Podcast: Play in new window | Download
My livestream conversation with Eunice Wong, writer, activist, vegan and actor on Real Progressives
Category Archives: Climate Change
What’s Wrong with “Environmental Veganism”?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Here is the video from which the podcast episode is taken.
I touch on many issues in this hour long video. Some of the issues are a discussion on what veganism is, and what it is not; What are the problems with the notion of “humane” animal farming; and the environmental impacts of animal farming. My theme overall is looking at the problems associated with promoting “environmental veganism”, and if this humancentric focus just reinforces our speciesism.
Feel free to leave comments in the comments section and on my Facebook page @VeganTroveExtra.
For more info:
My podcast: How To Go Vegan Podcast: A Comprehensive Vegan Resource in Podcast form
“Humane” What’s in a Word
“Humane” Farming
Apocalyptic Capitalism | Chris Hedges
“Organic” milk from “What’s Wrong with Vegetarianism?”
The Myth of Eco-Friendly Animal Products | Gentle World
NutritionFacts.org
Some Unseen Consequences of Not Being Vegan (Pt 1)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
An account of a conversation I had recently with someone who was not vegan. And also a discussion about just a few of the unseen consequences of our society not being vegan. A bit of a ramble 😉 
Holiday Season: The Trials, Tribulations and the Opportunities
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
In episode 27, It’s a mixed bag 🙂 I talk about a number of topics. How the holiday season can be difficult for vegans but it doesn’t have to be. I share tips about how to survive it and how to help spread veganism at this time. I discuss the massive bee die-off globally and how if we are not vegan, we are participating in this. I speak about other causes of this massive bee die off including GMOs, pesticides, and honey production and our part in this. I discuss climate change again in relation to animal agriculture and how independent news and individuals from large green organisations virtually ignore animal agriculture’s tremendous contribution and a number of other miscellaneous issues. I talk about generosity.
Here’s the full essay by Chris Hedges “Apocalyptic Capitalism“.
Here’s an excerpt:
The animal agriculture industry has, in a staggering act of near total censorship, managed to stifle public discussion about the industry’s complicity in global warming. It is barely mentioned in climate summits. Yet livestock and their byproducts, as Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn point out in their book, “The Sustainability Secret,” and their documentary, “Cowspiracy,” account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51 percent of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Methane and nitrous oxide are rarely mentioned in climate talks, although those two greenhouse gases are, as the authors point out, respectively, 86 times and 296 times more destructive than carbon dioxide. Cattle, worldwide, they write, produce 150 billion gallons of methane daily. And 65 percent of the nitrous oxide produced by human-related activities is caused by the animal agriculture industry. Water used in fracking, they write, ranges from 70 billion to 140 billion gallons annually. Animal agriculture water consumption, the book notes, ranges from 34 trillion to 76 trillion gallons annually. Raising animals for human consumption takes up to 45 percent of the planet’s land. Ninety-one percent of the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest and up to 80 percent of global rain forest loss are caused by clearing land for the grazing of livestock and growing feed crops for meat and dairy animals. As more and more rain forest disappears, the planet loses one of its primary means to safely sequester carbon dioxide. The animal agriculture industry is, as Andersen and Kuhn write, also a principal cause of species extinction and the creation of more than 95,000 square miles of nitrogen-flooded dead zones in the oceans.
A person who eats a vegan diet, they point out, a diet free of meat, dairy and eggs, saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square feet of forested land, 20 pounds CO2 equivalent, and one animal’s life every day.
The animal agriculture industry has pushed through “Ag-Gag” laws in many states that criminalize protests, critiques of the industry, and whistleblowing attempts to bring the public’s attention to the staggering destruction wrought on the environment by the business of raising 70 billion land animals every year worldwide to be exploited and consumed by humans. And they have done so, I presume, because defying the animal agriculture industry is as easy as deciding not to put animal products—which have tremendous, scientifically proven health risks—into your mouth.
We have little time left. Those who are despoiling the earth do so for personal gain, believing they can use their privilege to escape the fate that will befall the human species. We may not be able to stop the assault. But we can refuse to abet it. The idols of power and greed, as the biblical prophets warned us, threaten to doom the human race.
Bob Linden on GoVeganRadio.com (Listen here) speaks about Syria and how climate change has played a major part in the unrest there. So if we are not vegan, we are in part participating in the dire situation for Syrians.
Here is the Facebook page “My Face is on Fire” I mention.
Here’s a link to the book I mentioned “Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach“.
Please read my full disclaimer about external links, organisations, groups, social media pages, individuals etc.
Here’s the excerpt from 3 reasons not to eat honey:
While you may spread a heaping tablespoon of honey on your morning toast without thinking, creating each drop is no small feat. To make one pound of honey, a colony must visit over two million flowers, flying over 55,000 miles, at up to 15 miles per hour to do so. During a bee’s lifetime, she will only make approximately one teaspoon of honey, which is essential to the hive for times when nectar is scarce, such as during winter. At times there may be an excess in the hive, but this amount is difficult to determine and large-scale beekeepers often remove all or most of it and replace it with a sugar or corn syrup substitute. Can you imagine someone removing all the fruit juice from your house and replacing it with fruit-flavored soda? It may still give you energy, but eventually it will probably make you sick.
Another thing to think about while you sit by your beeswax candle and contemplate the lives of these little fellows is that bees must consume approximately eight pounds of honey to produce each pound of wax! And the more we take from them (bee pollen, royal jelly, propolis) the harder these creatures must work and the more bees are needed, which isn’t good news for a population that is dwindling.
When you see a jar of honey, you may think of the sweet cartoon hives depicted in childhood stories such as Winnie the Pooh. But most hives are now confined to large boxes (a completely foreign shape to bees) that are jostled and shipped around the country to pollinate crops and produce honey. This is stressful and confusing to the bees’ natural navigation systems. Along the way, bees are lost and killed, and may spread diseases from one infected hive to another. The practice of bee farming often limits the bees’ diet to monoculture crops (*hint hint* blueberry, clover, lavender honey), introduces large amounts of pesticides into their systems and causes the farmed bees to crowd out the native wild pollinators that may have been otherwise present. Beekeepers (even small-scale backyard beekeepers) will also kill the queens if they feel the hive is in danger of swarming (fleeing their file cabinet shaped homes) or drones* that they deem unnecessary to honey production.
Thanks for listening. 🙂 Please tune in again and please subscribe to my podcast. And if you’re not vegan, it’s much easier than you think. Please start here.
No one Left to Remember, No one To Tell.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
This Earth will grow cold,
A star among stars
and one of the smallest,
A gilded mote on blue velvet-
I mean this, one great Earth.
This Earth will grow cold one day,
not like a block of ice
or a dead cloud even
but like an empty walnut
It will roll along
In pitch-black space.
You must grieve for this right now –
You have to feel this sorrow now –
For the world must be loved this much
If you’re going to say “I lived”
Nazim Hikmet (Excerpt poem “On Living” Feb, 1948
———————————————————–
I’m not one for making dramatic statements at all but for the last few years I’ve been reading various (non-sugar coated) scientific reports on climate change, and in view of the dire reports on methane emissions escaping the East Siberian Arctic shelf (I’ll get to that shortly), as well as the sixth mass extinction which is currently underway — I think it’s pretty clear that our brief time as a species on this planet is coming to an end and soon. I think some of my friends probably think I’m far too pessimistic when it comes to what I -and some others- see as near-term human extinction but that’s OK. I don’t really mention it much any more because I don’t think most people want to hear it or think about it. Most of us know on some level something terrible is going to befall us as a species but most think it’s going happen toward the end of the century. On the rare occasion I have raised the issue of near-term human extinction to anyone, they either go quiet, glaze over and it goes into a black hole, or they say to me: “No I think it’s going to be very bad for our children and their children.” Have you had that experience? Some people just don’t want to think about it and that’s understandable. But at the same time if we had a terminal disease, wouldn’t we want to know? I would. I think it’s important that we are at least given the information. Of course we are all terminal because we are organic organisms and we are all impermanent 😉 but what’s been happening in the Arctic in recent years puts a different light on everything. What it means is that most likely none of us will get to live out our natural lives – however long that might have been for each of us individually. What it means is that everything, the “history”, music, books and so forth, every trace of humans will vanish. Even the huge pile of swirling plastic in the ocean will vanish eventually. Eventually the pyramids will vanish, Stonehenge will vanish, there will be very little trace of us. There will be no one left to remember, or to tell.
If one looks at the most recent (non-sugar-coated) scientific information coming out in recent years about METHANE emissions, particularly research on methane emissions from the EAST SIBERIAN ARCTIC SHELF, one really has to be in some kind of major denial to think this is not going to be apocalyptic for all species on the planet including ours. One has to be in some kind of major denial to believe scientists will be able to “fix it”, or that corporate-dominated government has any intention of addressing it let alone being able to “fix it”. I think we’ve just seen too many Hollywood films, too many Hollywood heroes saving the day. Sadly there will no miracle fix. There will be no miracle geo-engineering that will save us. There will be no Rapture. There will be no time or the capability of colonising another planet. There will be no bunker big enough or resourced enough to last over a few 1000 years or more. There will be no extra-terrestrial intervention on our behalf. Jesus will not be returning to save us. There will be no hero. There will be no one who will be able to save us from ourselves and what is –in all likelihood — going to happen. And even if all GHG emissions stopped tomorrow, it is literally too late. It was too late in 2000. Sadly it’s true as Pulitzer prize recipient and (ethical) vegan Chris Hedges said in his essay “This time we’re taking the whole planet with us.” We have managed to do what the inhabitants of Easter Island did before their civilisation collapsed except we have done it on a global scale. Of course the planet will still go on without us. New, diverse and different species will evolve once again in a few million years and the planet will thrive once more, but just *without us*. And I suppose that’s where the silver lining is. Let’s be honest, our human species as a whole (I’m sure some would agree) is clearly dysfunctional and inherently violent. Putting aside how appallingly we treat one another (perpetual wars, rape, incest, paedophilia, stealing each other’s resources, imprisoning, oppressing the vulnerable based on race, sexual orientation, gender etc, murdering each other and so forth), look at what we have been doing to 100s of billions of nonhuman individuals each year whom we have bred into existence for totally trivial reasons to be used as food, clothing, entertainment etc. And those we haven’t domesticated, we hunt, torture, imprison or murder. But as I said there’s a silver lining, even when talking about our own species extinction. When we are gone, future nonhumans will not have to experience our violence anymore.
About these vids I’m sharing (please watch here) :
and
Climate Change: Have We Reached the Point of No Return?
The first is from the Lima Peru climate conference. It talks about the millions of square miles under the East Siberian Arctic shelf which is CURRENTLY releasing large amounts of methane due to the melting of the ice. There’s 500 to 5000 GIGATONS of methane under the shelf. (A gigaton is one billion tons). Even if only 1 to 2% of the #methane under the East Siberian #Arctic shelf was released – which can easily occur as the sea continues to warm – we will see a catastrophic increase in global temperatures e.g 5 degrees to 8 degrees Celsius. That would be an increase from 440ppm (as it is now I believe) to 800 – 1000ppm which is untenable for life. Sadly the vid also contains some unrealistic “hopium” toward the end on how we can possibly prevent this. Of course they say it would require global co-operation and a cessation of fossil fuel use, but since drives to increase fossil fuel exploration and drilling are increasing continually, any cessation is unlikely, not to mention that most of us continue to consume animal products (I’ll address that issue later).
What many of us don’t realise is that what we are experiencing now in relation to global warming was put in place around 40 years ago. That’s the lag time. In 2000, it was – to be frank – all over for us. Some serious action needed to be taken in the mid ’70s, early ’80s. In 2007 the Clathrate gun was fired ( read Malcolm Light’s 2013 report). Now we are in a state of RUNAWAY GLOBAL WARMING. And thanks to government and mainstream media ( both owned by corporations) we won’t be talking about this much or doing much at all. Just token gestures, future promises, meagre efforts, more protests, unending futile conferences held by bloated environmental organisations (also funded by corporations). And this is why we will most likely be extinct in the next 2 or 3 decades because as a species we are unable to work together, or grasp what is occurring. I mean people in my own state can’t even stop using plastic bags when asked, even though they understand the consequences. As a species we are unable to act as a group. On the whole we are inherently selfish animals. And we are clearly ruled by an oligarchy whom – in their hubris – very mistakenly think they will be immune to the collapse.
We think in a blinkered way about global warming. We often hear the prediction that it will be our children and their children who will suffer greatly, but no, it will be much sooner than that if we pay attention to the science and what is happening *right now*. And what is particularly sad for me as a vegan is that we are not even really all that concerned over nonhuman extinction, except in relation to how it effects us and that we won’t have these animals to look at for our own entertainment. That’s how dysfunctional we are. Most of us don’t even care about the 99.99% of the planet’s population who are nonhuman and that their lives and their home is being destroyed.
In any event, human extinction (and most other species extinction) will most likely occur as early as the next 3 decades and the lead up to total industrial civilisation collapse will be apocalyptic: more resource wars, widespread food and water shortages (already happening now), widespread severe and unending drought (already happening now), plagues, more catastrophic climate events, prolonged extreme temperatures (already happening now), till eventually toward the end temperatures will be so severe that plant life will not be able to survive it and we (humans and non-humans) will starve.
Did you ever think when you were young, that you would be here to witness the end of our species?
I have to mention the failing which accompanies any climate change presentation — the elephant in the room — and that is the omission of the issue of animal agriculture and human overpopulation. Animal agriculture contributes at least 51% of greenhouse gases. Let’s consider that “a person who is vegan will save 1,100 gallons of water, 20 pounds CO2 equivalent, 30 square feet of forested land, 45 pounds of grain and at least one sentient animal’s life every day” (from Hedges’ essay “Saving the Planet One Meal at a Time”). So if we stopped consuming animal products we would not only be reducing our tremendous contribution to climate change, but we would end our participation in the tremendous violence against non-human animals, that latter being more important. So although we won’t see any real action any time soon (if ever) from corporate-dominated government, there is something we can all personally do right now. Our actions will not prevent the inevitable, but becoming vegan (not only adopting a plant-based diet, but eschewing all forms of animal use) certainly is the morally right thing to do for other sentient beings. ( Please read this Hedges essay “Saving the Planet One Meal at a Time” and “Apocalyptic Capitalism)
The other elephant in the room is human overpopulation. We are in overshoot and collapse. No matter what is done to mitigate climate change, if human populations keep increasing as they do (362,000 babies born per day according the UN), then it will make no difference what is done. And it doesn’t look like anything at all is being done to even discuss the issue of human overpopulation, let alone address it. In fact we just continue breeding and it’s business as usual.
Finally it’s our choice if we want to ingest the “hopium” put out by media, governments, conservative and corporate funded scientists and even those who present this video. I guess if we need to have hope that it won’t go as badly as is described here, then that’s what we need to do. We all deal with these issues differently. We can either decide to cruise along and ignore it or downplay it, or we can face it, think about what it means, and adjust our life accordingly. If we haven’t already we can find what’s meaningful in our lives, enjoy each and every moment, do our best to be kind to others and continue to push for justice.
I’ll share three other videos on this topic which are quite good. The first presentation
explains the science for the everyday person. It’s a year or so old now. You can skip the first 5 minutes.
Here’s Part 2 of The Arctic Methane Monster’s Rapid Rise
https://youtu.be/L19JBY0kNmo
And here’s one more from a couple of years ago which is very thorough
Please watch to the end including Q&A. Here’s the report by scientist Malcolm Light “The Non-Disclosed Extreme Arctic Methane Threat” Dec 2013
Anyway, I don’t know how many of you have been made aware of this information over time, but I felt like sharing this little spiel.
For more information:
Watch here “The Paris Agreement Will See the Planet Burn”: Former Bolivian Climate Negotiator Pablo Solón”
Watch here “The myth of human progress” by Chris Hedges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAo7ky1kq-Q
Here’s another : Mass Extinction: It’s the End of the World as We Know It
If you’re not vegan, please consider becoming vegan. It’s much easier than you think. It’s better for us and for the planet and if we truly claim that we want to lead a nonviolent life, then it’s the least we can be. Please start here.
Disclaimer: Please note I do not necessarily endorse opinions, links or ads on external sites or by persons presented in this blog
VT Podcast Ep 3: Do We Value Our Taste Buds Over Our Own Species’ survival?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Welcome friends to my third podcast episode. I was going to focus on a number of issues in this episode, but essay by Chris Hedges (Pulitzer Prize recipient) came to my attention titled “Saving the Planet: One Meal at a Time” I thought I would discuss some of the aspects of this essay. 🙂
Here’s an excerpt:
“Animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all worldwide transportation combined—cars, trucks, trains, ships and planes.3 Livestock and their waste and flatulence account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51 percent of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.4 Livestock causes 65 percent of all emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 296 times more destructive than carbon dioxide.5 Crops grown for livestock feed consume 56 percent of the water used in the United States.6 Eighty percent of the world’s soy crop is fed to animals, and most of this soy is grown on cleared lands that were once rain forests. All this is taking place as an estimated 6 million children across the planet die each year from starvation and as hunger and malnutrition affect an additional 1 billion people.7 In the United States 70 percent of the grain we grow goes to feed livestock raised for consumption.8
The natural resources used to produce even minimal amounts of animal products are staggering—1,000 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of milk.9 Add to this the massive clear cutting and other destruction of forests, especially in the Amazon—where forest destruction has risen to 91 percent10—and we find ourselves lethally despoiling the lungs of the earth largely for the benefit of the animal agriculture industry. Our forests, especially our rain forests, absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and exchange it for oxygen: Killing the forests is a death sentence for the planet. Land devoted exclusively to raising livestock now represents 45 percent of the earth’s land mass.11
And this does not include the assault on the oceans, where three-quarters of the world’s primary fisheries have been overexploited and vast parts of the seas are in danger of becoming dead zones.”
I speak about the so-called “Ag Gag” laws and the problem with focusing on animal agribusiness instead of addressing public demand for animal use. I speak also about the problems with promoting welfare reform and the problems associated with large animal organisations and their undercover investigations. I touch on a few other issues as well briefly.
Thanks for listening. I look forward to your company again. 🙂
Disclaimer: Although I mention various individuals or sites in my podcasts, please note I do not necessarily endorse these individuals, or opinions, links or ads. Please view my disclaimer
Vegan Trove Podcast Episode 2: Speciesism and Other Forms of Discrimination
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Welcome again friends. 🙂 In Episode 2, I briefly touch on some of the topics covered in my 1st podcast. I explore some quotes, articles and interviews and include some of the audio.
Excerpt of transcript of Russell Brand / Paxman interview on BBC’s Newsnight:
Jeremy Paxman: Well, how do you have any authority to talk about politics then?
Russell Brand: Well, I don’t get my authority from this pre-existing paradigm which is quite narrow and only serves a few people. I look elsewhere for alternatives that might be of service to humanity. Alternative means alternative political systems.
Jeremy Paxman: They being?
Russell Brand: Well, I’ve not invented it yet, Jeremy. I had to do a magazine last week. I’ve had a lot on my plate. But I say—but here’s the thing that you shouldn’t do: shouldn’t destroy the planet, shouldn’t create massive economic disparity, shouldn’t ignore the needs of the people. The burden of proof is on the people with the power, not people who like doing a magazine for a novelty.
Jeremy Paxman: How do you imagine that people get power?
Russell Brand: Well, I imagine there are sort of hierarchical systems that have been preserved through generations—
Jeremy Paxman: They get power by being voted in. That’s how they get it.
Russell Brand: Well, you say that, Jeremy, but like—
Jeremy Paxman: You can’t even be asked to vote.
RUSSELL BRAND: It’s quite narrow—quite a narrow prescriptive parameter that changes within the—
JEREMY PAXMAN: In a democracy, that’s how it works.
RUSSELL BRAND: Well, I don’t think it’s working very well, Jeremy, given that the planet is being destroyed, given that there is economic disparity of a huge degree. What you’re saying, there’s no alternative. There’s no alternative, just this system.
Jeremy Paxman: No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying—
Russell Brand: Brilliant.
Jeremy Paxman: —if you can’t be asked to vote, why should we be asked to listen to your political point of view?
Russell Brand: You don’t have to listen to my political point of view. But it’s not that I’m not voting out of apathy. I’m not voting out of absolute indifference and weariness and exhaustion from the lies, treachery, deceit of the political class that has been going on for generations now and which has now reached fever pitch, where we have a disenfranchised, disillusioned, despondent underclass that are not being represented by that political system. So, voting for it is tacit complicity with that system, and that’s not something I’m offering up.
Jeremy Paxman: Why don’t you change it then?
Russell Brand: I’m trying to.
I touch on the problems of large animal charities ignoring the solution to animal “cruelty” and more importantly the solution to abolishing animal use (Veganism), and I expand on a topic I broached last week about the ecological disaster that is animal agriculture and its contribution to species extinction and climate change and how green groups ignore its contribution and why, and I touch on a number of diverse miscellaneous issues.
This 2nd podcast is again a tad long (approx 45 minutes) but I think you might find it interesting. Episode 3 will (hopefully) be in the next 2 or 3 weeks if time permits (I’m very busy till the new year).
As well as subscribing to this site for updates, please join “Vegan Trove” on Facebook for future podcast updates 
Disclaimer: Although I mention various individuals or sites in my podcasts, please note I do not necessarily endorse these individuals, or opinions, links or ads. Please view my disclaimer: http://www.vegantrove.com/disclaimer/
Please note episodes are now available on iTunes.
Thanks for listening. I look forward to having the pleasure of your company next time.
For more information:
On the Environmental Disaster of Animal Agriculture | UVE Archives
Vegan Trove Podcast Episode 1: Introduction
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Welcome to my first podcast. In episode 1. You can find my Vegan Trove Podcast on iTunes.
I meander through a number of topics related to abolitionist veganism. I talk a little about my Facebook page stalling in relation to Facebook algorithms, and in response to that I started a Vegan Trove site to host my podcasts and my other vegan education resources.
I’m an abolitionist vegan. You may ask what is the difference between a vegan and an abolitionist vegan? I talk a little about that. Here’s a brief description: Abolitionist veganism is an ethical position that rejects the property status of animals. It rejects the notion that it is morally justifiable to use animals as long as they are used “humanely”. Vegans reject using animals for food, clothing, entertainment or other reasons to the best of our ability.
I talk also briefly about why abolitionist veganism rejects single issue campaigns, and I touch on the problems of large animal charities promoting the misleading idea that being vegan is “extreme”, “purist” or “hard”.
I talk a little about the myth of the “ex-vegan”. I argue that they were never vegan to begin with.
I speak briefly about the ecological disaster that is animal agriculture and according to a growing amount of evidence, it greatly contributes to climate change. I mention how our animal product consumption is greatly contributing to the sixth mass extinction which is taking place now and how animal agriculture is responsible for millions upon millions of deaths of “wildlife” each year. And I touch on a few miscellaneous issues.
This first podcast is little rough and a tad long but I think you might find it interesting. My next episode will be in the next 2 or 3 weeks if time permits (I’m very busy till the new year), and will probably be more structured.
If you’re wondering what the chiming is in the background, I live in Tasmania on a beautiful bay. They are large wind chimes and it’s a windy day 🙂
As well as subscribing to this site for updates, please join “Vegan Trove” on Facebook for future podcast updates 🙂 I apologise for any inconvenience as this page is under construction.
Disclaimer: Although I mention various individuals or sites in my podcasts, please note I do not necessarily endorse these individuals, or opinions, links or ads. Please view my disclaimer: http://www.vegantrove.com/disclaimer/
Thanks for listening. I look forward to having the pleasure of your company next time. 🙂 Please note these podcasts will be available on iTunes shortly. I will post a link when they are ready.
For more info:
Facebook Is Throttling Nonprofits and Activists
Google is not what it seems | Julian Assange
Facebook Puts Everyone On Notice About The Death Of Organic Reach
Facebook Zero: Considering Life After the Demise of Organic Reach