Keith Gascoigne

Observations on the State that we are in

In the Guardian newspaper of 2017-09-12 it was reported that thousands of hectares of land in China was contaminated with toxic metals and also countless, rotting pig carcasses, many of which were also being dumped in rivers. I knew neither the reason nor the facts much beyond that but I realized that this could be the start of a disaster as rotting animal bodies always act as a source of contamination and are breeding grounds for disease. I was horrified because we eat sunflower and pumpkin seeds and other things grown in China but what could I do then and I thought that the authorities there would sort it out. How wrong could I be?

According to Reuters recently (early 2020) the local pig-farmers complained to the authorities in China about the disease decimating the pig population but the authorities did little or nothing, so the farmers had no choice but to dump the dead animals on the land or in rivers so that they would simply float away.

This was probably the start of the catastrophe (the so called ‘wet market’ could have contributed to or even have been the source) of the coronavirus pandemic that is killing thousands all over the world and traumatizing and costing people, and whole countries, enormous amounts of money.

The authorities in China are not the main problem. Their problem is secondary and caused by an even bigger problem. It more important to ask, “What is the real, fundamental reason why this happened so that we can prevent it happening again?” The single factor in this catastrophic event is that people want to eat meat.

People do not need to eat meat. They want to eat meat and there are alternatives which are much safer, less harmful to everything including the animals raised in filthy conditions and cruelly slaughtered. We need the air that we breathe but it is polluted by methane from an overpopulation of animals and depleted in oxygen because forests are cut down to allow more animal production; we need healthy soil in which we need to grow our food not soil polluted by animal waste and bodies; we need clean rivers to irrigate our soil and please the eye, not rivers polluted by the results of farming animals for food.

Most intelligent people know that raising animals for food decimates forests, causes more ozone, uses land to grow food crops for the animals while the local people starve, food which would be better fed to people rather than animals, etc., etc., etc..

Our stupidity is beyond belief. We soil the only nest that we have. But nature, Gaia, the planet is a self-regulating organism and will get rid of us all unless we change our myopic, greed-fueled behavior soon.

The remedy is clear:

STOP EATING ANIMALS

 

There are healthier, kinder, more intelligent ways of living together in this, our, world.

 

 

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