Hey unicorn planet hugger. Wanna great earth friendly tip? Go vegan! Even if only for a day. Save the animals, the oxygen, the water, oil, soil, etc. FYI: there’s more protein per calorie in broccoli that there is in that T-bone. I’m just saying! Ok, so today’s video is my first “Ask Kris” segment. yeah! You ask questions, I answer said questions. And if you have a question for my next segment, lay it on me here tootsie! If I don’t know the answer, you can bet your sweet buns I’m only an email or phone call away from a fantabulous expert who does! Hunting knowledge is my personal pass time/obsession. In fact, knowledge is the only things we should be hunting.
As I sit on a beautiful hotel terrace in Beverly Hills, drenched in early morning sun and awaiting what is sure to be an immaculate breakfast, I ponder the blue carpet walk of the long-anticipated Disney premiere of Oceans in Hollywood. Walking alongside some very notable people, as well as some of the foremost ocean champions, was a thrill for sure and the event itself gained much needed attention for our water planet.
That said, I couldn’t help but feel that there was a slight disconnect with the reporters and onlookers. It seemed the overall message of ocean reverie the film carries was overshadowed by the public’s desire to get a glimpse of the silver screen elite. Don’t get me wrong, it was a well-planned and wonderfully executed event. I believe the problem simply comes from the public’s disconnect with our oceans. More specifically, there still seems to be a general lack of concern about our one and only life support system, our planet.
Confusion over the complicated facts surrounding topics such as climate change, over-consumption of natural resources, and pollution has muddled the urgent message that we are in serious trouble. Only when the path is clear and concise can we envision what needs to be done to ensure that our progeny will inherit a healthy planet.
With that said, if we act quickly as a global society, we stand a good chance of steering away from the bow of disaster. When faced with difficult challenges, human beings have the amazing capacity to perform miracles. It is time for us all to roll up our sleeves and do what needs to be done—in all aspects of our lives—regardless of the perceived cost or inconvenience. If we do not, the cost of indifference and inaction will be far greater.
The good news is that there are many examples of little actions we can each take in our everyday lives that cumulatively make a big difference. Like rain, individual drops united can fill an ocean.
Although we’ve already marked the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, action can—and should—be taken every day. What better benchmark to celebrate the earth and the inheritance for our children than to make a commitment to change our bad habits? It is time for us to stop living on the planet and start living with the planet.
Here are five easy things you can do:
1) Be proactive about what bothers and affects you: start a community effort and work towards change.
2) Use social media to get the word out: Facebook, Twitter, and the like make spreading knowledge easier than ever.
3) Get the local school to start a green garden program or an ocean campaign.
4) Find alternatives to the toxic chemicals you dump down the sink or on the lawn; not only are there great natural products on the market, it is easy to make your own using simple, non-toxic household items.
5) Encourage friends, family, neighbors, the local community, and the local government to become better stewards of our one and only life support system—the earth!
Who among us hasn’t heard it before? You don’t need to be a foodie to have read that we ought to be eating more locally-grown foods in order to reduce our carbon footprint. And I couldn’t agree more.
But the question of eating ethically involves a lot more than just questioning how many miles our food had to travel to get to our plates. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people proudly say, “I buy local meat,” implying that their meat (or eggs or dairy) didn’t come from a factory farm.
Don’t get me wrong. I applaud any effort people make to avoid supporting factory farms. It’s imperative that we reduce the suffering of animals raised for food. But we can’t ignore the thorny issue that factory farms aren’t just “out there” in a faraway land. All factory farms are local to somewhere.
Case in point: This past month, Mercy for Animals released an investigation of a “family-owned” egg factory farm located in Turner, Maine. The results were gruesome: dead and live hens confined in the same cage, birds packed into cages where they could barely move an inch their whole lives, and workers kicking the animals as if they were mere footballs.
Is it possible that some Maine egg consumers felt good about buying these eggs just because they were produced locally? How easy it would be not to look beyond the fact that they were local eggs and not consider the suffering of the animals and degradation of the, yes, local environment.
On Earth Day, those who even make the association between the food they eat and the well-being of the planet are already ahead of the game. Indeed, they’re ahead of some of the leaders of the anti-global warming movement. But while local is certainly an important factor to weigh, other factors such as animal welfare, resource efficiency, and the local environment are also critical.
One way to work toward addressing all these issues is to choose more plant-based meals with an emphasis on local produce. Raising animals for food is extremely resource-inefficient, contributes enormously to global warming, and often causes cruelty few us would ever want to witness.
And fortunately, the number of restaurants catering to vegetarian-oriented diners has never been higher, making it easier than ever to live and let live every time we sit down to eat. There’s also an abundance of free recipes online diverse enough to keep even the most variety-hungry of us satiated.
So this Earth Day, let’s keep local on our minds. But, let’s not be lured into thinking that simply being local means something is ethical.
Paul Shapiro is the senior director of The Humane Society of the United States’ factory farming campaign. When he isn’t waging campaigns to protect farm animals, he can be found lifting weights, drinking vegan smoothies, and listening to C-SPAN radio on a lawn chair in the sun.
