The United Nations is finally conceding that what started as an ethical problem has metastasized into an existential threat to human beings. A U.N. report states that moving away from animal consumption is imperative to avoid the worst-case scenario for global poverty, hunger and climate change-related impacts. We...
Our core ecological problem is not climate change. It is overshoot, of which global warming is a symptom. Overshoot is a systemic issue. Over the past century-and-a-half, enormous amounts of cheap energy from fossil fuels enabled the rapid growth of resource extraction, manufacturing, and consumption;...
Arctic sea ice is not merely a passive responder to the climate changes occurring around the world, according to new research. Scientists at Yale University and the University of Southampton say the ongoing Arctic ice loss can play an active role in altering one of the...
Editor’s Note: The popularity of the Netflix documentary “What the Health” has sparked a lively debate about the dangers of the standard American diet and the power of a plant-based lifestyle to prevent and reverse deadly diseases. Some of the film’s critics have alleged that...
The Amazon rainforest is home to strange weather. One peculiarity is that rains begin 2 to 3 months before seasonal winds start to bring in moist air from the ocean. Now, researchers say they have finally figured out where this early moisture comes from: the...
Oregon’s bovine businesses are booming. Cattle, dairy and hay for livestock feed have topped Oregon’s list of highest grossing agricultural commodities for six years running, taking three of the top four slots each year. For two out of the past three years, live cattle for beef...
Experts say there is one single industry destroying the planet more than any other, but environmental organizations don’t want to address it. It’s the leading cause of climate change, among other problems. Despite the challenges we face on the planet, Sailesh Rao asks, what if...
The “Poison Papers” represent a vast trove of rediscovered chemical industry and regulatory agency documents and correspondence stretching back to the 1920s. Taken as a whole, the papers show that both industry and regulators understood the extraordinary toxicity of many chemical products and worked together...
The inside story of how our government is trying to get us all addicted and sick in order to save the dairy industry...
"Scientists had begun to warn electric utilities about climate change by 1968, and by 1988 the industry’s official research and development organization had acknowledged that, “There is growing consensus in the scientific community that the greenhouse effect is real.” Despite this early knowledge about climate change,...
" Skinfolk, we've been having the racism conversation for hundreds of years (and we won’t stop), but there's one crucial component that's missing: diet. Racism and diet are not mutually exclusive, and although I'm absolutely here for shaking things up on the political level, we certainly...
"In July 1976, the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, chaired by Sen. George McGovern, held hearings titled “Diet Related to Killer Diseases.” The committee heard from physicians, scientists and nutritionists on the relationship between the American diet and diseases such as diabetes, heart...
To many vegans it’s a mystery: we’re doing our best to be caring and compassionate towards all sentient life, and therefore choose to boycott eating animal products. Isn’t that something commendable? But then why do so many people seem to mock, criticize or even attack...
Sailesh Rao writes in his new book, Carbon Yoga: The Vegan Metamorphosis that, “[w]e are in the midst of a monumental transformation in human civilization, akin to a metamorphosis. Just as in Nature where the caterpillar gorges excessively before forcibly undergoing a metamorphosis in the chrysalis, we...
With the US decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord, we, who are caring practitioners and followers of the Buddha’s teachings, are understandably concerned for the environment and all life on earth. But there are ways, within our means, to protect the environment....
It’s not exactly news that fruits and veggies are good for you. But historically, physicians have been reluctant to make any diet recommendations at all to their patients. Medical schools don’t teach much about nutrition. Andrew Freeman, a cardiologist with National Jewish Health hospital in Denver,...
If you were watching TV in the US in the late 1980s, you’ll probably remember the anti-drug ads with the egg—“this is your brain”—and then the egg cracked into a sizzling hot frying pan—“this is your brain on drugs.” But if neuroscience and psychology and...
This is the latest mind-bending film from the makers of 'Cowspiracy,' and the topic is no less controversial this time round. If you thought the film “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret” was controversial when it came out in 2014, then prepare yourself for the inevitable uproar caused...
Speciesism and colonialism are both part of the same “othering” that many academics claim to be trying to deconstruct. Providing vegan — a meal free of all animal products — as the de facto meal choice at scholarly meetings makes perfect sense. Animal products are...
Cowspiracy is one heck of a suspenseful and energetic journey into the destructive world of animal agriculture. Starring one of it’s directors Kip Andersen, Cowspiracy takes you on an energetic journey through every query Kip can think of. What is great about Kip is he...
If you’re against one form of animal suffering, you should be against them all. Many people adopt a vegetarian diet because they care about animals, but the extreme cruelty animals face in the meat industry is just as inherent in the egg and dairy industries...
In the latest edition of Science there is one such attempt to get the politicians and the public to raise their gaze. Entomologists have been assessing diversity and abundance across western Germany and have found that between 1989 and 2013 the biomass of invertebrates caught...
"Rarely does a day go by without new vegan options coming out. For example, supermarket giant Sainsbury’s recently launched a new line of vegan cheese, which exceeded expected sales by 300%. Elsewhere, for example in Australia, Germany, Russia and the US, similar trends have emerged. The...
It’s no mystery that our planet is in peril, and while many solutions have been proposed—from taking shorter showers to driving a hybrid—you may be surprised to learn that these pale in comparison to the environmental consequences of our food choices. Simple and delicious adjustments...
In an unprecedented statement, a group of Orthodox rabbis around the world, members of Torat Chayim, a progressive Orthodox rabbinic group, have called upon the broader Jewish community to consider the moral and spiritual dangers associated with meat consumption. In this statement, these members of...
"Since the 1960s, we’ve seen massive growth in the scientific understanding of what animals think, know, and feel; with that sea change in knowledge, we might expect also to see a profound shift in ethical attitudes toward animals. And yet, we argue in our new...
"Pop culture media outlet Konbini recently conducted research to ascertain the biggest meme—a photo with overlaid text—trends of 2016. Using a tool similar to that of Google trends on meme aggregator website me.me, Konbini found that the usage of the word “vegan” (in both positive...