more easily.

In this case, however, it was one that you never would’ve guessed—instead of a dog, the cheetah received an emotional tortoise. They soon became best friends as the video below highlights:

This wholesome video goes to show that even animals can form friendships with other animals. Even when you take the fastest land animals versus one of the slowest, they can still form friendships. 

Final Thoughts

Animal empathy is an interesting phenomenon, and it shows how even animals have feelings and compassion. 

In the cases with feral children, the animals often had more empathy for the vulnerable child than the humans in their immediate vicinity. 

This shows you one of the reasons why going vegan can make a lot of sense since continuing to eat animals will cause suffering. Eating plants makes for a better alternative.  

Despite its incredible importance to people all over the world, few people, even vegans, spare much thought for the soil we use for farming. Without fertile soil, we would struggle to survive. Good soil helps to grow most of our crops, so you can understand why it would be so important to take care of our soil. 

What is Regenerative Agriculture? 

The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska is one of many examples of a tribe currently using it to promote biodiversity and soil health. 

Looking at the concept of regenerative agriculture, the point behind it is to create a farming system where the land improves in the process rather than being depleted. Regenerative agriculture focuses heavily on soil health, responsible fertilizer use, and water management. 

Rather than growing a single crop, known as monocropping, all year round, the indigenous communities would use a combination of crops like maize, squash, and beans. They also would avoid tilling the earth, which leads to more soil erosion, depleting the soil of essential nutrients. 

This is why sometimes farmers will rotate crops every three to four years to avoid depleting, but this isn’t regenerative agriculture since it still uses monocropping.  

Regenerative agriculture sets out to leave the soil in a better condition than when you first used it. 

How Do They Do Regenerative Agriculture for Farming with Animals?

Not only does it degrade the soil, but it also causes water pollution since cows will muddy and pollute the creeks and streams and other water sources. 

To reduce this impact, they might switch from pigs to chickens to sheep to cattle. This choice helps to lower the amount of burden on the land. 

Admittedly, this does create fewer emissions, but some people still point out that even low-carbon steaks still produce more emissions than plant-based products. 

Examples of regenerative animal agriculture would include free-ranging chickens, composting, managed grazing, and silvopasture. 

Vegan Regenerative Agriculture: What is It and Could It Be the Answer to Healthier Soil?

Much of it would follow the same practices as what you’d get with regenerative agriculture. 

This would definitely bring about healthier soil than regenerative animal agriculture because it eliminates the damage to the soil altogether and eliminates animal cruelty. 

When you use cattle for agriculture, there will still be damage to the soil, and you’ll still have water pollution even if you use regenerative animal agriculture. 

How to Become a Regenerative Agriculture Vegan

One of the ways that you would become a regenerative agriculture vegan would be to buy strictly from vegan brands that only use the regenerative agriculture methods. 

Some vegans might mix this where you might buy from a couple of companies like this as a way to reduce your environmental impact even further without needing to solely buy regenerative brands. 

You should also try to eat seasonal and local foods since it will be easier for you to see exactly the farm and how they produce their crops. This lets you directly tell if they’re actually using regenerative agriculture.  

What Vegan Brands Produce Vegan Foods Regeneratively?

Final Thoughts

Vegan regenerative agriculture is one of the ways that we can use to become increasingly environmentally friendly. 

One of the things that I like about this concept is that it not only seeks to do no harm, but it seeks to use farming in a way that makes for a better environment than what it was originally. All of this contributes to a soil that will continue to produce crops for future generations. 

We need to find more sustainable ways to do things because soil erosion is at an all-time high. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (2) estimates that 33% of the world’s soil has already been degraded, and this number could climb to 90% by 2050 if we don’t take action. 

Many vegans who care about animals also care about the health of our planet. Just being a vegan, vegetarian, or on a plant-based diet helps you to contribute to a healthier world. However, you can do other things that will help us to save the world as well. Having researched this in the past, I’d like to talk about some of the things I learned in the process. 

Every person has an individual responsibility to reduce their impact on the world. Let’s take a look at what you can do to reduce your own impact. 

#1 Recycle Properly 

It can lead to contamination when they do this because it ruins the whole batch. Not only that, but why would you want to try to sort your recyclables if the company will simply mix them all together at the end? It ruins the efforts of people trying to do good everywhere.

How to Respond to This Issue

In many cases, reaching out to the garbage company won’t get you too far. You need teeth. Otherwise, they give you the runaround without a change in behavior. This is where you can take it up a notch. You might check with the local government recycling mandates to see if the garbage company is breaking any of them. 

For those who believe that the garbage company isn’t following the correct recycling practices, you could report them to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). You might discreetly take a video of the garbage company mixing the recycling. This industry is tightly regulated, and they must follow those regulations.

The EPA fines are typically larger than those of federal agencies, and a garbage company could face up to $37,500 in fines for each violation where they didn’t comply with the environmental, safety, or health requirements. 

One thing to understand is that every state has its own recycling requirements, and there are no national laws, so you need to understand the local and state laws to fight this way.  

#2 Eat Local Produce

Local produce tastes more flavorful because you get the food at peak ripeness, so it ensures the flavors and the textures will be at their best. At the same time, local produce is also fresher ensuring that it retains its nutritional value. 

When you buy local, you also support the local farmers and create jobs for your local economy. You also shorten the supply chain and lower your dependence on distant sources, adding to your food security. 

#3 Shop Wisely Even for Vegan Foods

You might believe that after you buy vegan, you automatically buy from environmentally friendly sources. Unfortunately, you have to exercise caution even when buying from vegan sources. There are a couple of different labels that you might check for including:

Becoming a wise shopper ensures that you encourage businesses to be more environmentally friendly. When you reward this positive behavior with your hard-earned dollars, it’s one of the most positive ways of ensuring that other entrepreneurs will have a reason to follow sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. 

Just remember that not all labels were created equal with some carrying more weight than others. Some labels can even mislead consumers into thinking it will help save the planet, but it won’t. 

The USDA Organic label is one of the more trustworthy labels. Unfortunately, other labels will only suggest that certain standards were met, but it doesn’t even guarantee it. Research the label ahead of time before you buy a product. Don’t buy just because it has a label. 

Final Thoughts

Hopefully this shows you a couple of other things that vegans can do to help save the planet. Being a vegan, vegetarian, or on a plant-based diet in itself will be more environmentally friendly, but you can take things even further with some of the things mentioned. 

Especially with the first example used, it’s an example of taking action to get people to be more environmentally friendly.

You can use that to think of other environmental issues in your local region and either gather a group if possible or start looking for ways to make a positive impact on the local environment. 

Did you know that an estimated 10 million animals die every year in the United States due to animal cruelty? Animal abuse is a problem all over the world, but did you know that 70 percent of all people who commit domestic violence also tend to abuse animals? Intentional cruelty to animals has a strong correlation with other crimes. Unfortunately, only a fraction of the animal abuse cases will ever see successful prosecution. 

What can we do to help people take action in the fight against animal cruelty? I did some research and found a few different things we can do to fight back against animal cruelty. 

1. It Starts with Yourself at Home

Be an example of kindness to animals and treat them in the way that you would want to be treated.

Some people choose to become a foster home for pets where they can help to rescue animals in their area. To do this, you may need to fill out an application, and they may require you to attend orientation. Orientation is meant to help you comply with all the laws around foster homes for pets. 

2. Report Animal Cruelty to the Authorities

3. Teach Your Children to Respect Animals

Changing minds in the outside world can prove difficult, especially with this type of person, but you can often teach your children to respect animals. Teach them to always treat animals with respect and consideration. This would be another case where you want to lead by example. 

One of the interesting things about teaching a child to respect animals is that if they see other children abusing an animal, they can show them the right way as well, so you never know who you might indirectly influence besides your own child in the process. 

Every living creature deserves kindness. Show your children the basic rules for treating animals with kindness and never to tease or provoke the animal. Some cats will be friendly, but there are others that are afraid of strangers—teach them to respect those boundaries.

At the same time, it protects your child because an estimated 50 percent of all animal attacks on children were provoked. Never leave young children alone with animals since this can be a recipe for disaster. 

4. Get Active with Animal Rights Organizations 

There are many different abuses taking place across the country and each issue has its own unique challenges. 

 Animal testing, for example, is one that can be highly abusive. An example is where they give lab rats head injuries on purpose to test them for specific purposes. When I first heard this, I was horrified, and I still feel horrified at it, but there are many different causes you could fight for like:

Volunteer at a Homeless Pet Shelter

Not only is this a great way to meet other people who feel the same way as you do about animals, but it also helps you to make a difference in the lives of animals less fortunate. This type of work will usually involve feeding, bathing, walking, or cleaning the kennels of the animals.

At the same time, you also help to socialize less fortunate animals, and for people who love working with animals, it never feels like drudgery. 

They also have sanctuaries where you can care for wild animals and farm animals, which can be an interesting experience that also helps you to take care of animals.

You may need to psychologically prepare yourself for this type of work because it can involve caring for sick, injured, or abused animals. You may need to have a lot of patience before getting started. 

Final Thoughts

You can fight against animal cruelty in a variety of ways doing whatever you feel most comfortable with. Sometimes, it isn’t so much about fighting against it but not adding more to the pollution. Changing other people can be very difficult, but being a beacon of hope for animals can inspire others.

The other thing that I didn’t mention was how going vegan, vegetarian or plant-based can help you to lower the amount of suffering that animals must endure. 

Having traveled to different places on the planet, I respect cultural traditions and love learning about them, but one thing I’ve learned is that some cultural traditions can be cruel like the running of the bulls in Spain, cockfighting in Haiti, or the mass animal sacrifice in southern Nepal known as Gadhimai Festival. 

Many have spoken out against this ritualistic killing, but the practice continues to this day. At its peak back in 2009, estimates put the killings at anywhere from 250,000 to 500,000 animals over the course of two days. Even public government officials and activists in Nepal have spoken out against the mass slaughter of animals during this festival. It’s the largest mass slaughter of animals in the world.

What is Gadhimai Festival?

The animals make an exhaustive journey with little food, a lack of water, and cruel beheadings at the end. 

An estimated 90 percent of the animals enroute to Gadhimai Festival come from India with more than 2,000 butchers performing the sacrifices. 

This festival began 265 years ago when Bhagwan Chowdhary, a feudal landlord, was told in a dream that the spilling of blood would please the goddess Gadhimai.

It wished for this after freeing him from prison and protecting him from evil while promising him power and prosperity. While the goddess originally requested human sacrifice, Chowdhary chose the alternative of animal sacrifice.

Many travel to this festival at the Gadhimai Temple in the Bara District of Nepal, about 93 miles from Kathmandu, in the hopes of having their wishes granted. 

The animals sacrificed at the festival include:

The animals sacrificed have no age limits and one person reported being appalled at the sight of a 10-day-old calf being sacrificed cruelly and headless pigeons being thrown up on a roof. 

Fighting Back against Animal Cruelty

The Nepalese government does not provide support for this event, which has made it easier for people to fight back against this cruel event. 

One example of pushback against the event has been Alokparna Sengupta, the Humane Society India Director, who directly challenged the head priest of the event Motilal Kuswaha. Unfortunately, despite her pleas and the pleas of many, the festival goes on. 

Reasons for Optimism

This festival has a tradition of over 265 years, and with that in mind, many devotees still believe that the festival requires blood to please the goddess Gadhimai. 

Some cracks have begun to show with some believing that they have begun to change their ways. For example, some of the devotees who go to Gadhimai have not taken animals to sacrifice them like in the past years. There are also signs that the temple committee has begun to feel shaken by the pushback. The number of animals sacrificed has gradually begun to drop. 

In 2024, they estimated around 200,000 animals were sacrificed, which included 6,000 buffaloes. That number may sound unimpressive, but it has shown that the numbers have begun to dwindle slightly from the peak of 500,000. 

There are also activist groups within Nepal against the mass slaughter of animals like the Federation of Animal Welfare Nepal. 

They have tried to start a request for a bloodless Gadhimai festival, but changing minds with something so deeply entrenched takes time. 

Increased pressure has changed how Gadhimai Festival takes place. 

Animal welfare organizations in Nepal and India have begun to coordinate their efforts in the hopes of stopping this mass ritual killings. Besides the killings, some worry about hygiene. Many activists described it as a bloodbath with blood, feces, and the smell of death hanging in the air. 

According to the American Academy of CPR and First Aid (2), many diseases spread to humans from the body fluids of animals, and with so much blood at a festival, this place becomes unhygienic at best. 

Final Thoughts

Devotees go to Gadhimai with the belief that ritually sacrificing animals will grant them their wishes, and this has fueled the cruelty of this festival. Animal sacrifice is also a deeply ingrained tradition in Nepal and even Hinduism (although not all Hindus practice it) with many believing it will bring blessings or grant wishes. Another Hindu festival that performs animal sacrifice is known as the Dashain Festival. 

Fighting against festivals like this requires a coordinated effort, and like trying to stop people from eating meat, it takes time to create change.  

Along with stopping animal suffering, many vegans hope their efforts will save the planet at the same time. Veganism has often been praised as a more environmentally friendly choice with one analysis finding that it leads to 75 percent less climate-heating emissions, water pollution, and land use.

In general, that may be true, but you still need to exercise awareness with what you eat because some vegan foods may still present a challenge to the planet. 

I’ve done some research on this and will give you an overview of the most common culprits that are not environmentally friendly. Veganism normally ranks highly as a diet, but meat production, especially beef, contributes to greenhouse gases and requires large amounts of land and water for it to succeed. 

1. Avocados

To be clear, avocados still have less environmental impact than animal products, but it would be a mistake to consider avocados sustainable or environmentally friendly since they do come with their problems. 

2. Tofu

The issue is that soybeans have a reputation as contributing to deforestation especially in South America where they’ve cleared large tracts of rainforest to make room for soybean production. 

Not only does it lead to deforestation of rainforests, but we lose our natural biodiversity, and the rainforests in South America have a reputation as being some of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. 

Other things that harm the environment are the use of dangerous pesticides and the extreme water consumption that hurts the local ecosystem. 

Tofu by itself isn’t a problem, but you want to check that you buy from sources that won’t contribute to harming the environment. To check this, look for labels that indicate organic or non-GMO soybeans. Locally sourced when possible is also best to reduce the carbon imprint from shipping. 

Avoid tofu or soybeans from Brazil in particular where the problem has become widespread.

3. Almonds

 It takes 5 liters of water to produce one almond. Cashew nuts are the second biggest culprits with them demanding 6,450 liters of water to produce 1 pound of cashews. 

If you’d like to know about more eco-friendly choices for nuts, peanuts have a reputation as being more environmentally friendly. They typically only require 12 liters of water to produce an ounce of peanuts. For a pound of peanuts, it requires 144 liters, and while that might seem like a lot, it still pales in comparison to almonds or cashews. 

4. Quinoa

Quinoa has also exploded in popularity in recent years due to it being known as a superfood with a lot of protein. You get 8 to 9 grams of protein per cup. It may not be the worst choice, but people should still be aware of its impact. 

Every health-conscious vegan is looking for more ways to get protein because one of the weaknesses of the vegan diet is getting enough protein. Meat is a huge source of protein but since vegans don’t eat meat, they need to find other sources. Some Bolivian farmers have also noted how the soil has become less fertile since the boom in demand for quinoa. 

Final Thoughts

The point here isn’t necessarily to stop you from eating avocados or drinking a glass of almond milk once in a while. Instead, I hope that this article makes you more conscious of your environmental impact even with vegan food. 

Many of the foods mentioned here still perform far better than meat products in terms of how they impact the environment and there’s nothing wrong with having them once in a while. 

Maybe you’ve never even heard of old growth forests, but by the end of this article, you’ll know what it is, why they matter, and the health benefits of being in one. Increasingly, countries around the world, such as the United States, Canada, Sweden, Poland, Austria and many more have taken active measures to protect their old growth forests. 

You even have organizations like the WWF (1) that actively work to preserve old growth forests. 

Why Do Old Growth Forests Matter?

These forests are also better at purifying your air for better health. They absorb air pollution and dangerous gases like nitrogen oxide. 

Did you know that, according to the Wilderness Society, 60 million people in the United States alone (17% of the total population), get their drinking water from national forests? Many cities depend on the watersheds from these forests to bring us drinking water. 

Many endangered species like the northern spotted owl, red-cockaded woodpecker, Olympic salamander, and Del Norte salamander all depend on old growth forests to survive. 

Some scientists believe we are currently in the midst of a global mass extinction with millions of species going extinct in the coming decades, and old growth forests help to protect many of these species from that fate while also preserving ourselves. 

Understanding the Scope of the Problem

More than 20 million hectares of old growth forests in the United States are at risk of logging activity. 

These forests have no federal protections, and if they get logged, the carbon being stored in those trees will be released back into the atmosphere where it will accelerate climate change. 

Many worry about carbon emissions from fossil fuels, but cutting down old growth forests with the 20.8 million hectares, would account for around 25% of the annual carbon emissions from fossil fuels. 

The largest threat facing old growth forests right now comes from logging, but the logging could also cause harm with our efforts at stopping climate change. Logging these forests harms the surrounding communities. We need to take action before it’s too late. 

There are different organizations that you can support to stop logging old growth forests. Some of the organizations include:

This only shows you a couple of the many organizations. These organizations focus on making policy changes, taking legal action, and driving a public awareness campaign of the importance of our old growth forests. Supporting one of them is a way to take action against climate change. 

Final Thoughts

Old growth forests are something that not everyone is aware of, but they can have a big impact on our climate and our world. For those who care about animals and the environment, taking action by preserving old growth forests is a great way that you can make a difference.