The media has been abuzz in recent months breathlessly detailing the impact that private jets and super yachts have on the environment.
Here's an ARTICLE from The Guardian.
While I don't disagree with the data and the argument that 'the Rich' dump more than their unfair share of carbon emissions into the atmosphere and consequently contribute to global warming, I do find the focus to be on a little bit of an easy target.
'The Rich' do participate in plenty of bad behaviors, some of which harm the rest of society more than others. They avoid taxes in every way legally permitted and sometimes in any way possible, leaving governments and the middle class to shoulder the public debt with reduced revenues. They corrupt the political process with soft-money/dark-money campaign contributions to lawmakers, private jet/luxury getaway vacations and sweetheart real estate and loans to judges, and obviously quid pro quo investments in hedge funds run by former White House officials.
That kind of stuff is happening at present and will probably continue to happen in the future. We can advocate for tougher legislation and regulation, but exactly how much influence we as citizens on these issues is debatable.
What we can do--at least about climate change--is more personal and more challenging than we would care to admit: eliminating the consumption of animal products and adopting a plant-based diet.
Before you roll your eyes and click off the blog, know that your choice on this issue--and you're making a choice even if you don't make a choice--will impact the planet your children or grandchildren will inherit. It will be a planet that continues to endure the devastation of our natural resources and suffers as a consequence, or a planet that has a chance to renew itself, survive, and thrive again.
So if you're okay with saying to your child, "Hey, you know, the whole factory farming business involving cows, chickens, and fish is really destroying the planet, but I just can't give up the taste of a juicy steak or fried chicken or grilled salmon," then do that.
It's easy to disconnect our own daily decisions from the global impact they have. We rationalize: Oh, one person can't make a difference. Or we sell ourselves short because we're fearful: I could never adopt a vegan diet.
The truth is often much more unpleasant: we just don't want to make the effort. We'd rather blame 'the rich' or someone else--anyone else--for the way things are than take a small, life-changing step to improve not just the planet's health, but our health as well.
People sometimes ask me why I don't eat animals or animal products. I'm tempted to ask them why they still do. (I'm too polite to actually do this.)
Is it good for your health? No, at least not according the the World Health Organization. Is it good for the animals? Obviously not. They are raised in horrible conditions and meet an equally unpleasant death. Is it good for the planet? Absolutely not, says the National Institutes of Health, among other leading research organizations.
The natural resources, packaging, and transportation required to raise, feed, house, slaughter, process, package and transport animals are enormous and costly. It's a horrible business model to invest so much into a product that is going to be only one ingredient for one meal. If you don't believe me, read all about from those tree-hugging, left-wing nuts over at Forbes magazine.
If you need more food for thought about the health benefits of a plant based diet, watch these documentary films:
Forks Over Knives https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjTWFoqLy34
What The Health https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obx7cJtk3fE
and Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-WUP5psyuM
as well as the recent Netflix series You Are What You Eat: The Twin Experiment
Please watch all of these documentaries before commenting here that human beings actually need cow's milk to be healthy (the calcium argument), or that eating meat is necessary to get all the essential vitamins and minerals we need to be healthy, or that humans are naturally supposed to eat animals (I don't even know what to call this argument.) And even after watching these films, please don't make those arguments. They just don't hold water in the scientific community.
Truth be told, eating animal products is the result of culture (how we were raised), convenience (what's available, easy, and inexpensive to find), and propaganda (what we've been told is good for us by those who benefit from our less than thoughtful choices).
Take a risk. Challenge your assumptions. Embrace change. You can live quite well, in every sense of the phrase, without eating animals. And as someone who shares the planet with you, I wish you'd seriously consider it.
Our future depends on it.
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