Saturday, February 13, 2010
Sara Kaffashi - Environmental Economist in Southeast Asia
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sara-Kaffashi/289976778037
167.9
Post Quality
That's 169.9 on a TYPICAL scale of 1 to 5.
Labels: advocacy, agriculture, Asia, comparative-effectiveness, ecology, economics, economy, ecosystem, education, global, international, Iran, Middle-East, survival, sustainability, vegetarian, warming, water, young-adults
Friday, January 29, 2010
World Day for the Abolition of Meat
It's global.
World Day for the Abolition of Meat
- The next World Day for the Abolition of Meat will be held on 30th January 2010 (Saturday).
- This day is intended as a means of promoting the idea of abolishing the murder of animals for food. Worldwide six million sentient beings are killed for their meat every hour!
- That figure doesn't even count the fish and other sea animals, which of course are included in the demand for the abolition of meat.
- Meat consumption causes more suffering and death than any other human activity and is completely unnecessary.
- Many groups will mobilize to promote the abolition of meat (and other animal products). They will not only advocate vegetarianism and veganism to individuals but will call for society to abandon the practice of killing animals for food. We hope that this initiative will strengthen the animal rights movement over the years.
- It is important to address people not only as consumers but also as citizens like the anti-slavery activists who, although only a small minority, not only sought a boycott of sugar produced by slaves but also clearly expressed the idea that slavery should be banned.
It is important today to question society as a whole about the murder of animals for food so that it can no longer avoid a public debate on the legitimacy of this practice.
On 30 January conferences, street actions, leafleting, and information stands will be organized to spread the idea that the consumption of meat cannot be justified ethically and should therefore be abolished just as human slavery was in its time.
On 30 January conferences, street actions, leafleting, and information stands will be organized to spread the idea that the consumption of meat cannot be justified ethically and should therefore be abolished just as human slavery was in its time.
You CREATE an event. Have you created an event where you are?
I suggest a do-it-yourself event like a barrage of any set of media sources with carefully-crafted e-mail messages about how meat is needless, tastes for meet can be satisfied TODAY with other foods (and in vitro meat is in the offing, which means that even carnivorous animals can have food without killing other animals - in the foreseeable future; no ETA is yet available), and a world without animal agriculture is the kinder, gentler world that the survival and development of human life requires.
That simple rationale can be endorsed by all dietary vegans without violating any humans 'rights' or claims or preferences or socially-conditioned tastes, which I think is ALL that most resistance to the abolition of animal agriculture is about.
Labels: abolition, abolitionism, abolitionist, advocacy, agriculture, ahimsa, animal rights, animal-rights, bioethics, ethics, food, vegan, veganism
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Our Planet Weekly - Week of September 27th, 2009
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Labels: agriculture, ecology, energy, environment, health, species, vegan, vegetarian
Monday, August 31, 2009
Believing Untruths - The Dangerous Lack of Critical Thinking
Monday, August 31, 2009
Believing Untruths - The Dangerous Lack of Critical Thinking
Sharon Begley has written an important essay in Newsweek, “Lies of Mass Destruction,” that every educator should read. Begley explores the strange, but ubiquitous, tendency of people to believe untruths even when there is massive evidence to contradict them. Whether it’s the persistent belief among many that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, or the current beliefs about “death panels” (among other misinformation) in the pending health care reform proposals, we humans consistently believe things that simply are not true.At the risk of raising the ire of my readers who believe in many unsupported things (and I’m not naming any of these for fear of inciting that ire), I can only say that Begley has just touched the tip of the iceberg. We believe in countless unfounded, unproven, even preposterous ideas and religious dogmas (not to mention what might make for good scifi or fairy tales), and many of us don’t even flinch when we present these unfounded beliefs as truth and seek to proselytize.
One of my favorite bumper stickers reads: “Don’t let your mind be so open your brain falls out.” I worry that between the poles of open-mindedness and close-mindedness (often resulting in the same sorts of beliefs in untruths), there lies a vast arena that we are failing to cultivate: critical thinking.
Critical thinking was a hot button subject in the 90s, and every school was eager to ensure it was teaching this skill. Now it’s been relegated by many “back to basics” proponents as soft, liberal, untestable and far less important that passing those standardized tests.
But it is dangerous to neglect critical thinking. An inability to access information critically, especially in an Internet age of massive information and misinformation, leads to an inability to participate honestly and realistically in a democracy.
In the 20th century, a few dystopian novels, such as Brave New World and 1984, exposed the danger of mass thought. Ironically, there are plenty of people who believe silly things who consider themselves disciples of such books, whether on the left or the right. They may believe in unfounded conspiracies or false information, perceiving themselves as the true critical thinkers and the rest of us as duped.
The only solution I see to this pervasive tendency among people is to commit fully and wholeheartedly to cultivating critical thinking and inculcating healthy skepticism among youth. Yes, it means they may question their parents beliefs. Yes, it means they may question their teachers. Yes, it means they may question entrenched institutions and systems. It also means they may question peer pressure, advertisers’ unhealthy manipulations, and the health value of their cafeteria food (I just had to throw that in).
If we teach the next generation to be deep and hard-working thinkers, we will give them perhaps the most important skill people need to create healthy, productive, fair and just societies and systems.
~ Zoe Weil
Image courtesy of rossgram via Creative Commons.
Labels: agriculture, comparative effectiveness, critical thinking, development, education, ethics, philosophy, school, teaching, thinking
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Harvard University Green Tip of the Month - July 2009
A nice green tip from the Office for Sustainability...
----- Original Message -----
| This is the campus-wide Harvard University Green Tip of the Month. Having trouble reading this newsletter? Click here to see it in your browser. |
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 | Eat Less Meat!
Industrial meat production, especially beef, accounts for 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions* (from the entire meat production cycle). Pick up some vegetarian ingredients at a local farmer's market, including three near Harvard:
Or find a market near you: http://www.massfarmersmarkets.org * United Nations (September 2008) "Livestock production alone contributes to 18 percent of the global warming effect - more than the emissions from every single car, train, and plane on the planet. Though livestock production only contributes 9 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, the sector is responsible for 37 percent of methane and 65 percent of nitrous oxide, both potent greenhouse gases." http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.htm Setting the Record Straight 
It is healthy to be vegetarian. Studies have shown that vegetarians (who follow a well-balanced, low-fat, high-fiber diet) often have lower incidences of coronary artery disease, hypertension, obesity and some forms of cancer. Your Actions Add Up!
If every Harvard affiliate replaced one average daily diet containing meat with one vegetarian meal a week, we would Prevent 14 million pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. That's like taking 1,280 cars off the road! Resources
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Labels: agriculture, diet, ecology, economics, economy, eden, environment, food, global-warming, green, Harvard, intervention, nutrition, pollution, prevention, survival, sustainability, vegan, vegetarian
