Just as the Khadi movement was a necessary first step on the road to Indian independence in the 20th century, so is the Vegan movement also just a necessary first step on the road to global sustainability in the 21st century.
...If it’s true that the melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is unstoppable and our major coastal cities drown, humans can rebuild cities inland. If it’s true that the scorching of the American Southwest will be irreversible, humans can move out of Nevada into...
I have spent the last eight years working with indigenous communities in India on our global environmental crises. These communities experience climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification and toxic pollution first-hand and they have been among my best teachers.
...Over the past six years, Climate Healers’ collaboration with the University of Iowa on the Winterim program has been a tremendous boon to our healing efforts.
...To experiment with the traditional chulha in a controlled setting, the team decided to build a makeshift chulha in the backyard of our hotel in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Though our makeshift chulha was going to be made with bricks and would not have mud caked around...
The Setting: Rural Village in Rajasthan, India
There’s no sign of the sun yet, but the sound of Kamlabai, the wife and mother of our host family, slipping on her shoes means it’s not far from peeking over the horizon.
The MA has potential to spread organically by simply sharing the idea. The design is simple and flexible enough to be manufactured and distributed in localities around the world, which can also provide economic opportunities in small communities.
...At present, we are being bombarded with apocalyptic stories predicting doom and gloom based on the linear extrapolation of our recent history. But we forget that our past is littered with nonlinear transformations that completely changed the linear course of history.
...The rise of Veganism is a swift kick in the rear to such linear thinking. We know that the current socioeconomic system, based on mindless consumption, is incompatible with Veganism. When taken through its logical progression, Veganism necessitates conscious simplicity since any unnecessary consumption uses...
System change is not a new imperative. People have been designing and implementing novel socioeconomic systems for decades, especially since the 1960s. Examples abound of intentional communities where people have redesigned their lives and their interactions with the environment.
...Location, location, location!
Where should we set up the laboratories for the Butterfly system and showcase prototype implementations?
The search for spiritual awakening, the search for environmental sustainability and the search for social justice are all part of the same search for moral singularity, a state of being where we routinely experience the ultimate happiness that is already within us.
...Any book comes to fruition with the help of numerous reviewers, editors, publishers as well as the authors, and it is customary to acknowledge them.
...[1] Vipassana, which means to see things as they are, is one of India’s most ancient techniques of meditation. For more information, please see, e.g., http://www.dhamma.org
..."(John) Salley is talking on the phone from the set of his latest film, Detox Your Life, when he brings up another health movie, Netflix's What the Health. The pro-vegan documentary takes on the big-food industry, claiming that meat, fish, poultry and dairy are together...
What do Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Devin Kelley the Texas church killer and a host of other killers have in common? They tortured animals and delighted in the pain they inflicted. Dahmer, who murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991 tortured...
Every campaign or liberation struggle has two strategic aims and they are always the same: To increase support for your campaign by developing a network of groups who can assist you. To alter the will and undermine the power of those groups who support the...
Mason has written numerous open letters to officials citing reams of statistical data to support the contention that agrochemicals, especially Monsanto's glyphosate-based Roundup, have devastated the natural environment and have also led to spiralling rates of illness and disease, especially among children. She indicates how the...
The abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study that has shocked scientists. Insects are an integral part of life on Earth as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife and it was known that some...
A series of reports just released have made headlines worldwide suggesting that transitioning away from meats and over to plant alternatives cannot wait and must accelerate worldwide. It seems as if nail by nail, the coffin of animal food gluttony is upon us and welcome....
Imagine you're driving your shiny new car too fast along a wet, curvy road. You turn a corner and realize you're heading straight for a crowd of pedestrians. If you slam on your brakes, you'd probably skid and damage your car. So you keep your...
"A report this week by the Food Climate Research Network, called Grazed and Confused, seeks to resolve the question: can keeping livestock outdoors cause a net reduction in greenhouse gases? The authors spent two years investigating the issue. They cite 300 sources. Their answer is...
The world’s tropical forests are so degraded they have become a source rather than a sink of carbon emissions, according to a new study that highlights the urgent need to protect and restore the Amazon and similar regions. Researchers found that forest areas in South America,...
"These findings suggest that we don't need to downplay personal triumphs to avoid negative social consequences, as long as we make it clear that we don't look down on others as a result."...
Lately I’ve been asking myself some existential questions - contemplating if I grew up in a dystopian nightmare, blissfully unaware that I was part of a horrifying regime. Surrounded by the green rolling hills of the English countryside, with ‘happy’ cows grazing in the fields, my...
"There is now a great deal of convincing data that breeding animals for food dirties the air and chews up the earth...
To report the storm as if it were an entirely natural phenomenon, like last week’s eclipse of the sun, is to take a position. By failing to make the obvious link and talk about climate breakdown, media organisations ensure our greatest challenge goes unanswered. They...