On a recent visit to Chesapeake, Virginia., a friend told me the coastal region where I grew up was already experiencing the impacts of climate change. He lamented that areas that didn’t get flooded a decade ago are now starting to do so regularly. Thus, longtime residents were living at the mercy of the weather, preparing their homes for floods and planning their commutes around the rainfall.

Now living in California, which had been drought-stricken for more than four years, I was floored. Climate change, it turns out, is already having an impact on the planet.

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105-year-old cyclist sets world record; vegetarian diet called ‘big mistake’ With the Paris Accord in the news right now, climate change is on the minds of so many throughout the world. Thankfully, we can all do our part to help by being mindful of what we put on our plates.

Animal agribusiness is responsible for an estimated 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all forms of transportation combined, according to The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

The good news is that we can each take a stand for a healthier planet by simply enjoying more plant-based meals. It really is that easy.

Substituting beans for beef “could achieve approximately 46 percent to 74 percent of the reductions needed to meet the 2020 GHG (greenhouse gas emissions) target for the U.S.,” according to Loma Linda University researchers.

For its part, British policy institute Chatham House, has stated, “Changing diets to healthy levels of meat consumption could generate a quarter of the remaining emission reductions needed to keep warming below the ‘danger level’ of 2 degrees Celsius – the main goal of the climate negotiations.”

Heavy meat consumption affects wild animals, too. In the era of the Anthropocene — the name given to our current geological age, which literally means the period during which human activity has been the primary influence on the environment — we’re bringing about the sixth great extinction, according to the journal Nature.

Some 13 percent of birds and 25 percent of all mammals worldwide are threatened, in part because of the millions of acres of forests and habitats being destroyed for grazing cattle and to grow feed crops for factory farmed animals.

It’s worth considering that not only will eating more plant-based foods reduce our environmental footprint, but that we’d also be healthier for it.

Enjoying more plant-based foods help reduce the risk of top killers like heart disease, cancer and stroke, as well as diabetes and obesity. It’s as simple as choosing a bean burrito instead of chicken fajitas.

We don’t have to wait on our elected officials to help the planet. Conscious consumers can make the world a better place by following the Three Rs of eating: “reducing” or “replacing” consumption of animal products, and “refining” our diets by choosing products from sources that adhere to higher animal welfare standards.

Small changes can make a big difference. Whether you’re working to save your hometown or the planet, there’s something meaningful you can do, the next time you sit down for a meal.

Kristie Middleton is the senior director of farm animal protection for The Humane Society of the United States and the author of “MeatLess: Transform the Way You Eat and Live — One Meal at a Time.” She lives in Oakland.