hi omar.
i am an ecofeminist and here is an essay i wrote.
forgive the bad format, it came from an HTML document.
i believe that ecofeminism means that we have to fight all forms of
oppression (including animal abuse
and abuse of the planet) ...
WALK THE WALK
The time is now to take a fierce moral inventory of ourselves as
individuals and as a society and see if
we are really doing everything we possibly can to save the planet. Are we
just talking the talk or are we
truly walking the walk? Are we practicing what we preach? Or are we blaming
all those other guys
for the ecological devastation of our fragile home?
Each and every one of us needs to ask ourselves if our personal life style
and consumption habits are
consistant with our dream for a more sustainable / survivable future. Are
we whining and complaining
about earths demise, yet only paying lip service ? Are we REALLY doing all
we can? Are there any
other ways in which we can make a stronger commitment to help the planet ?
Planting trees , donating money and energy to conservation organizations,
recycling what we can,
buying organics, biking instead of driving, meditating on healing,
protesting, beach clean-ups, letter
writing .... all these are good and necessary actions . But they are not
enough. Grieving the progressive
destruction and extinction of wildlife, oceanlife, coral reefs, deserts,
forests, wetlands, praries,
jungles...and humans... is nothing but ignorant, hypocritical and
contradictory when we, as individuals
and as a society, continue to support and justify our treacherous
dependance on the livestock and fishing
industries.
Saving the planet begins with the fork and the plate. The most basic , the
most potent environmental
action any person can take is to evolve from a meat-inclusive diet to
meat-free (vegetarian / plant-based)
diet.
We who pat ourselves on the back about what good environmentalists or high
spiritual beings we are
while chowing down a tuna sandwich or a hamburger...We who claim to be
"earth-friendly" and then go
home to a chicken dinner ... We who want to leave a better world to our
children and still feed them
hotdogs... WE ARE THE PROBLEM !!!
IT SHOULD BE NO LONGER DESIRABLE OR ACCEPTABLE ...AS PERSONS WHO ARE
ENVIRONMENTALLY, SPIRITUALLY AND SOCIALLY CONCERNED...TO CONTINUE TO
CONSUME THE BODIES OF SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS . Every living thing on earth is
suffering
because of our food choices.
We claim to be working on overcoming racism, ageism, sexism, homophobia,
ethnocentrism, reducing,
reusing, recycling, living more in harmony with the earth, etc.... and yet
we EAT animals. This is
speciesism. We condemn killing of humans...we deplore the ravaging of the
great outdoors...yet we are
bloodthirsty for the massacre of cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, fish,
rabbits, deer...at the expense of the
animals themselves, all natural resources on the planet and our own
personal health.
Violence is violence is violence. Murder is murder is murder. All animals
feel love, compassion, pain
and suffering...not only cats or dogs. We do not need to eat murdered
animals to survive. We will be
globally healthier and create far less toxic waste and damage far fewer
ecosystems all over the planet by
going vegetarian and vegan.
Enough literature is available in any bookstore anywhere in the western
world for us to have easy access
to the statistics on global environmental damage caused by the livestock
industry. Any person who
refuses to acknowledge and accept this as fact , any person who stubbornly
ignores the horrors of meat
production and consumption, any person who still believes that its
ecologically sustainable for humans to
continue to eat flesh must THINK AGAIN . The information is out there. The
argument that our
ancestors ate meat and fish is irrelevant. The human population is
exploding ...we are reaching our
limits of carrying capacity. There is no place on earth untouched by polluti=
on.
If you had to wring that chickens neck or slit that cows throat or
electrocute that pig, would you????
VISUALIZE FACTORY FARMING. VISUALIZE SLAUGHTERHOUSES.
NOW...VISUALIZE ECOLOGICAL COLLAPSE.=03
The earth is our trash can, our sewer for the poisons and destruction
caused by our addiction to meat as
forests, water, and topsoil are forever ruined. The oceans are rapidly
becoming depleated of all marine
animals... a wasteland.
Get educated, get consistant. Claiming to care about the future of the
planet and still eating meat is as
inconsistant as being a cancer specialist who still smokes cigarettes or a
public health worker who has
unprotected sex without condoms. WALK THE WALK.
=A9amy lynn caplan, 1996
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
.........................................................................
"I have from an early age abjured
the use of meat, and the time will come when
men such as I will look upon the murder of animals
as now they look upon the murder of men."
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
.........................................................................
"I have from an early age abjured
the use of meat, and the time will come when
men such as I will look upon the murder of animals
as now they look upon the murder of men."
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
