Discussion Board

Bravo on the December Newsletter! This is one of the most succinct and clear explanations about the livestock link to global warming I've read! It will be going out to many of my friends, especially those who own hybrid cars, use flourescent bulbs, and buy green electricity while pouring money into the livestock industry with their diet.

If we want our children and grandchildren to be healthy, they not only need to be fed well now, but they need clean water and air thirty years from now.

How wonderful that a healthy human and a healthy Earth need exactly the same things!

Thank you, Dr. McDougall, for stepping up to the plate on this issue. What a lovely positive boost for starting the new year with better habits.

I really enjoyed the movie "An Inconvenient Truth", but was quite disappointed by the fact the link between diet and planetary health was not emphasized in any way. Thankyou for pointing it out in a format that may reach yet more people! I agree that sometimes knowing what is best for our own health is not always enough to keep temptation away from eating the SAD diet. As far as I am concerned, the more layers of reasons for why I need to eat low fat vegan helps maintain my motivation.

The Dec. newletter, and the quote below from a list I subscribe to both arrived in my e-box today:

Today's Thought Is:

Our awesome responsibility to ourselves, to our children, and to the future is to create ourselves in the image of goodness, because the future depends on the nobility of our imaginings.
--Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

The world we live in depends on the responsible contributions each of us makes. And this world is just as good as are the many talents we commit ourselves to developing and offering. None of us is without obligation to offer our best to our family, friends, or strangers, if our hope is to live in a good world. The world can only be as good as each of us makes it.

Individually and collectively our power to mold the outer circumstances of our lives is profound. Our personal responses to one another and our reactions to events that touch us combine with the actions of others to create a changed environment that affects us. No action, no thought goes unnoticed, unfelt, in this interdependent system of humanity. We share this universe. We are the force behind all that the universe offers.

Whether I acknowledge the depth of my contribution is irrelevant. It is still profound and making an impact every moment and eternally. --from the book, The Promise of a New Day, by Karen Casey

When will this be available online?

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/dec/061200.htm

John McDougall

In the movie there is a very moving part where Gore describes his family's tobacco growing heritage and how his father stopped growing tobacco only after smoking had killed his daughter (Al Gore's younger sister). It was his father's 'Amazing Grace' moment, I thought.

Well, I think Al Gore needs an Amazing Grace moment here himself. Thank you Dr. McDougall, for pointing this out and being bold enough to push this. This needs to be aired in the public forum, somehow.

You know, I don't think Americans as a whole will go for the idea of becoming vegetarians, at least not the majority. BUT, if cutting our meat consumption in half will make the difference I think that is a very reasonable argument to put forward. Will people reduce their meat consumption if they see the connection to the survival of the planet? For beef producers (farms/ranchers) I think you could argue that consumers reducing meat consumption might actually improve prices and help the small family farmer vs. the corporations. So, I don't think this is an impossible discussion to have.

I agree... these are dynamite articles. Because I'm a scientist who worked in the environmental field for many years, this has always been a major incentive for my adoption of a veg*n diet. Anyone who has ever been involved in any kind of assessment of the environmental impact of livestock-raising facilities can't help but be aware of the large negative effects they have. Heck, anyone who has ever driven by a large dairy facility and been nearly overcome by the ammonia fumes, will have had that experience. I understand chicken farms can also be "memorable".

I remember being astonished that concrete building foundations were found to be rotting and crumbling away on land that had previously been used for dairy farming in southern California, due to the left-over soil contamination from cattle urine that had soaked the soil over the decades. Wanna buy one of those houses?

I loved Gore's film, but already knew that it did not address the large effects from livestock. Hopefully this knowledge will become better understood. Up till recently, there have been very few sources for credible synthesis of the relevant data, especially sources understandable to the public. I think that's been one of the problems.

Another problem has been blatent (and creative) attempts by recent governmental entities to (1) deny that global warming is even occurring, (2) suppress the obvious fact that atmospheric CO2 has increased dramatically and is at least contributing to the global warming, and (3) discourage non-governmental attempts at disengaging from fossil fuel use for energy. You'd think they would have given up on (1) by now, but recent administration attempts to squelch concerned scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey is just a continuation of the shameful efforts by the administration and its lawyers to censor and actually rewrite science.

A big thanks to Dr. McDougall for bringing these matters to our attention.

Perhaps Dr. McDougall , or someone of his stature , can testify at the Barbara Boxer hearings on global warming

here is a link ...
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashing ... 012407.htm