Comments timgorski has made

Diesel Hybrids

What about the new Diesel Hybrids?On We can all just get along posted 3 years, 2 months ago 2 Responses

connections

Let me start by saying that this discussion is important and invigorating. I hope we are all listening to each other and not simply making our points. I truly believe all movements, especially AR, ER, and HR are interconnected and we should continue to build bridges in order to propel our movements forward. We should learn to listen to each other and build coalitions. We should be willing to make changes in our own lives if we expect others to do the same. If we want the ears of gays and minorities we better learn to listen and appreciate their issues and not minimize the causes of others. We need to rebuild the integrity of the word "activism" as it has lost much respect in a scoiety dominated by right wing framing.

I consider myself an animal activist, yet I learned that to be an animal activist I must be an environmental activist and human rights activist as well. They are all connected. Humans are animals. To be vegan we must also cosider the rights of HUMAN animals. To buy sweat shop shoes or condone sex slavery in asia we can not call ourselves vegan.

The way we treat our environment effects the lives of animals and the way we treat animals (human and non-human) effects our environment. All too often I see animal activists tossing cigarette butts on the street. I see environmentalists eating factory farmed meat and eggs. They are directly related. Animals need environments and environments need animals. It's all about balance and the bigest inbalance we have today is a human overpopulation problem. We have 6 billion people on the earth and that is due to double in 40 years at the current rate. This overpopulation I believe is the root of environmental, animal, and human rights issues.

If not for human overpopulation we would not be competing with deer, bear, and cayotes for land. We would not even consider hunting as humane population control. To condone hunting as humane pest control is to condone human hunting for population control. It's not the answer. We do not have deer, bear, and seal overpopulations, we have human overpopulations. The earth functioned in balance long before we arived. It is us who threw this out of balance and it is up to us to fix it.

I disagree entirely with GreenEngineer. Ethical veganism I do not believe is he antithesis but the synergy. Humans are the only being on this planet that exploits every "resource" we can. We turn oil into plastic, silk into clothing, wood into furnature and paper, leaves into tobacco, plants and animals into food, etc. To abandon meat eating an animal wearing is far from seperating us from the natural world but actually adopting a grander world view in the sence of balance and compassionate living.

We will always contine to utilize a host of other resources. Meat eating and animal wearing are unecessary and therefore can be eliminated without major sacrifices and serve to give us a better understanding and respect for the animals whom I consider kin.

Casinandida mentioned captive breading. Let me just say that captive breeding serves no purpose if there is no environment to reintroduce the animals into. In this case we are only preventing extinction for human interstest, not those of the environment or animals. Bengal tigers have no future in the wild. They will be extinct in India in 7 years, yet captive breeding exists in zoos all over the world. I ask, why? So our grandchildren can see tigers in cages or zoos? Does it not make more sense to let the bengal tiger slip away in peace and learn from our mistakes? I am torn on this one believe me. Personally I would rather my child see bengal tigers in NG magazine than in a zoo.

One of the funniest arguments against veganism I've heard came from friend of mine the other day. He said it's ethically wrong to be vegan because cows and chickens would go extinct. This train of thought only serves the quantity of life rather than quality. If cows go extinct then at least there will be no more cows suffering in slaughterhouses and no more factory runoff.

As for Casincandida's coments on captivity in zoos and aquariums let me just say that most animals in zoos are caught in the wild, effecting the environment. They are broken of their wild habits and serve to teach children that it's okay to donimate and jail wildlife. And it is psychological torchure. If you have seen monkeys, cheetahs, and dolphins pace and display repeditive behavior then you know what i am talking about. Lolita at the Miami Seaquarium is a perfect example of this. I made a doc about her (www.slavetoentertainment.com)

It is also common for zoos to trade animals through the AZA website. When zoo animals become liabilities they are often sold to canned hunts in exchange for a younger prettier animal.

Also to clarify, it is not a handful of seals that are slaughtered every year. Three hundred thousand 2 week old pups are slaughtered on the ice in Canada every year for fur. Fur is uneccessary. What does this do to the mother seals? Any feminists out there want to answer this one? How does it affect the fish and whale populations? Again we humans claim we are culling the heard but in fact I believe we are only adding to the problem.

I also belive the term "sustainability" is tossed around very losely without regards to the consequences. Ivory can be harvested sustainably but does that make it ethical or responsible? Is the pain of a young elephant watching his father's face ripped off inconsequential? How does that effect the environment of the herd let alone the suffereing of the individual?

I do believe that meat eating is the number two problem next to human overpopulation which by the way is a result of mass oil production; not just because 50 billion animals suffer for our cravings every year but because it takes 7 pounds of grain to raise one pound of beef or pork. That grain could feed millions of humans with no added effects to the environment. Are you listening human rights activists? How many antibiotics and hormones drain into the soil and water from factory farms? Any environmentalists care to field that one? The pork, beef, dairy, and poultry industries are some of the biggest polluters in the world and can be elimiated by making simple ethical choices.

And it is after all about choices. I encourage us all to build coalitions and bridges between people in these movements. Feminists need to know that to drink milk is to commit rape. Dairy cows are artificially inseminated repeatedly until spent, then discarded. Their offspring are taken away for the veal industry. The pain is obvious. I've heard the cries.

Animal activists need to undertand the relation of  globalization to wildlife. Enviromentalists should learn the issues related to factory farming or exotic pet trades. And we all need to work on reframing the labels that have been cast upon us all. We are all tied and we can propel our movements forward together.

Together we can make a difference.

love and revolution,

~timOn No environmentalism is complete without consideration of animal welfare posted 3 years, 2 months ago 64 Responses