HOST: Greetings, courageous viewers. With the United Nations climate
conference in Copenhagen, Denmark taking place in less than a week, the
world’s attention has turned to the urgent threat of global warming and
solutions. Global press coverage has focused on the need for an
agreement between countries to massively and quickly reduce greenhouse
gas emissions.
Today, we’ll examine a representative sample of
recent reports by international mainstream media on the necessity for a
dietary change, namely a vegan diet, as the most practical, effective,
economical solution for a sustainable global future.
In the
United States, The New York Times is one of the most respected
newspapers in the nation, with over 100 Pulitzer Prizes and 18 million
visitors to its website in one month alone.
The New York Times
attracted the attention of its large readership with the special report
titled, 『Looking for a Solution to Cows’ Climate Problem,』written by
Fiona MacKay and published on November 16, 2009. The article
highlighted the recent Worldwatch Institute report which stated,
『livestock (like automobiles) are a human invention and convenience,
not part of pre-human times, and a molecule of CO2 exhaled by livestock
is no more natural than one from an auto tailpipe.』
In Ms. MacKay’s article for The New York Times, she wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/business/global/17iht-rbofcows.html By Fiona MacKay November 16, 2009
VOICE
(ENGLISH): 『A 2006 report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
attributed 18 percent of the greenhouse gases produced each year to
livestock.
But a more recent report for the Worldwatch Institute, by Robert Goodland,
former
environmental adviser to the World Bank, and Jeff Anhang, environmental
specialist at the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corp.,
estimates this
figure to be much higher: 51 percent, when the
entire life cycle and supply chain of the livestock industry is taken
into consideration.
『Meat and dairy analog [alternative]
companies have been working on continuous improvement of their
products, and further improvement can be expected,』 Dr. Goodland said.
『This
contrasts with meat and dairy companies, which sell products whose
quality is practically impossible to improve, and which many believe
has deteriorated
in recent years with decreased regulation and increases in zoonotic diseases.』