Evironmentalists hypocrisy

theist · March 18, 2007

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You Call Yourself a Progressive, But You Still Eat Meat?

BY: STAFF CORRESPONDENT (Sampraya Sun)

Mar 17, USA (HPI) —

Eating a plant-based diet is an easy, cheap way to end animal cruelty and clean up the environment. Why, then, are so many progressives still clinging to their chicken nuggets? The report released this week by the world's leading climate scientists made no bones about it: Global warming is happening in a big way and it is very likely manmade. The U.N. report that came out soon after made a critical point: "The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." And yet, so many environmentalists continue to eat meat. Why?

Being part of the solution can be a whole lot simpler - and cheaper - than going out and buying a new hybrid. We can make a huge difference in the environment simply by eating a plant-based diet instead of an animal-based one. Factory farming pollutes our air and water, reduces the rainforests, and goes a long way to create global warming. Yet for some environmentalists, the idea of giving up those chicken nuggets is still hard to swallow.

The author, in this long article, responds to a number of arguments one usually hears against vegetarianism such as: can one thrive physically on a vegetarian diet, the rain forests are being cut down to grow soy beans, it's "natural" for people to eat animals because humans have always done so, where does one draw the line - should we protect insects and the number one justification for eating meat - meat won't kill me, and I like it.

He writes, "We are a nation of animal lovers, and we all cringe in horror when we hear about cases like a dog being burned alive or tossed into freeway traffic. But chickens and pigs and other animals also deserve our compassion. They are all smart animals who feel pain and fear, yet they are treated just horribly, and sadly, there are no laws to protect them. We oppose sweatshops and child labor, and we cringe at the thought of children laboring in developing countries. But American slaughterhouses are sweatshops. They employ people working illegally who can't defend themselves out of fear of being deported.

Conditions in these places are so bad that the average annual turnover rate for slaughter-line workers is out of sight. You may be an environmentalist, and cringe when you see a bright yellow Hummer in the grocery store parking lot. But regardless of the amount of fuel that a Hummer uses or the amount of greenhouse gasses that it emits, if we're eating meat, we're making a conscious decision that is even more wasteful and polluting."

For additional educational websites explaining the environmental and political role of vegetarianism, please visit

Alternet.org

.

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