Vegan Trove Podcast Ep 5: Ignoring Issues: Being Complicit with Global Tyranny

My latest Vegan Trove podcast Ep 5: Ignoring Issues: Being Complicit with Global Tyranny – Listen here

Vegan Trove Podcast Ep 2: Speciesism and Other Forms of Discrimination

Welcome again friends. I invite you to subscribe to my VeganTrove.com site to receive updates on my latest podcasts. I invite you to listen to Episode 2 here.

In this episode I briefly touch on some of the topics covered in my 1st podcast. I explore some quotes, articles and interviews and include some of the audio. I touch on the problems of large animal charities ignoring the solution to animal “cruelty” and more importantly the solution to abolishing animal use (Veganism). I expand on a topic I broached last week about the ecological disaster that is animal agriculture and its contribution to species extinction and climate change and how green groups ignore its contribution and why, and I touch on a number of diverse miscellaneous issues.

This 2nd podcast is again a tad long (approx 45 minutes) but I hope you find it interesting.  Episode 3 will (hopefully) be in the next 2 or 3 weeks if time permits (I’m very busy till February in the new year).

As well as subscribing to VeganTrove.com site for updates, please join “Vegan Trove” on Facebook for future podcast updates

Disclaimer: Although I mention various individuals or sites in my podcasts, please note I do not necessarily endorse these individuals, or opinions, links or ads.  Please view my disclaimer.

Please note Episode 1 is already on iTunes and Episode 2 will be available on iTunes shortly. I will post a link when it is ready.
Thanks for listening. I look forward to having the pleasure of your company next time. 

For more information:

Russell Brand’s “The Trews”

On the Environmental Disaster of Animal Agriculture | UVE Archives

Recommended books 

My LiveVegan Page: Another Facebook Casualty?

Chris Hedges: “The Myth of Human Progress”

“The human species, led by white Europeans and Euro-Americans, has been on a 500-year-long planetwide rampage of conquering, plundering, looting, exploiting and polluting the Earth—as well as killing the indigenous communities that stood in the way. But the game is up. The technical and scientific forces that created a life of unparalleled luxury—as well as unrivaled military and economic power—for the industrial elites are the forces that now doom us. The mania for ceaseless economic expansion and exploitation has become a curse, a death sentence. But even as our economic and environmental systems unravel, after the hottest year in the contiguous 48 states since record keeping began 107 years ago, we lack the emotional and intellectual creativity to shut down the engine of global capitalism. We have bound ourselves to a doomsday machine that grinds forward, as the draft report of the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee illustrates.”
To read the full essay:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_myth_of_human_progress_20130113/

Do we value our palate pleasure over our own survival as a species?

Friends,

After viewing material on this page, I hope that you understand that veganism is not about us, but about other animals. But as well as the very important issue of abolishing all forms of animal use, there are many ancillary benefits of veganism. One is the environmental benefits of being vegan.

51% of GHG are from animal use industry according to a 2009 Worldwatch Institute report. Unfortunately the Worldwatch report is rarely mentioned if at all. It is the other “inconvenient truth”. Sadly and astonishingly our species appears to value palate pleasure over own own survival and the survival of other species.

The Arctic now looks like it will melt by 2020 and according to a recent report conducted by 20 climate change-sensitive countries, 100,000,000 people in “developing countries” will die by 2030 if world fails to act on climate change. The number 1 destructive force in the Amazon rainforest is “cattle” ranching. At this rate of global warming it has been said there will probably be a mass extinction in the next 100 years which will include our species.

If we wait for corporate-dominated governments to do anything about climate change, we are extremely foolish because if we have learnt anything from history, corporations are here to  exploit humans, nonhumans and the planet until there’s nothing left. But *we* — on an individual level — can do something that not only brings nonviolence to a world which so desperately needs it, but also addresses the devastating effects of animal agriculture on the planet. The solution? Become vegan and educate others to do so.

If we are not prepared to change ourselves individually, then nothing will change in the world. Please go vegan. http://www.vegankit.com

For further reading:

Interesting post on animal agriculture and greenhouse gasses by Vance Lehmkuhl 

This time we’re taking the whole planet with us by Pulitzer prize recipient Chris Hedges

The report on 100,000,000 people in “developing countries” dying by 2030 due to global warming

Veganism and agriculture run-off by Gentle World

Veganism or extinction? by Gentle World

“The myth of eco-friendly animal products” by Gentle World

Moving speech by Pulitzer Prize recipient Chris Hedges at Vets for Peace Oct 7, 2012: Video

Chris Hedges at Vets for Peace 10/7/12 – YouTube.

Noam Chomsky: The Fate of Humanity Is at Stake…..

Noam Chomsky: The Fate of Humanity Is at Stake — Why Are Romney and Obama Too Cowardly to Talk About What Really Matters? | Alternet.
October 5, 2012

FAIR USE NOTICE

Our politicians show an extraordinary willingness to sacrifice the lives of our children and grandchildren for short-term gain.

With the quadrennial presidential election extravaganza reaching its peak, it’s useful to ask how the political campaigns are dealing with the most crucial issues we face. The simple answer is: badly, or not at all. If so, some important questions arise: why, and what can we do about it?

There are two issues of overwhelming significance, because the fate of the species is at stake: environmental disaster, and nuclear war. The former is regularly on the front pages. On Sept. 19, for example, Justin Gillis reported in The New York Times that the melting of Arctic sea ice had ended for the year, “but not before demolishing the previous record – and setting off new warnings about the rapid pace of change in the region.” The melting is much faster than predicted by sophisticated computer models and the most recent U.N. report on global warming. New data indicate that summer ice might be gone by 2020, with severe consequences. Previous estimates had summer ice disappearing by 2050. “But governments have not responded to the change with any greater urgency about limiting greenhouse emissions,” Gillis writes. “To the contrary, their main response has been to plan for exploitation of newly accessible minerals in the Arctic, including drilling for more oil” – that is, to accelerate the catastrophe. This reaction demonstrates an extraordinary willingness to sacrifice the lives of our children and grandchildren for short-term gain. Or, perhaps, an equally remarkable willingness to shut our eyes so as not to see the impending peril. That’s hardly all.

A new study from the Climate Vulnerability Monitor has found that “climate change caused by global warming is slowing down world economic output by 1.6 percent a year and will lead to a doubling of costs in the next two decades.” The study was widely reported elsewhere but Americans have been spared the disturbing news. The official Democratic and Republican platforms on climate matters are reviewed in Science magazine’s Sept. 14 issue. In a rare instance of bipartisanship, both parties demand that we make the problem worse. In 2008, both party platforms had devoted some attention to how the government should address climate change. Today, the issue has almost disappeared from the Republican platform – which does, however, demand that Congress “take quick action” to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency, established by former Republican President Richard Nixon in saner days, from regulating greenhouse gases. And we must open Alaska’s Arctic refuge to drilling to take “advantage of all our American God-given resources.” We cannot disobey the Lord, after all. The platform also states that “We must restore scientific integrity to our public research institutions and remove political incentives from publicly funded research” – code words for climate science.

The Republican candidate Mitt Romney, seeking to escape from the stigma of what he understood a few years ago about climate change, has declared that there is no scientific consensus, so we should support more debate and investigation – but not action, except to make the problems more serious.

The Democrats mention in their platform that there is a problem, and recommend that we should work “toward an agreement to set emissions limits in unison with other emerging powers.” But that’s about it. President Barack Obama has emphasized that we must gain 100 years of energy independence by exploiting fracking and other new technologies – without asking what the world would look like after a century of such practices.

So there are differences between the parties: about how enthusiastically the lemmings should march toward the cliff. The second major issue, nuclear war, is also on the front pages every day, but in a way that would astound a Martian observing the strange doings on Earth. The current threat is again in the Middle East, specifically Iran – at least according to the West, that is. In the Middle East, the U.S. and Israel are considered much greater threats. Unlike Iran, Israel refuses to allow inspections or to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It has hundreds of nuclear weapons and advanced delivery systems, and a long record of violence, aggression and lawlessness, thanks to unremitting American support.

Whether Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, U.S. intelligence doesn’t know. In its latest report, the International Atomic Energy Agency says that it cannot demonstrate “the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran” – a roundabout way of condemning Iran, as the U.S. demands, while conceding that the agency can add nothing to the conclusions of U.S. intelligence. Therefore Iran must be denied the right to enrich uranium that is guaranteed by the NPT, and endorsed by most of the world, including the nonaligned countries that have just met in Tehran. The possibility that Iran might develop nuclear weapons arises in the electoral campaign. (The fact that Israel already has them does not.) Two positions are counterposed:

Should the U.S. declare that it will attack if Iran reaches the capability to develop nuclear weapons, which dozens of countries enjoy? Or should Washington keep the “red line” more indefinite? The latter position is that of the White House; the former is demanded by Israeli hawks – and accepted by the U.S. Congress. The Senate just voted 90-1 to support the Israeli position. Missing from the debate is the obvious way to mitigate or end whatever threat Iran might be believed to pose: Establish a nuclear weapons-free zone in the region.

The opportunity is readily available: An international conference is to convene in a few months to pursue this objective, supported by almost the entire world, including a majority of Israelis. The government of Israel, however, has announced that it will not participate until there is a general peace agreement in the region, which is unattainable as long as Israel persists in its illegal activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Washington keeps to the same position, and insists that Israel must be excluded from any such regional agreement.

We could be moving toward a devastating war, possibly even nuclear. Straightforward ways exist to overcome this threat, but they will not be taken unless there is large-scale public activism demanding that the opportunity be pursued. This in turn is highly unlikely as long as these matters remain off the agenda, not just in the electoral circus, but in the media and larger national debate.

Elections are run by the public relations industry. Its primary task is commercial advertising, which is designed to undermine markets by creating uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices – the exact opposite of how markets are supposed to work, but certainly familiar to anyone who has watched television.It’s only natural that when enlisted to run elections, the industry would adopt the same procedures in the interests of the paymasters, who certainly don’t want to see informed citizens making rational choices. The victims, however, do not have to obey, in either case. Passivity may be the easy course, but it is hardly the honorable one.

When Chomsky wept

When Chomsky wept – Salon.com.
Excerpt
“And, as 40 years earlier, I was above all struck by his unrelenting work. He spent almost all his time reading, writing, being interviewed in person or over the telephone, speaking and, in an act of generosity for which he is particularly known, continually answering an unending stream of emails — often for as much as five or six hours a day.

And, I discovered, he continued to speak widely all over the country and world, to the point where his schedule is usually filled up years in advance. At age 82 he kept a schedule that would overwhelm someone 40 years younger.

I was also struck by his asceticism. When I telephoned him I realized he had the same phone number and lived in the same modest suburban home as he had 40 years ago. He wears jeans, and has virtually no interest in food or material possessions. He is periodically visited by friends and family, but engages in no other leisure-time activities.

I was particularly moved one night as I was sitting opposite him at dinner, struck as usual by the enormous distance between what Noam knows about U.S. leaders’ slaughter of innocents around the world and what the public realizes. I suddenly thought of Winston Smith from Orwell’s “1984,” who sees little hope of changing society and focuses only on trying to remain sane and commit to paper the truth in the hope that future generations will remember it. I told Noam that to me, at that moment, he represented Winston Smith to me.

I will always remember his reaction.

He just looked at me.

And smiled sadly.”

Chris Hedges: The Globalization of Hollow Politics – Chris Hedges’ Columns – Truthdig

Chris Hedges: The Globalization of Hollow Politics – Chris Hedges’ Columns – Truthdig.

Excerpt: “A breakdown of liberal democracy, which seems to be where we are headed, may not bring with it a salutary change. The most retrograde forces within the corporate state, such as the Koch brothers, will lavish racists, homophobes, demagogues, birthers, creationists and gun-carrying, flag-waving idiots with money once the political center crumbles. The left in Europe, and most certainly in the United States, could prove to be too weak to battle against figures like Le Pen or those in the U.S. who rally around the perverted ideologies of the Christian right and the tea party and who receive tens of millions of dollars in corporate backing. The left, in short, may find that it has done too little too late to be an effective counterweight. And widespread discontent could very easily be manipulated by the corporate elites to ensure our enslavement. I watched this happen in the former Yugoslavia. This is the real battle before us. And it has nothing to do with the election charade between Obama and Romney and, I expect, Holland and Sarkozy.”

to read more, click here
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_globalization_of_hollow_politics_20120423/

Noam Chomsky, Sam Christiansen at Occupy Boston Student Summit – YouTube

Noam Chomsky, Sam Christiansen at Occupy Boston Student Summit – YouTube.