"Dirty Little Secret"

Of the many reasons why it is a good idea to reduce or eliminate eating meat, the connection to the environment is one of the more crucial ones. Listen to Mr. Jeremy Rifkin (The Foundation of Economic Trends) speak about the impact of our taste for meat and what it is doing to our planet. His suggestion of implementing a tax on nitrous oxide and methane emissions (two global warming gases resulting from livestock production) and also a tax on meat consumption is an interesting one. According to the statistics, meat consumption is expected to increase by an alarming 50% by the year 2015, if consumer trends continue. The video is approximately 9 minutes and has been somewhat edited for this clip, however, you will have no problem following him. As Mr. Rifkin puts it, those of us living in the northern hemisphere, live high on the food chain and die of diseases of affluence, while our fellow citizens on the lower half of the earth's hemisphere are being quickly and radically marginalized and die of diseases of poverty.

Communication between species

Getting back into the car this evening, to drive home after a trip to Chapters, CBC Radio's "As It Happens" was playing on the car station. The announcer was speaking to (I thought) an Australian judging by the accent, but as we listened, the speaker was from New Zealand. Being interviewed, was Malcolm Smith, a conservation officer with the New Zealand Parks Ministry. Apparently, today, he and half a dozen others were confronted with a beach whaling. They valiantly tried to get the whales back into deeper water, which was just a short distance away from where they were stranded. But as is often the case, the whales and humans became exhausted and were about to give up after hours of effort.

As the drama continued, a dolphin that frequents the area, named "Moko" by the residents, came upon the sight. According to Mr. Smith, his assistants and a group of spectators on the beach, the dolphin began to emit clicks and whistles - and here is the surprising aspect, the whales, within minutes somehow maneuvered about enough to follow the dolphin a few metres, make a sharp right turn, bringing them directly into the deeper water.

To all observers, it seemed that the dolphin had been able to communicate sufficiently to the whales, and thus bring them to safety. Yet minutes prior, unable to move, push, or motivate in anyway, the humans were almost resigned to another sad beach whaling. Mr. Smith, with reservation, thought that this incident alone may indicate the ability of species to communicate. Remarking that he was unable to speak either whale or dolphin, could not say for sure what the clicks and whistles meant.

Anyhow, I just had to tell you - what a wonderful story. I do believe we can "communicate" with other species on this planet and that the reverse is true.

Here for your enjoyment is a link to a You Tube video of a rather unusual relationship between a crow and a cat. (Thank you Sr. Tinh Quang for forwarding it to me.)

Famous Vegetarians