The European Parliament organized a hearing on
Thursday, December 3 titled “Climate Change and Food Policy: Less Meat =
Less Heat,” opening the floor for a discussion about ways that reducing
meat consumption would mitigate global warming. Invited as guest
panelists were former Beatles artist Sir Paul McCartney, known for his
Meat-Free Mondays campaign, and Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, esteemed Chair of
the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who
is also a vegetarian.
Dr.
Rajendra Pachauri – Chair, United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, Vegetarian (M): I think we have to use every
means to mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gases, and I’d submit to
you once again that cutting down on meat consumption would be an
extremely effective way of doing so.
VOICE: Dr. Alan Dangour,
co-author of a recent report published in the esteemed medical journal
The Lancet that recommended reductions in meat consumption to save
lives, also joined Sir Paul and Dr. Pachauri in the lively discussion.
Dr. Alan Dangour – London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine, UK (M): A greater awareness of the climate
costs of all of our actions, including our choice about what we eat, is
urgently needed. Surely cooling our love affair with animal source
foods is a very small price to pay.
VOICE: During this session,
Sir Paul and Dr. Pachauri fielded questions from international
journalists, including one from our Supreme Master Television
correspondent.
Supreme Master
Television correspondent: How do you think we can encourage
people to
change their eating habits, education-wise, and also in
the compassion issue?
Sir Paul McCartney – Former Beatles
musician, Vegetarian (M): I think what needs to be done is to
point out the dangers of not changing our eating habits. There are a lot
of facts available. I think we just have to encourage people, to guide
them, to help them make the transition. But I think it’s doable, it’s
very possible.
VOICE: We send our gratitude, European Parliament
members, Sir Paul McCartney, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri and other
participants, for your efforts to address this most urgent matter of our
time.
May all people quickly make the shift to the vegan diet
for the safe continuation of life on Earth. As one who has been
dedicated to safeguarding humanity's course on the planet, Supreme
Master Ching Hai again called for adoption of the life-giving
plant-based lifestyle during an April 2009 videoconference in South
Korea.
Supreme
Master Ching Hai: We really need to stop global warming now,
like yesterday, because I’m sorry to say that while all these green
changes are good, there is still one action that must be on the top of
the list, the most important one, which, once again, is the vegan diet.
The
greenest of all the green policy, the greenest of all the green action,
the most compassionate, the most heroic, the lifesaving action, the
vegan diet. It will eliminate methane, one of the most heat-trapping
greenhouse gases. And this will cool the planet the fastest and give us
more time to exercise our green policy
or finding better technology.
This is the most valuable step, the vegan step, that the governments
could make, could encourage, could pass into law, could inform the
people at large.
This is the realistic way, the only way that I
know, the only way that I see that we can save the planet right now.
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