The comic strip (from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) above illustrates classic ignorance about vegetarianism and rationalisation for meat-eating. While we know that it’s near impossible to have an absolute guilt-free meals, the best thing is to minimise killing for food. If you think that it’s murder when many small animals and insects are killed when a tractor runs on a soybean field, what about countless animals in slaughterhouses. Are they not worthy of anyone’s compassion?
The irony is most soybeans are farmed for livestock bred to be slaughtered for meat-eaters’ plates. Very small percentage is actually processed for direct human consumption. While vegetarianism means minimising killing, meat-eating is definitely maximising it. Before accusing vegetarians as murderers, what have meat-eaters done to reduce killing? Before a better diet is found, vegetarianism or better still, veganism, are the best diet solutions.
From the news article below, ‘a major new assessment published this month in World Watch magazine concluded that the livestock sector contributes an astonishing figure of at least 51 percent [of all greenhouse gas emissions, instead of 18%, as previously reported].’ This clearly means that if you are an adamant meat-eater, your are not on the side of saving the Earth. Please eat less meat. Better still, don’t eat any.
Less Meat Less Climate Change
10 December, 2009
By Richard Schwartz, Director Veg Climate Alliance
http://cop15post.com/2009/12/10/news/less-meat-less-climate-change/An exaggeration? Think again. As director of Veg Climate Alliance I am convinced that the real ‘inconvenient truth’ is that there is no way to avoid climate catastrophe without a major shift to plant-based diets.
The 2006 United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization report the “Livestock’s Long Shadow” determined that livestock production is globally responsible for more green house gasses (in CO2 equivalents) than all the world’s transport combined, or 18 versus 13.5 per cent. More recently, a major new assessment published this month in World Watch magazine concluded that the livestock sector contributes an astonishing figure of at least 51 percent.
Worse still, the UN reports foresee that the world’s population of farmed animals will even double in 50 years if current trends continue. This would largely roll back any emission reductions from all other sectors – making it very unlikely for us to avoid the impending climate disaster.
So a major shift toward plant-based diets is imperative if we are to have even a chance of preventing catastrophe. Indeed top climate leaders Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. James Hansen of NASA and Lord Nicholas Stern are also urging people to significantly cut their consumption of meat. And there is good news. Besides reducing global warming threats, a shift from animal products would have globally significant social and environmental benefits instead. There would be a major relief from chronic disease epidemics such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, with a related decrease in medical expenditures, freeing up public funds to meet environmental and other societal challenges.
Less livestock would hinder future zoological diseases and infections such as H1N1, MRSA, Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and E. coli. It would also significantly relieve global chronic hunger that now afflicts more than a billion people, because more than 40 percent of the world’s grain is fed to farmed animals.
Such a move would drastically reduce the severe mistreatment cruelty and unnecessary killing of billions of farmed animals. It would diminish many environmental threats, such as wholesale deforestation, soil erosion and depletion, ocean and fresh water pollution and other habitat poisoning, as well as the rapid extinction of species – all related to the raising of more than 60 billion animals annually worldwide.
In safeguarding future resources, such as water, land, and energy otherwise overused in meat production we would promote peaceful prosperity in avoiding the social effects that will follow climate change at its heals: hungry, thirsty, homeless people fleeing droughts, wildfires, storms, floods and disease, greatly increasing the potential for instability, violence, terrorism and war.
In the context of these greater global effects, it is in my view, clear that we are at a perilous turning point. Either we continue to eat as we do, contributing to the mounting problems and approaching calamity. Or we shift to nutritious plant-based diets and increase our prospects for a more peaceful, healthy and sustainable future – for all of us. You can help determine the fate of future generations. If you have not already done so, you can sharply reduce your consumption of animal products and convince others to change too.
Amit, you mentioned you were ‘repeatedly told to have patience’. Here is perhaps one more instance? It was also mentioned that you realized you ‘can’t push people’. We ‘would request you to do some reflection/introspection’… on whether you just did… because the truth is, the links have not been fully reviewed yet, and were thus not removed – they are still pending.
Thanks WordPresser,
I will wait patiently. However, the reason for my previous comment was that my latest comment appeared on the blog but not my previous comment. How would that happen?
And Ed, I am completely with you on Vegetarianism. I am a vegetarian myself. However, lets do the things in the right way. If we try to push vegie philosophy under “Climate Change”, we might get what we do not want.
Thank you all once again
Amit
[Moonpointer moderators’ note: The ‘previous comment’ mentioned is the 5th comment from the top, which was approved on 22.12.09]
Hi Amit, this is how that happened…. ‘For those unaware, some WordPress applications have this function of appearing to pre-post one’s comments with LINKS…’ (For the rest, please see WordPresser’s previous comment above). Notice that all your other comments above have no LINKS, which is why they were not withheld by WordPress’ system.
Having seen the video link and its connected ones in many parts, which take much time, readers might be less certain of CO2 being the main culprit for global warming. However, what remains certain is that the artificial emitting of large amounts of gases and pollutants not naturally in the environment will definitely damage the environment to some corresponding extent. In this sense, environmentalism remains perpetually relevant.
There is the potential danger of dismissing global warming to somehow accidentally lead to dismissing environmentalism altogether – letting complacence take over. From the Sutra of Changes to Come, “When the Dharma is about to disappear,… “The great rivers will rise up in disharmony with their natural cycles, yet people will not take notice or feel concern. Extremes of climate will soon be taken for granted. . . . – http://www.drba.org/dharma/btts/9xxentrydetail.asp?wid=89
There is conflicting information (highlighted raw data and conclusions on them) in mainstream media and non-mainstream media. On the misconceptions of global warming, the scientists who believe they have the whole truth should band together to prove their case – because they are the specific experts, while we are not, even if we are trained in some loosely-related aspects of science. Meanwhile, even as they debate, we must still take care of the planet best we can in as many ways as we can. Even if global warming is not really caused by CO2, excess CO2 emitted by human actions will cause problems to come – sooner or later. To every cause, there is an effect to some extent. Even a seemingly ‘negligible’ effect will culminate with other ‘negligible’ ones over time to become disastrous.
Even if global warming is a totally natural phenomenon that is not caused by humans in the least bit, there remains the question of what humans can and should do about the environmental disasters we are facing. Deforestation, overfishing, overbreeding of animals, pollution, eroding coastlines, extreme weather… all these are still very real – happening as we speak. The present environmental problems, caused by CO2 or not, as at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_global_warming are still problems. Scientists should continue working towards solutions for these – and advise the masses on what they can do.
A part of the videos mentioned that animals and bacteria emit 150 gigatons of greenhouse gases annually compared to 6.6 gigatons from humans. This is another powerful push factor to eat less meat, which reduces demand for many animals. Animals also emit methane and nitrous oxide, which are respectively 23 and 296 times more potent in trapping heat than CO2. According to FAO’s 2006 report, animals produce 18% of the greenhouse gases – more than that of all motor vehicles combined. Even if the figures are not accurate, it is nevertheless true that animal breeding wrecks the environment.
Whether global warming is real or not, the developed countries should swiftly develop affordable and sustainable clean energy sources such as of solar and wind as means to reduce harm to the environment – for ourselves and generations to come. The developed nations should lead by example by using these clean technologies themselves, and heavily subsidise the developing nations’ needs – while helping them to develop. The cost of the precautionary principle should be shouldered by both developed and developing countries together – without exploiting one another, but by working as partners for the planet.
It is always safer, kinder and wiser to protect and save the Earth from environmental disasters – but it must be found on sound science. Till the day we are certain of what is the soundest science, all the classic means we as the (ow)man on the street have learnt to protect the environment are most probably still worth every bit of the effort.
Related Articles:
108 Things to Do to Help the Environment
http://www.ecobuddhism.org/index.php/wisdom/interviews/karmapa
Living the Dharma Includes Being Green
http://www.moonpointer.com/index.php?itemid=1663
Environmental Protection, by Thich Tri Quang
http://www.quangduc.com/English/enviroment.html
Environmental Protection and Spiritual Environmental Protection, by Master Sheng Yen
http://www.chan1.org/ddp/channews/06-1997.html#environment
Environmental Protection, by Master Sheng Yen
http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/dailylife/environment.html
The Inner Ecology: Buddhist Ethics & Practice, by Ronald Epstein
http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/Inner%20Ecology.htm
The Relevance of Vipassana for the Environmental Crisis
http://www.quangduc.com/English/relevance.htm
Truthfulness & non voilence are foundations of Buddha Dharma. These founding principles of Dharma are eternal and self evident (i.e. they reveal themselves to be true time after time).
When we go veg. (i.e. becoming non voilent), we are showing our compassion towards all sentient beings. This axiomatic, principle of “not harming other sentient beings ” does NOT require walking sticks of environmentalism for it’s propagation. However, now a days, it is being banded together with environmental movement. Is it because of temptation to propagate dharma along with growing (or topping out) environmental movement? Or is it some deep rooted, illogical fear that our compassion is not enough? Why can’t we see that , if & when (actually the question is only when not if) this environment, climate change movement is discredited, Dharma will lose it’s support too. I understand and agree that we should try to keep this planet, which is our home in this life as clean and as beautiful as possible. However, we do NOT require to stand with global warming alarmists/global warming movement/Hope(less)nhagen for that. Compassion & other beautiful principles of Dharma are enough for us Dharma followers to take care of earth.
Lets keep Dharma and this whole questionable “Climate Change” separate.
Surely anyone would agree with us that human activities is the chief cause, even if CO2 has nothing to do with climate change.
The rate at which we deplete our natural resources ain’t sustainable. The future scenario shown in the movie Avatar might just come true eventually…
Here’s a reasonable critique of the camp of scientist who thinks CO2 is not the cause of global warming:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle