Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Monday, August 06, 2007
Would you like some fries with your climate change?
“Everyone who did not arrive on a private jet put your hands in the air.”
—Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon
I thought I knew all I needed to know about the 2007 Live Earth photo ops, I mean, concerts when I learned that the event’s website was sponsored by Chevy. Not Chevy Chase, but Chevy…as in Chevrolet…as in General Motors (according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, automobiles create nearly 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year). Yep, I figured that was the final word on Al Gore’s global spectacle…until I discovered burgers, franks, and chicken were on the menus at the concert venues.
“The one thing that still stuns me … is that almost no-one in the ‘stop global warming’ camp talks about the environmental ramifications of animal production,” blogged vegan musician (and fellow member of the bald brotherhood) Moby. “To quote a U.N. article,” he added, “rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars.”
Of course, all you savvy tree huggers and food co-op members already know that the U.N. report Moby refers to found that animal agriculture is responsible for almost 1/5 of the pollution causing global warming. “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems,” said Henning Steinfeld of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). “Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”
Someone at Live Earth apparently didn’t get the FAO memo because eco-fans were chowing down on animal flesh while noted environmentalists like Snoop Dogg and Madonna did their part to make the planet a cooler place. Moby called it “akin to getting drunk at the funeral for someone who died of alcohol poisoning.” Not to be outdone, the folks at PETA compared the incongruous bill of fare to “selling cigarettes at an anti-cancer fundraiser.” (If you have a better analogy, post it in the comments section)
Like many other aspects of modern life, too many of us have relinquished control of our eating habits to the corporate pirates and their well-paid propagandists and in the process, we’ve surrendered part of our humanity. This sad reality has not only helped bring about an epidemic of degenerative disease, the carnage caused by consuming our furry, scaly, and winged co-inhabitants impacts the entire planet—whether or not Oscar winner Al Gore wants to focus on it.
PETA had this to say to the former vice president: “While the steps that you urge people to take in An Inconvenient Truth are inarguably important, the quickest and most effective way to fight climate change will come through diet change.”
Diet change? Just one week after Live Earth, Australia’s Daily Telegraph reported that Gore and the guests at his daughter’s wedding in Beverly Hills “dined on Chilean sea bass—arguably one of the world’s most threatened fish species.”
Adds Moby: “It’s just depressing that some huge truths about climate change are too inconvenient.” Even more depressing is the subliminal message given to those sincere Live Earth concert goers—many of whom were probably making their first foray into activism.
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
