COP-OUT: The meat that COP27 is not talking about
COP27 will be another failure if it fails to decree that human beings must abandon meat, fish, eggs and dairy to save the planet. Future generations will not forgive us if we do not.
NITIN MEHTA: As world leaders meet in Cairo to try and stop a catastrophe that the human race faces, no one notices the vegan elephant in the room. The world leaders in Cairo will hardly mention meat as the single most cause of the dire state of our planet. Indeed, meat is on the menu for the delegates.
According to Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist, when you eat a steak, you kill a lemur in Madagascar. You eat a chicken, you kill an Amazonian parrot. This is because rainforests are being decimated and converted to pasture and feed crops to meet the increasing demand for meat and dairy. Between 2001 and 2020, a total of 411 million hectares was lost globally. Livestock farming uses up 85% of the land.
Biodiversity is essential for oxygen production, water filtration, nutrient recycling, soil generation, pollination and seed dispersal, without which we would not survive. The very foundations of economics, livelihood, food security, health and quality of life is dependent on that…
In Brazil, 175 thousand hectares of land are dedicated to raising cattle; this is an area of land equal to the entire agricultural area of the European Union. Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon during the first half of 2022 broke all records. It was 80% larger than the same period in 2018. The raising of beef cattle for the American market and the growing of soya and other cereals to feed the cattle drive this destruction of the rainforests.
The faeces of animals and blood seep into rivers and oceans and create dead zones where nothing survives. 20 livestock companies are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than Germany, Britain and France put together. The global livestock industry contributes 14.5% of human produced greenhouse gas emissions—more than all cars, planes and trains.
There are, at any time, four times more chickens than human beings on the planet. One billion chickens are eaten in the UK every year. Phosphates are found in chicken feed and they get released in chicken manure. It is a major killer of rivers. Over 16 million animals are trapped in cages all over the UK at any one time.
What we have done to the land we are doing to rivers and oceans. Trillions of fish are killed and along with that the huge trawlers used for fishing are killing all marine life like whales and dolphins. Mangrove forests that act as a buffer in a tsunami are dying. Coral reefs are perishing too…
We are witnessing the sixth mass extinction of all mammals on earth. Billions of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians have been lost all over the planet. A million more species are at risk of extinction. All because of human beings’ lust for meat… COP27 will be another failure if it fails to decree that human beings must abandon meat, fish, eggs and dairy to save the planet. Future generations will not forgive us if we do not. SOURCE…
RELATED VIDEO: