The Care and Feeding of a Warming World: Animal Advocates and Sanctuaries Should Address Diet
What Global Warming Means
The impact of global warming is not a vague future threat; it is already upon us. Some computer models used by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict the Arctic will be virtually ice free by 2070. Other computer models suggest that the year of an ice-free Arctic summer could come as early as 2030 or 2040. [1]
Virtually ice-free. That’s the UN panel — and they’re saying it’s only 23 to 63 years away.
The loss of that massive ice sheet will have enormous repercussions for the Earth’s weather. Already we see news of the rate at which living beings are affected by deforestation and climate change — and these are interrelated, as forests absorb excess CO2 and give oxygen. According to Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, barring some dramatic change, half of Earth’s plant and animal species will likely be extinct by 2100.
In regions where people lack stability to deal with global warming, climate change will escalate conflicts, which in turn will leave communities still less able to cope, and will put more pressure on free-living animals, who are usually seen as expendable in times of crisis.
Recommended Action for Refuges, Rescue Groups, Advocates, and Everyone Else
We at Friends of Animals regularly discuss climate at churches and ethical societies, colleges, bookshops, library talks, and events sponsored by vegetarian and community-based animal-advocacy groups. At some of these events we demonstrate vegan food preparation. We have even had reports from “dedicated South African meat-eaters” who have enjoyed our vegan cookbook and written up a positive review in order to spread the word.
We note that human birth rates are a critical factor, and should be approached not as a matter of barring migration from one region to another, but in terms of global population.
Across the world we human apes have more births each hour than the total existing population of chimpanzees and gorillas.
There are now 6.6 billion of us, and, as Gwynne Dyer writes, “Not only is the global population continuing to grow - about an extra Turkey or Vietnam every year - but as Asian economies race ahead, more people in those populous countries are starting to eat more meat.” [2]
We who identify ourselves as part of the advocacy or conservation communities have a particular responsibility to model a completely different way of living on this planet.
To really address the root causes of the challenges we face in our daily work, sanctuaries and advocacy groups should confront global warming by advancing positions to address it.
It has long seemed incongruous for refuges to shelter some animals yet condone the eating of other animals. It has also seemed somehow hollow to have advocates from our more affluent populations argue against bushmeat if we ourselves are unwilling to renounce a taste for flesh.
Given the documented effects of global warming, and the impact of animal agribusiness in habitat loss, chemical use, and greenhouse gas emission, [3] there is now an obvious urgency as well as an ethical responsibility for shelters and advocacy groups to take an affirmative and consistent position in support of a plant-based diet.
Notes
[1] Steve Connor, Scientists Warn Arctic Sea Ice Is Melting at Its Fastest Rate Since Records Began” — The Independent (15 Aug. 2007).
[2] Gwynne Dyer: “Biofuel Mania Ends Days of Cheap Food” — New Zealand Herald (10 Jul. 2007).
[3] See Eating for Six Billion? Culinary Activism for a Healthier Planet:
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9 Comments
On November 5, 2007, Dustin wrote:
I am infinitely grateful that Friends of Animals continues to align itself with environmental activism and climate crisis. Sadly, veganism, in this day and age, is not about pie-in-the-sky ideals of how humans should relate to other animals. This is literally a matter of life and death: the entire planet is at stake. Animal activists need to broaden the conversation—-and fast.
It’s worth mentioning, too: animal activists might want to start preaching the less consumption ethic, too; unless we get our ravenous buying/acquiring addiction under control, we have little hope for protecting what little there is left—human and non-human animals alike.
Choosing a vegan way of life will have enormous impact, especially in conjunction with striving toward a low-impact lifestyle. We’ve reached a critical juncture, to be sure. It’s time we consider every aspect of the way we live.
There’s never been a more important time to be vegan.
Dustin
Friends of Animals
On November 6, 2007, Lee Hall of Friends of Animals wrote:
Anyone who doubts vegetarianism may help us avert catastrophic weather changes might wish to take their critique to the University of Chicago’s Department of Geophysical Sciences, or to the United Nations.
Last year (April 2006), the University of Chicago News Office announced the work of assistant professors Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin with the headline “Vegan Diets Healthier for Planet, People Than Meat Diets.” These researchers have shown how vegans spare the atmosphere about a ton and a half of greenhouse gases per person per year, compared to omnivores eating the same number of calories.
Since then, the work done by Profs. Eshel and Martin has been adopted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
The university press office distributed its release accompanied by photos of the two scientists preparing fruit and vegetable salads on a kitchen-style countertop amidst their bookshelves — offering an inspiration to others to put conscientious dining right in the middle of their work and thinking. Notably, Eshel was once a cattle farmer, but now cultivates an organic vegetable farm.
On November 6, 2007, Lee Hall of Friends of Animals wrote:
Yes, the earth has gone through warming and cooling periods, and yes, the planet has endured many natural changes. It would be unwise however, to ignore the great weight of scientific reports on the current state of the planet. This is much more than a natural swing in temperature. What our industrial society has done over the last hundred years is having a devastating effect on the living communities that have evolved over the ages on the planet’s surface.
An excellent article on this is Julia Whitty’s “Gone” which you can read here: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/05/gone.html
Whitty explains that we are currently “living through the sixth great extinction” which can be traced back to a time 50,000 years ago as we humans migrated beyond Africa with blades, darts, and harpoons. After the Ice Age, humans “terminated the long and biologically rich epoch sometimes called the Edenic period with assaults from our newest weapons: hoes, scythes, cattle, goats, and pigs.”
Our impact has been extremely heavy in this past century. We have wiped out large areas of forestland, making it over to feed crops and timber, all the while emitting dangerous levels of methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide, while acidifying the water with pollution from farm runoff.
Whitty writes:
“When we hear of extinction, most of us think of the plight of the rhino, tiger, panda or blue whale. But these sad sagas are only small pieces of the extinction puzzle. The overall numbers are terrifying. Of the 40,168 species that the 10,000 scientists in the World Conservation Union have assessed, one in four mammals, one in eight birds, one in three amphibians, one in three conifers and other gymnosperms are at risk of extinction. The peril faced by other classes of organisms is less thoroughly analysed, but fully 40 per cent of the examined species of planet earth are in danger, including perhaps 51 per cent of reptiles, 52 per cent of insects, and 73 per cent of flowering plants.”
Whitty adds that the current rate of extinction is running at 100 times the planet’s natural background rate of exintiction and replacement. (This is a conservative estimate.)
Says Whitty: “We now understand that the majority of life on Earth has never been - and will never be - known to us. In a staggering forecast, [Harvard biologist Edward O.]Wilson predicts that our present course will lead to the extinction of half of all plant and animal species by 2100.
You probably had no idea. Few do.”
On November 6, 2007, Lee Hall of Friends of Animals wrote:
In the August 20-27 edition of Newsweek International, author Barrett Sheridan observes that 7 kg of grain is needed by the cattle farmer to produce 1 kg of flesh.
That observation speaks clearly to the difference between using plants as direct food for humans, and running them through animal bodies then eating the animals.
Both vegetarians and omnivores derive their energy from plants, but the vegetarian diet derives that energy directly, thus using up far less plants (and land) than the average omnivore.
On November 19, 2007, Peter Kobel of Friends of Animals wrote:
Lee, nice point about the disconnect between conservationists urging people not to eat bushmeat while leading an omnivore lifestyle that is helping to bring on mass extinctions. Most of the major conservation organizations also decline to seriously address human overpopulation. Trying to save habitats and endangered species without addressing human population growth is, ultimately, futile.
On November 21, 2007, Bree wrote:
We really have to consider changing the way we live because obviously the way we’ve been living just isn’t working out. The planet and everything on it is being destroyed. If global warming causes the ice caps to melt we’ll all be doomed; every spectrum of life will seize to exist.
A plant based diet doesn’t seem so bad. Animals are being treated cruelly and unethical just so us humans can have a meal. Animals are literally going extinct because of us. Hunting WAS a way for humans to live thousands of years ago but we have become more intelligent and have come up with ways to survive without needing meat. Hunting has become a sport…the government actually profits from animals being killed. Meat is not a necessity. We have to cut down on things we don’t need and we must to do it quick.
The animals that have been here for thousands of years are dying out for moronic reasons. They are being killed for their fur, paws, horns, meat and so on. Can’t these people go out and get a real job rather than selling illegal trade to ignorant buyers? And the people that slaughter our daily meals legally (cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys…) abuse them and enclose them in spaces that they cannot even move freely, forcing them to live in their own waste and become malformed. These animals are abused and forced to endure an astonishing amount of pain.
The animals and the trees that are taken from their natural habitat are precise to our future. The trees that are being cut down to accomodate our growing populations are one of the leading producers of gases which are causing global warming. Animals no longer have a sanctuary away from human beings and are becoming extinct even faster. Is all of this really nessecary. It’s disgusting.
People have to realize our planet is in peril and we need to fix it before it’s too late. We all have to come together and try new things. If we don’t stand together…we will all fall down. Faith and money will not help anyone in the end. We need to think scientifically and come up with logical solutions before we destroy ourselves.
On November 26, 2007, Dyandria Darel wrote:
Thank you for putting this information out.
On November 30, 2007, Tim wrote:
Just a thought…………..God put animals, creatures of his creation, as a resource for us. Also, instead of being so concerned about animal rights, if you put that same energy into human rights, and try to feed and clothe the hungry……..wow, there’s a thought huh???
On February 24, 2008, kaykay wrote:
Polar bears are drowning because they cannot find a piece of solid ice to say on. Some polar bears swim 60 miles and end up dying because the ice they used to rely on melted. This has never happend in the past