Costa Rican media completes a series alerting the public to animal farming cruelty and its environmental impact.

As part of a multi-part series, Costa Rica’s Channel 7, which airs nationwide, featured on its program called “7 Días” (Seven Days) the subject of animal cruelty, and its implications for the food choices of human society.

Marcelo Castro – “7 Días” Host, Channel 7, Costa Rica (M): Sure, few things are so shocking to human sensitivity as the sacrifice of animals. But, there’s more. Cows, pigs and chickens are given such a treatment that makes those living beings be born, grow up and die in a miserable and inhumane way. Because of that, the vegetarian movement is getting stronger in the entire world, and of course, here in our country.

VOICE: Hosted by the well-known presenter Marcelo Castro, the 15-minute segment aired on prime time during the most recent national holiday. It was the first time that a major program showed the difficult-to-watch truth of modern-day animal agriculture, beginning with a comparison to past cruelty among humans.

Host (M): All that injustice against those different from us, touches us today and of course, we condemn it. But according to some, the human being continues being terribly cruel with living beings different from us, but sensitive: animals.

Edgar Espinoza – Geographer (M): The ethical part has to do more with consideration towards animals as beings that have emotions, as beings that feel and therefore they have rights per se, since they are sentient beings.

VOICE: The program also covered the urgent environmental issues linked to the meat industry.

Host (M): Vegetarian diets have an additional drive. Those who don’t eat animal meat state that in this way they are preserving the planet. A hectare of land might feed fourteen people with beans, rice, legumes and vegetables. But the same hectare just feeds two people, if it is used to produce meat and milk.

VOICE: The program concluded by presenting expert opinions and research results on the benefits of the alternative plant-based diet.

Norma Mesa – Head of Faculty of Nutrition, University of Medical Sciences (F): The recommendation given by the American Dietetic Association indicates that a vegetarian diet
might be adequate from a nutritional perspective as long as, a planning of meals is right.

Host (M): Don’t hurt animals, protect the environment, improve your health. Those are three reasons to realize the revolution of the millennium. Quit eating meat: What do you think?

VOICE: Many thanks to Costa Rica’s “7 Días” (Seven Days) program and Channel 7 for this important and well-presented report in service of the public’s benefit. May other media groups do likewise so that more people can know of the healthier, compassionate and Earth-saving way of life found in the animal-free diet.

Antarctic ozone more depleted in 2008.

The World Meteorological Organization stated that the hole in the ozone layer located over the Antarctic already covers two million more square kilometers this year than in 2007 and is set to become bigger over the next several weeks. The ozone layer shields the Earth from damaging ultra-violet rays. Although an international agreement to eliminate chemicals found in aerosol sprays and refrigerant fluids had begun reducing the hole in the ozone layer, scientists are now becoming aware of the role that carbon emissions may have in these latest observations of the hole’s increased size.

Many thanks, scientists, for sharing these disquieting facts. We pray that through sustainable and harmonious living, humanity can reverse trends such as these to restore our naturally flourishing planet.

http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/38195, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=ay8QV4bC6v4M&refer=canada