05.06.09
Where Has All The Water Gone?
I’ve been looking through an important book called Water Voices by William Marks. It’s a beautiful book – its many informative pages illustrated with stunning images of the different faces of water and some of the magnificent creatures that depend on its preservation for their survival.
Water Voices brings to light some fascinating information about water and our relationship with it:
“Our human brain is about 85% water. The very act of thinking is made possible because our brains float in water. Thus, freed from the downward pull of gravity, we are free to think, create and dream.”
Learning this simple fact causes me to ponder its significance. Not only can we experience water externally; bathing in a lake or a pool, gazing at a magnificent waterfall or listening to the soothing sound of a river passing by, but we also imbibe it into our physical selves, where it “begins its journey to nourish every cell in our bodies – a journey that has water flowing through over 60,000 miles of veins and arteries.”
What are the implications in regard to our relationship with water globally? It’s simple. As we do to water, so we do to ourselves. Despite the significance of water as being essential to the survival of all life on Earth, and despite the fact that ecologically-oriented people are, for the most part, aware of the importance of conserving it, we still continue to waste and contaminate this precious resource. There are simple water conservation practices that anyone can do, whatever their situation, such as turning off the water during showering. But there are other lifestyle changes we can make that are even more far-reaching, such as eating lower on the food chain, thereby limiting all of the resources required to provide us with our food.
Animal agriculture wastes a lot more water than most people realize. According to The World Peace Diet by Dr. Will Tuttle,
“Agriculture consumes fully eighty-five percent of all U.S. freshwater resources, mainly to produce animal foods. A day’s production of food for one omnivore human requires more than four thousand gallons of water, compared with less than three hundred gallons for a vegan….”
If the previous statistic is hard to put into perspective, the video, A Life Connected explains it very clearly:
“By simply making vegan choices, you can save over 1.3 million gallons of water every year. That’s so much water, that being vegan, you could leave your shower on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and still you couldn’t waste as much water as someone consuming an animal-based diet.”
Not only is animal agriculture the number one waster of water, but it is also the number one polluter of water.
With this in mind, and with the current political dialogue in the U.S. focused on seeking ways to create lasting change for the better, it seems that addressing the issue of responsible water usage in food production is as important an issue as any. In the words of William Marks:
“Given today’s challenges, it may be wise for us to adopt a modern global water philosophy – a philosophy whereby we work as co-creators with water to help restore balance to our Earth and life in abundance.”
originally published on Care2
Ethical Evolution: The Way Forward
Lately, it seems as if everything is aimed at the “green consumer”. From energy-efficient appliances to hybrid cars, environmental consumerism is in fashion. I’ve always been of the opinion that this evolution of the consumer market has to be a good thing, but my feelings about it are changing. I am now quite convinced that it would be a good thing, if only it were accompanied by a missing ingredient that is essential to creating lasting change: evolution of our society’s ethical values.
Promoting green consumerism as the answer to our planet’s troubles has been embraced whole-heartedly by businesses that have a vested interest in selling more stuff, but there are other champions of this cause, such as environmental groups, who could be more effective by leaving the green marketing to those who stand to profit from it and putting their energy and resources toward inspiring a revival and restoration of ethics.
The marketing strategy is to make “green” a socially desirable quality, increasing the popularity of energy-saving gadgets and hybrid cars. One obvious objection to this approach is that it does nothing to address the serious and pressing issue of consumerism itself, but may in fact actually serve to promote it. The other concerning aspect is that these steps are simply not significant enough, and that over-emphasizing the benefits of these “easy lifestyle changes” is counter-productive, as it teaches people that more substantial change is not necessary.
Emphasizing small changes and promoting them as being significant, without addressing the core issues behind the problems, convinces people that it is possible to ‘make a difference’ without making substantial changes in one’s lifestyle or belief system. In other words, we are training ourselves to be unwilling to make bigger, more difficult changes. With our society and our world on the brink of a major breakdown, it has become imperative that we face up to the need for a radical shift – in lifestyle, behavior and beliefs.
The environment movement stands at a critical point in history, where we are finally in a position to be heard, and for our concerns to be taken seriously. Gone are the days when skeptics could write off the urgent pleas of the environmentalists as being “extreme”. The predictions of global eco-system collapse are coming true, and the urgency grows with every passing day.
It is time now for the environmental movement to turn its attention away from green marketing and toward addressing deeper issues. We need to examine the prevailing lack of environmental concern that has led us to this potentially disastrous situation, and we need to treat the root cause of this problem: humanity’s pandemic of ethical atrophy. This vast spiritual void is isolating us from each other, and from the rest of the natural world.
We need to embrace basic human values: empathy, compassion and respect; for the natural world, for the other animals, and for our fellow humans. By re-evaluating and renewing our commitment to fundamental values, and by calling attention to the need for an ethical evolution, we can create new standards for positive lifestyle choices.
Now is the time for the environment movement – and all movements for positive social change – to converge around the most pressing issues of the day and create a plan of action to offer to the world as a map out of the madness. We need to make the shift from consumerism to conservation, from competition to co-operation, from predation to protection. The keys to a new world of safety and plenty are at our fingertips. What we need is to be open to the necessary changes, to be willing to step into the future that those changes will bring, and to embrace the evolution of values that will illuminate our choices and show us the way forward.
originally published on Care2
03.30.09
The Vegan Solution: An Ideal Whose Time Has Come
From world hunger to climate change, species extinction to escalating violence, the catastrophic problems we face are clear indicators that we are in need of transformation on a radical scale. Gone are the days when we could procrastinate about necessary changes or take baby steps toward sustainability in the hope that enough small actions would collectively add up to create meaningful impact. Drastic, sweeping changes are needed, and this fundamental shift in society’s values must begin with each one of us.
‘Veganism’ as a philosophy which embodies non-violence and compassion toward the helpless, until now, has been marginalized by our society. Those who embrace this deep and powerful set of values have often been ostracized and the wisdom of their choices ignored or trivialized. But those who recognize the far-reaching effects of this paradigm shift know how powerful the rewards can be. Ironically, it may well be that the survival of our species, and perhaps even the planet, is dependent upon learning the very lessons of empathy, responsibility and self-control that the vegan ideal embodies, and that our society seems so reluctant to embrace.
No matter how strong the current opposition is to adopting this radically different world view, it will soon have to be accepted that vegan is the way of the future. Only by living the vegan ideal can we address all at once the many, seemingly different issues that are crippling our civilization and threaten not only our survival, but the survival of the many other species that populate the planet. We currently run the risk of driving into collapse the essential life-preserving systems of the planet itself. Much of the destruction stems from the deep-rooted problem of our mistaken belief that we, like the shark or the tiger, are natural predators.
Our collective hunger for flesh and for the products that come from the bodies of animals has driven us to create systems of animal farming that are not only completely unsustainable in the long-term, but are also immediately damaging to natural eco-systems, populations of wild animals and the human population of developing nations. In order to provide affluent countries with meat, dairy and eggs, we have destroyed major portions of the world’s wild lands, altered the levels of gases in the atmosphere beyond recognition, decimated many wild animal populations beyond recovery, and pushed people living in poor countries further and further into cycles of starvation. The UK alone imports £46,000,000 worth of grain from third world countries to feed their livestock. In the US, if we all became vegetarian, it would free enough grain to feed 600,000,000 people. How much good can we really be doing with ‘foreign aid’, when we are taking food right out of the very mouths of those we ought to be feeding?
In addition, our society is desperate for a solution to our social problems. Violence is becoming a bigger and bigger problem in all areas of society, from school shootings to sexual abuse and assault. But the cause of this widespread aggression becomes clear, when we remember that we habitually feed ourselves and fuel our bodies with the products of violence and death. We may think that we can avoid the truth of this, by buying flesh in neatly wrapped packages at the supermarket, but we can not help but be aware of it in our deeper selves, and the violence that is implicit in our meals permeates our society on all levels from global to personal.
In a world that makes little of preying upon the meek, showing callous disregard for the pain and suffering of helpless creatures is not just accepted, but is frequently promoted in different forms by our society. Despite the fact that cruelty to animals is common in the violent histories of most of our nation’s serial killers and school shooters, certain states still allow children younger than 12 to go hunting with a parent or guardian. There is well-known evidence linking violence toward animals in childhood with violence toward people in adulthood. This should make us all stop and think about the values we are teaching our young people. The ethic of compassion toward animals is something that ought to be taught to our children in schools, but this can not happen in any meaningful way until we acknowledge that basic compassion includes not depriving them of their life or freedom, whether they are animals we consider pets, or animals whom we have traditionally considered food.
It sometimes appears that the light of the vegan ideal is so bright that people are afraid to open their eyes to it, even individuals who are deeply involved in other social or environmental movements. Despite a significant number of people being very outspoken about the different tragedies that actually stem from this same root cause, the dialogue of our society continues to revolve around just about anything other than the need to change our eating habits. What is it that makes us cling so stubbornly to a practice that is cruel, unnecessary and may well end up destroying us?
Making the transition toward a vegan diet and lifestyle is the single-most effective step an individual can take toward living sustainably on the planet. For further evidence of this fact, please read about the 2006 report from the United Nations: ‘Livestock’s Long Shadow’. By making vegan choices, people can lessen their ecological footprint more than with any other lifestyle change, as well as gain control over their health, take part in eliminating world hunger, rediscover their connection with the many different animals who share our world, and make a powerful personal contribution toward the beginning of peace on earth.
- Global warming – Animal agriculture generates 40% more greenhouse gas than all cars, trucks and planes combined.
- Water – It takes far less water to generate vegan food. A vegan could leave their shower running year-round, and still not waste as much water as a non-vegan.
- World hunger – Most of the world’s grain is fed to food animals. On a plant-based diet, we could feed the entire human population. Millions of people who are starving (including 40,000 children who die every day) as a result of the unfair distribution of food could be fed by the many tons of grain that are currently cycled through animals.
- Pollution – Animal agriculture is the single biggest polluter of the planet.
- Human health crises such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, asthma, osteoporosis, and many more would be greatly reduced. Diseases created by intensive animal agriculture would disappear.
- Environment – Animal-based food is the primary cause of issues such as rainforest destruction, topsoil erosion, desertification of grassland, degradation of underwater ecosystems, and the declining population of endangered species.
- Global violence – A non-violent lifestyle would create a more compassionate, gentle population.
When examining issues of such catastrophic potential as global warming, species extinction and mass starvation, it is understandable that individuals who care can feel helpless. It is easy to fall victim to the debilitating belief that we might really have no future. The vegan solution contains within it the power to solve the biggest problems we are facing, on every level from personal to planetary. The vegan ideal is nothing less than the next evolutionary step for humankind. We must embrace the ethic of non-violence if we are to evolve; and we must evolve, if we are to survive.
originally published on Care2
