The Chinese government is making dire attempts to cut back on the consumption of meat and eggs in the country. In an attempt to make its 1.3 billion population eat less meat, the government has asked a few Hollywood stars to help, including "Terminator Genisys" actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Recently, the Chinese government announced its new dietary guidelines that aims to cut the consumption of meat by almost 50 percent. The new guidelines have been widely appreciated by several climate change advocates and international celebrities, including Schwarzenegger and Canadian filmmaker, director and producer, James Cameron.
As a part of the initiative, new advertisements and billboards featuring the celebrities supporting the Chinese government's new initiative will be placed in China to encourage the citizens to adopt the vegan lifestyle, according to The Guardian. It is estimated that if people decide to follow the new guidelines, the carbon dioxide emission from animal agriculture could reduce by almost 1 billion tonnes by the end of 2030.
The drive to reduce the consumption of meat, spearheaded by WildAid, primarily targets the Chinese and the American audience. The drive endorses the efforts being made by the government in China to reduce the overall carbon dioxide emissions.
In this initiative, the "Avatar" director and the former California Governor are also joined by China's most famous actress, Li Bingbing. The trio will be a part of a massive media campaign that focuses on the achievement of the goal set by the Chinese government.
"China's move to cut meat consumption in half would not only have a huge impact on public health, it is also a massive leadership step towards drastically reducing carbon emissions and reaching the goals set out in the Paris Agreement," Cameron said in a WildAid video.
Cameron, who switched to a vegan diet in 2012, further explained how livestock emits more carbon dioxide than the complete transportation used. According to Cameron, limiting the demand for animal-based foods is important to make sure that we are contributing to limit the global warming to two degrees Celsius, as agreed during COP21.
"As much as we in California have been leaders and have inspired China to go in the right direction with environmental issues, they are now inspiring us," Schwarzenegger added to Cameron's comment.
The following video talks about the contribution made by livestock in terms of global warming: