Your house is burning
As I write this, Brazil’s rainforests are burning at an unprecedented rate. Areas of lush rainforest the size of France are being reduced to ashes. The lungs of the World are being destroyed with such speed that the damage may well be irreparable. We are witnessing what is in effect an ecological Stage 4 lung cancer and what do we do? The leaders of the G7 Summit offer a paltry $20 million to Brazil and the rest of sit aghast and feel horror, shock and anger watching the unprecedented scale and ferocity of the fires that are choking the world.
Yet, it is known that over 90% of the destruction of rainforest is to make way for cattle ranching and a large portion of the rest is for crops (mainly soy) of which over 80% is used for animal feed (less than 6% is used for human consumption).
As people chomp into their beef burgers, sausages and steaks they are oblivious to the fact that their food choices are going to be the downfall of humanity.
The Swedish Environmental Activist Greta Thunberg famously said in her address at Davos January 2019 at :
‘I want you to act is if the house is on fire…because it is!’
Sources:
- Worldbank states that over 80% of the destruction of rainforest is land used for cattle ranching:
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/15060/277150PAPER0wbwp0no1022.pdf?sequence=1 - Over 80% of soy crops are used to feed cattle
https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/food/sustainable_production/soy.cfm - soy crops used for cattle feed, the true percentage is more than 90%
https://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/abs/10.1596/0-8213-5691-7