



In 2014 he told MedScape:

Over a year ago I changed my diet to a vegan diet, really just to experiment to see what it was like. … Now, for many people, that choice is connected to environmental ethics and health issues and all that stuff. … In a visceral way, I felt better, so I've continued with it and I'm likely to continue it for the rest of my life.

His decision to embrace veganism wasn't as much a surprise as it was long awaited. For years he spoke about the environmental destruction caused by factory farming.





In a 2009 interview with ABC he said, “It’s absolutely correct that the growing meat intensity of diets around the world is one of the issues connected to this global crisis—not only because of the CO2 involved, but also because of the water consumed in the process.”





Like Al Gore, many people consider themselves environmentalists . But by consuming animal products they’re still contributing to one of the worst causes of environmental destruction. That is why some of the most prominent environmentalists have seen the light and ditched meat, dairy, and eggs.





Raising animals for food produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, planes, and other forms of transportation combined





According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, carbon dioxide emissions from raising farmed animals make up about 15 percent of global human-induced emissions, with beef and milk production as the leading culprits.









There is no such thing as "sustainable" meat, and plant-based alternatives to meat, dairy, and eggs take a mere fraction of the resources to produce as their animal-based counterparts.





A vegan diet isn’t just good for the planet—it also spares countless animals a lifetime of misery at factory farms. Pigs, cows, chickens, and other farmed animals suffer horribly. These innocent animals face unimaginable cruelties : extreme confinement; brutal mutilations; and bloody, violent deaths.







