With Green Power Comes Green Responsibilities

Just finished reading a great post by a fellow Buddhist at Moonpointer.com as quoted below:

… As such, environmentalism and vegetarianism are aspects of Right Action in the Noble Eightfold Path (especially on the Bodhsattva path) – to not harm sentient life, and thus naturally, by extension, to protect their living environment. Is this not the practice of compassion and wisdom? It is definitely not all of the practice of the duo, but it is undeniably part of it – to the extent that if you neglect environmentalism and vegetarianism, your Dharma practice is definitely incomplete. With room for improvement, why not be more green – by being more animal and Earth-friendly? No one is demanding those uncomfortable to be green overnight. But practice makes perfect. (For full article, click here)

Too many are giving lame excuses to not do the right thing due to lack of understanding on Buddhist teachings. It’s bizarre how people can be selective on what they wish to do and not do by missing the essence of the teachings. When Buddha taught love and compassion, did he refer only to humans and not the animals that we eat on our dinning tables? When the Buddha taught Right Action, did he mean only not to do the ten unwholesome actions? Does it mean it is okay to destroy or neglect the Earth with our ignorance?

Religion aside, how can anyone in the right state of mind not save the environment and its animals if they have the power to? If you can ignore all the signs of global warming and the sufferings of the animals, you are, sad to say, living in your own deluded world.

Al Gore & PETA

Recently, a friend introduced me to an entry in PETA’s blog, on PETA’s open letter to Al Gore, which appeals to him to speak up on and live up to vegetarianism as another inconvenient truth. The letter stated how animals raised for food industries generate more greenhouse gases than all cars and trucks combined and that (according to a recent University of Chicago study), switching to a vegan diet is more effective in countering global warming than switching from a standard American car to a Prius.

I’m kind of glad that PETA sent the letter, as with PETA’s style, they will follow-up to this issue to the very end. I’m also touched by Al Gore’s passion for raising concerns for global warming. I feel the urge to really go out there and help fight global warming, but rather true to the title of Gore’s documentary (An Inconvenient Truth), the issue about animal raised for food industry might be a little inconvenient for Al Gore and many meat-eating environmentalists?

I truly feel that even if we are able to change every single car in this entire planet to an eco-friendly ones, we might still not able to reduce carbon dioxide emission to the standards we want and need. Simply because the amount of methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide produced by the humongous meat and diary industries are just too alarmingly high. Veganism should be considered as one of the major solutions to free the world of suffocating gases.

If you have another moment, please go to Meat and the Environment or further information. Below is an extract –

“Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States, and since factory farms don’t have sewage treatment systems as our cities and towns do, this concentrated slop ends up polluting our water, destroying our topsoil, and contaminating our air. And meat-eaters are responsible for the production of 100 percent of this waste—about 86,000 pounds per second! Give up animal products, and you’ll be responsible for none of it.”

Meat-eating Is Harzardous To The Earth

Not many people know that meat eating contributes to environmental problems.

Issues include:

Acres of forests are deforested to make way for grazing and agricultural farms for animals.

One-third of the world’s agricultural land (two-thirds of United States’) is used to feed livestock instead of hungry people.

Overgrazing leads to serious soil degeneration resulting in expanding wastelands.