"The environment is no longer just a rallying cause for the counterculture, but has come to the forefront as a major national and international concern.
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Another major source of the global-warming effect is the wanton destruction and burning of our Central and South American rainforests. Rainforests account for an outstanding 80 percent of the Earth's vegetation, and are critical to our ecosystem.
Trees absorb the toxic gases of excess carbon dioxide that we release into the atmosphere, and convert it to breathable oxygen. Trees are our ultimate rejuvenators: without them, life on earth as we know it, could not exist. Rainforest trees also provide an environment for the largest diversity of animal and insect species in the world. By burning our rainforests, not only do we destroy the oxygen-producing vegetation and the environment in which the animals and plants live, but we release huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hasten the deleterious global-warming effect.
With all their importance, why are the rainforests being cleared so relentlessly? The answer is simple matter of pain and pleasure: economics. Huge tax breaks have been given in these countries as incentives for ranchers to clear the land. Is it to make room for more housing? Of course not. It's to clear grazing land for cattle to be exported as beef... (...)
The inefficiency of the use of this land for grazing is one of the most destructive, short-term decisions that man can make. We're bulldozing the source of our survival. Do you realize that every time you buy a quarter pound burger using rainforest beef, it represents the destruction of fifty-five square feet of rainforest? Once destroyed, it can never be replaced. Further, the current rate of species extinction is 1000 per year due to the destruction of the rainforests - an unimaginable assault to our ecosystem.
What's the point of it all? It's solely for the purpose of cycling more meat through our bodies, which medical science has already established is directly related to the top killers in this nation: heart disease and cancer. (...) Ultimately, we can not destroy the external environment without destroying our own internal environment.
Do you want to stop the destruction of our rainforests? Do you want to help restore the delicate balance of our ecosystem? (...) the most powerful thing you can do is to link pain to any of your personal behaviours that perpetuate the ill use of our planet. Clearly, one step would be to reduce or eliminate the consumption of hamburger meat. (...) The earth itself is at stake. Know that the decisions you make about what to put on your dinner plate determine, in a small yet undeniable way, such things as how much carbon dioxide is released into our atmosphere and how many plant and animal species will die each day.
(...) It's been said that water will be the gold of the future. How can this be true, on a planet that is predominantly covered with water? The reason can be found in our incredibly poor management of this vital resource. Specifically, it's related to the meat industry. Consider this: the amount of water that is used to raise one single steer is enough to float an american destroyer.
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Did you know it takes 5214 gallons of water to produce one pound of California beef? This means that you can save more water by not eating one pound of beef than you could by skipping showers for an entire year!
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Did you know that more energy is consumed by the beef industry than any other single industry in the United States?
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It would be wiser to drive your car to the restaurant down the block than if you walked there, fueled by the calories you consumed from a quarter-pound of beef or chicken raised by the energy-inefficient standard of the industry.
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One final issue we're all concerned about is world hunger.
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The amount if food produced on any prime acre of land is markedly reduced when that food is beef. The same acre of land that would produce 250 pounds of beef would produce 40000 pounds of potatoes- roughly the difference between feeding one person and 160 persons! The same resources that are used to produce one pound of beef can produce sixteen pounds of grain. The land required to feed one meat eater for a year is three and a quarter acres; for a lacto-ovo-vegetarian one-half acre; and one complete vegetarian one-sixth acre. In other words one acre can feed twenty times as many people if they eat a vegetarian diet.
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What's more, if every american were to reduce his or her meat intake by just 10 percent, the number of people who could be fed using th resources that would be freed from growing livestock would be 100 million! Thid is enough to feed every single starving man, woman and child on earth - and have a surplus.
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As John makes clear, the decision about what to put on your dinner plate tonight is one that has profound processional effects. It sets in motion a whole series of events and activities that are shaping the quality of life on earth. You may ask "how can one person hope to turn the tide of such an enormous challenge?" John maintains that this battle will be won not on Capitol Hill or in boardrooms, but by individuals: "the shopper in the supermarket stopping at the meat counter , picking up that chuck steak marked 3,98 a pound and realizing that they're holding in their hand a very costly illusion. Behind that little price sticker hides the forests that have been cut down, our children's food and water supply, our children's topsoil, their future environment. And we have to look at that steak and say "that costs too much". Real power lies in the decisions you make in the supermarket and in restaurants and in your kitchen.
TAKE A STAND
By taking a stand, you not only stop participating in the misuse of our resources, but you send a clear message to big businesses whose lifeblood is tied to hamburger. In recent years, food-service companies have begun to respond to changes in consumer tastes by featuring salads and other alternative foods. (...) As a consumer, use the skills that you've learned in this book to bring about positive change: know what you want, use your buying power as leverage to interrupt destructive patterns, cause the companies to look for alternatives, and then reinforce them for the desired behaviours by patronizing their products and services.
TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL - LEAD BY EXAMPLE
As with any challenge, our environmental issues require education and action to create change."
In Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins
