{"id":14,"date":"2009-11-04T14:52:29","date_gmt":"2009-11-04T14:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/2009\/11\/ahimsa-for-earth.html"},"modified":"2009-11-04T14:52:29","modified_gmt":"2009-11-04T14:52:29","slug":"ahimsa-for-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/11\/ahimsa-for-earth.html","title":{"rendered":"Ahimsa for the Earth? Pass the Veggies."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cowlooking.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Thanks to Chris at the Yoga of Ecology blog<\/a> for the heads up on this fascinating Times Online piece<\/a> about UK Climate Chief Lord Stern of Brentford proclaiming that “People will need to turn vegetarian if the world is to conquer climate change.”<\/p>\n

\"Rajendra_Pachauri.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>That is a powerful statement, and Lord Stern is hardly the first politician or climate change expert to draw the connection between a vegetarian diet and the environment. Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri<\/a>, who received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on
\nbehalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (which he
\nleads) along with Al Gore, has spoken
\nout strongly about the impact of meat-production on the environment. You might recall that Dr. Pachauri (who is a practicing Hindu) began his acceptance speech by
\nquoting the Hindu concept of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, which means the
\nwhole universe is one family,” and argued that this concept “must
\ndominate global efforts to protect the global commons.” <\/p>\n

Not all Hindus are vegetarian, of course, but the faith does seem to promote making lifestyle choices (including one’s diet) based on principles of compassion (daya<\/i>) and non-harming (ahimsa<\/i>). Usually, this is interpreted as showing compassion towards animals; however, in light of Lord Stern’s point about the relationship between the meat industry and harm to the world’s resources, one might look at daya <\/i>and ahimsa <\/i>as having broader implications for how we contribute to the preservation or destruction of the earth we inhabit. <\/p>\n

Whether or not Hindus take up the banner of vegetarianism for ecological purposes, it does provide some interesting food for thought.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n


\nHere are some excerpts from Robin Pagnamenta’s
\n<\/span> article about Lord Stern:<\/p>\n

People will need to turn vegetarian if the world is to conquer climate change,
\naccording to a leading authority on global warming.<\/p>\n

\nIn an interview
\nwith The Times<\/a>, Lord Stern of Brentford said: “Meat is a wasteful use of
\nwater and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on
\nthe world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”\n<\/p>\n

\nDirect emissions of methane from cows and pigs is a significant source of
\ngreenhouse gases. Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a
\nglobal warming gas.\n<\/p>\n

\nLord Stern, the author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on the cost of
\ntackling global warming, said that a successful deal at the Climate Change
\nConference in Copenhagen in December would lead to soaring costs for meat
\nand other foods that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases. <\/p>\n

\nHe predicted that people’s attitudes would evolve until meat eating became
\nunacceptable. “I think it’s important that people think about what they are
\ndoing and that includes what they are eating,” he said. “I am 61 now and
\nattitudes towards drinking and driving have changed radically since I was a
\nstudent. People change their notion of what is responsible. They will
\nincreasingly ask about the carbon content of their food.”\n<\/p>\n

\nLord Stern, a former chief economist of the World Bank and now I. G. Patel
\nProfessor of Economics at the London School of Economics, warned that
\nBritish taxpayers would need to contribute about \u00a33 billion a year by 2015
\nto help poor countries to cope with the inevitable impact of climate change.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nUN figures suggest that meat production is responsible for about 18 per cent
\nof global carbon emissions, including the destruction of forest land for
\ncattle ranching and the production of animal feeds such as soy.\n<\/p>\n

\nLord Stern, who said that he was not a strict vegetarian himself, was speaking
\non the eve of an all-parliamentary debate on climate change. His remarks
\nprovoked anger from the meat industry.\n<\/p>\n

\nJonathan Scurlock, of the National Farmers Union, said: “Going vegetarian is
\nnot a worldwide solution. It’s not a view shared by the NFU. Farmers in this
\ncountry are interested in evidence-based policymaking. We don’t have a
\nmethane-free cow or pig available to us.”\n<\/p>\n

\nOn average, a British person eats 50g of protein derived from meat each day —
\nthe equivalent of a chicken breast or a lamb chop. This is a relatively low
\nlevel for a wealthy country but between 25 per cent and 50 per cent higher
\nthan the amount recommended by the World Health Organisation.\n<\/p>\n

\nSu Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Vegetarian Society, welcomed Lord Stern’s
\nremarks. “What we choose to eat is one of the biggest factors in our
\npersonal impact on the environment,” she said. “Meat uses up a lot of
\nresources and a vegetarian diet consumes a lot less land and water. One of
\nthe best things you can do about climate change is reduce the amount of meat
\nin your diet.”\n<\/p>\n

\nThe UN has warned that meat consumption is on course to double by the middle
\nof the century. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Share your thoughts below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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As a second-generation, Indian-American, Vaishnava-Hindu, Vineet ponders new ways of further hyphenating his identity.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/author\/vchander"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}