Tomorrow night is the Roots And Shoots benefit at Yuyintang. This is for a great cause and your money goes towards planting trees in Inner Mongolia, you should go.
But ...
Only a couple of days back, I watched Jane Goodall herself on The Daily Show getting stuck into serious activists and calling them extremists. Fundamentalists was used too, making the sick comparison complete between vegans and beheadings. Then she later lamented that, despite her good work, animals and the environment were still on their way out at a high rate. Seriously, WTF. Then why disparage the people trying to address the real problems? This is a widespread attitude that people have.
Have you ever tried out a carbon footprint calculator? To make the 2050 targets (conservative in my view) you will have to say goodbye to meat diets and private cars - and everyone will have to do it. Think it's going to happen without some pushing?
But here's the news. That's just for carbon output. It doesn't wholly address general pollution and the rabid assault on animals and the environment. So now it's time to really get extreme. Have you ever had a proper search around the net for respectable reports on this? I have - and here's a pretty good summary:
Ninety percent of the large fish in the ocean and 80% of the world's forests are gone. Eighty-one tons of mercury are emitted into the atmosphere each year as a result of electric power generation. Every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. Each day, 200,000 acres of rain forest are destroyed; 100 plant and animal species go extinct; and 13 million tons of toxic chemicals are released across the globe.
That's from the aptly titled There's No Time Like Now To Be Green and there's no time like now to be an extremist activist either. Here's another great short piece that is accessible and has all kinds of links to start you off. Also from Planet Green - Why Wait Till 2012. We need people to be activists. The destructive power is in the hands of nationalist governments and economists that preach big business and 'development'. All we have to do is opt out and start spreading the word. It's as much about challenging power as it is changing lifestyles. Changing lifestyles is just the very beginning.
And before you baulk or reach for your kneejerk reaction, consider the level of denial going on even in amazing people like Jane Goodall - devotes her life to the study, care and conservation of animals, then takes pot shots on national TV at organisations devoted to their survival and full rights. So reader, do you consider yourself to be a reactionary bigot who froths at the mouth and whips out the disdain at people who care? No? Why attack people who advocate for green causes more than you speak out against pollution and animal cruelty? Think about it, do you have your head in the sand too?
