measuring impact
I'm at a conference on exciting things like radar and satellitetes and remote sensing, and its taking all my brainpower to understand what is going on!
You can read the daily newsletters we are producing here if you want to see the bits that I do understand (and some great pictures). A lot of what the satellites are showing is the incredible and sometimes devastating impact that humans have on our world.
So this guest post by the passionate, inspired, issues-driven Lalifufu from Eternal Ramblings of a Tangled Mind seems particularly relevant. Thanks Ms Fufu for making us think, and hopefully act too!
over to Lali...
I witnessed the most brutal and mindless animal abuse on CTV last night. It was a snippet from a documentary film called Earthlings (see the link below) and this part focused predominantly on medical and military research.
I strongly believe that everyone needs to see this.
The Earthlings project began in 1999 when writer, producer and director Shaun Monson started working on a series of PSAs about spaying and neutering pets. He was so appalled by what he saw and filmed in animal shelters in Los Angeles that he started shooting a documentary film about the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment, medical and military research. And so, Earthlings was born.
The film took six years to make, largely because of the difficulty in obtaining footage within these many profitable industries. Showing sensitive and graphic footage shot at animal shelters, pet stores, factory farms, leather and fur trades, sporting events, circuses, puppy mills, slaughterhouses and research labs, Earthlings is nicknamed “the vegan maker.”
Today, it is an award-winning documentary film narrated by Joaquin Phoenix and featuring music by Moby. Considered the most persuasive documentary ever made, Earthlings is a definitive animal rights film that everyone should see.
I am not advocating becoming a vegetarian. What I am trying to achieve is conscious and social awareness. Don't be an ignorant consumer. Be conscious of where your food products are coming from. Be conscious of what people are doing to animals - the suffering and psychological abuse they endure for our benefit is mindless, brutal and needless. I eat chicken and fish. But where I can and when I can afford it, I try to by free range chicken as opposed to battery chickens. I limit my intake. You can always argue that carrots, potatoes, cabbages and other vegetables, fruits and plants are also living - they also grow from seeds and "live" in the ground before we pluck them out, boil them and eat them. For all we know carrots also scream when they are pulled from the earth.
As difficult as it will be to watch most of the time, don’t cover your eyes or look away. Whether you want to believe it or not, this abuse is happening all around you, every day. This brutality needs to stop and the only way it will or can is through education and awareness. Do not be ignorant about what is happening around you, to your fellow earthlings. If this was a documentary about child abuse, would you switch off the TV, stop reading and say “It’s going to spoil my dinner”?
http://www.earthlings.com/
On a similar note, The Meatrix I is an animated documentary that has also won numerous international awards. It’s not as graphic, easier to watch and the film has been made in a funny and clever way. The link below talks about growth hormones, factory farms and the antibiotics we inject into our food produce thereby poisoning ourselves. Doesn't it seem illogical to you? This kind of inhumane farming MUST come to an end. We need to be humane and sustainable. We need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
http://www.themeatrix1.com/
I’ll leave you with the wise words of George Bernard Shaw: While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?
It’s not all doom and gloom. Click on the links below to see how you can help and how you can be a part of the solution:
http://www.sustainabletable.org/spread/
http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/
http://www.sustainabletable.org/?pv=blog_home
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2007/07/the-no-impact-s.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/17/INCU12BAV3.DTL
http://www.wedonteatanimals.com/
You can read the daily newsletters we are producing here if you want to see the bits that I do understand (and some great pictures). A lot of what the satellites are showing is the incredible and sometimes devastating impact that humans have on our world.
So this guest post by the passionate, inspired, issues-driven Lalifufu from Eternal Ramblings of a Tangled Mind seems particularly relevant. Thanks Ms Fufu for making us think, and hopefully act too!
over to Lali...
I witnessed the most brutal and mindless animal abuse on CTV last night. It was a snippet from a documentary film called Earthlings (see the link below) and this part focused predominantly on medical and military research.
I strongly believe that everyone needs to see this.
The Earthlings project began in 1999 when writer, producer and director Shaun Monson started working on a series of PSAs about spaying and neutering pets. He was so appalled by what he saw and filmed in animal shelters in Los Angeles that he started shooting a documentary film about the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment, medical and military research. And so, Earthlings was born.
The film took six years to make, largely because of the difficulty in obtaining footage within these many profitable industries. Showing sensitive and graphic footage shot at animal shelters, pet stores, factory farms, leather and fur trades, sporting events, circuses, puppy mills, slaughterhouses and research labs, Earthlings is nicknamed “the vegan maker.”
Today, it is an award-winning documentary film narrated by Joaquin Phoenix and featuring music by Moby. Considered the most persuasive documentary ever made, Earthlings is a definitive animal rights film that everyone should see.
I am not advocating becoming a vegetarian. What I am trying to achieve is conscious and social awareness. Don't be an ignorant consumer. Be conscious of where your food products are coming from. Be conscious of what people are doing to animals - the suffering and psychological abuse they endure for our benefit is mindless, brutal and needless. I eat chicken and fish. But where I can and when I can afford it, I try to by free range chicken as opposed to battery chickens. I limit my intake. You can always argue that carrots, potatoes, cabbages and other vegetables, fruits and plants are also living - they also grow from seeds and "live" in the ground before we pluck them out, boil them and eat them. For all we know carrots also scream when they are pulled from the earth.
As difficult as it will be to watch most of the time, don’t cover your eyes or look away. Whether you want to believe it or not, this abuse is happening all around you, every day. This brutality needs to stop and the only way it will or can is through education and awareness. Do not be ignorant about what is happening around you, to your fellow earthlings. If this was a documentary about child abuse, would you switch off the TV, stop reading and say “It’s going to spoil my dinner”?
http://www.earthlings.com/
On a similar note, The Meatrix I is an animated documentary that has also won numerous international awards. It’s not as graphic, easier to watch and the film has been made in a funny and clever way. The link below talks about growth hormones, factory farms and the antibiotics we inject into our food produce thereby poisoning ourselves. Doesn't it seem illogical to you? This kind of inhumane farming MUST come to an end. We need to be humane and sustainable. We need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
http://www.themeatrix1.com/
I’ll leave you with the wise words of George Bernard Shaw: While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?
It’s not all doom and gloom. Click on the links below to see how you can help and how you can be a part of the solution:
http://www.sustainabletable.org/spread/
http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/
http://www.sustainabletable.org/?pv=blog_home
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2007/07/the-no-impact-s.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/17/INCU12BAV3.DTL
http://www.wedonteatanimals.com/
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