GUN VIOLENCE

GUN VIOLENCE

Lately, every time you turn on the news, there is another mass shooting, another murder, another gang shooting, or another police involved murder.  Our world has become very violent.  I blame the NRA for a good portion of this violence.

The NRA was established in the late 1800’s to promote gun safety.  In the 1980’s, however, gun sales started to decline.  Gun corporations started taking over the NRA. Now the NRA’s board of directors is filled with CEO’s of gun corporations.  They turned the direction of the NRA from gun safety to promoting gun ownership. They take their members’ dues and use it for lobbying. They managed to successfully reverse and block any gun restriction laws presented by congress. They pushed open carry laws in states.  It is now easier in most states to buy a gun than it is to vote. Gun sales have skyrocketed. This climate of everyone having a gun is a main cause of the violence.

Police have to accept a major portion of the cause too.  Police departments are not properly screening candidates for aggression or racism problems. They are not properly training their policemen in handling tough situations. They are over arming them with military style equipment, giving them the impression they are fighting a war instead of protecting and serving citizens.  So many police are either angry or scared when they approach suspects. The climate of everyone owning a gun increases the violence. Their fear is increased if they are even slightly racist.  When someone is shot 9-15 times, that indicates either aggression, anger, or fear.

Our society bears a good portion of the violence blame.  We are conditioned since birth to think that certain people or species are of less value than ourselves. If we do not grow out of that thinking, we are more likely to disregard the lives of others.  We are conditioned since birth to eat violence and to think it tastes good. "Hate on your dial" shows like Fox News, 700 club, and talk radio promote hatred, violence, racism, sexism and animal cruelty.   Commanders in war always have their soldiers eat huge portions of meat before battle, because they know it will make their soldiers more aggressive and more violent.

Groups that are trying to promote peace and rights for all are often put on the FBI’s terrorist lists. Animal right groups who have killed zero people are considered terrorists, while violent groups, like anti-abortionists who have killed 100’s of people, are not on the list.

We are all one tribe, one people, one species—Earthlings. No matter what race, sex or species we are, we are all connected.  The loss of one of us touches all of us. The sooner we realize this; the sooner the violence will end.

If you truly want to end the violence, start living a more compassionate life yourself.  Go vegan and know true peace.

For more information:

Please watch Earthlings at Earthlings.com

Please read Our Conscious Planet by Neil Pine and World Peace Diet by Will Tuttle. 

THE MOST IMPORTANT NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION YOU WILL EVER MAKE

THE MOST IMPORTANT NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION YOU WILL EVER MAKE

Every year most of us make New Year’s resolutions like losing weight or eating healthier. The top three resolutions people make each year are: Lose weight, get organized and spend less. The most important resolution you can make this year will not only make you a better, healthier person, it is necessary to save our planet.

Climate scientists have been warning us about global warming for decades. Scientists say a warming of two degrees will cause massive extinction and problems for humans. At the rate of our current global warming we will be warming by four degrees in just a few short years. They have stated 2017 is the point of no return. If we do not start to reverse global warming by 2017, it will be too late. It is estimated, at our current trend, by 2030 there will be a mass extinction not seen since the dinosaurs.

So what can we do to reverse global warming? Stop driving our cars? Turn off our lights? None of these will be effective enough to start a reversing trend. The most effective way to reverse global warming is to adopt a plant based diet—in other words, go vegan.

 

 

The number one cause of greenhouse gases is animal agriculture (dairy, meat, and eggs). According to the World Bank Group, it is responsible for 51% of greenhouse gases. Transportation total is responsible for 13%. Animal agriculture is the number one cause of methane and nitrous oxide.  Methane is 25 times worse than carbon dioxide as far as creating global warming. Nitrous oxide is 300 times worse than carbon dioxide. The following charts show the growth in factory farms compared to the growth in greenhouse gases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An interesting note, researchers have discovered that the smog over many cities was not caused by cars (like we are told) but by the smoke and fat from thousands of restaurants grilling meat.

Animal agriculture is the number one cause of rainforest destruction. 91% of rainforests were destroyed for animal agriculture compared to 23 % for palm oil. In the US alone, every minute 7 acres of trees are cleared for animal agriculture. These lands are not only cleared to raise the animals, but also to grow food to feed them. Trees are needed to clean our air and reduce greenhouse gas build up. It takes 16 pounds of feed to make one pound of meat. Think about it. If we all adapted a plant based diet, we could not only reverse global warming, we could feed the world.

The majority of our dwindling oil and natural gas supply is used by animal agriculture. Animal agriculture uses 25 times more fossil fuels than our cars and other transportation. We are going to run out of oil. The only question is when.

Animal agriculture is number one in water usage and water pollution. 85% of the water in the US goes to raising livestock.  Climate change will cause more and more drought conditions, making our water even more precious. Our underground aquifers are being drained at a tremendous rate, faster than they can be replenished. Add to that, the run-off from animal farms pollute our precious waters. There is a 7000 square mile “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico that continues to grow. Our Great Lakes also have dead zones caused by animal agriculture. One pig farm creates more sewage than the entire city of New York and this waste is untreated. This waste winds up in our lakes, rivers, and our groundwater we use for drinking. When the waste lagoons get too large, some factory farms start to spray the waste water into the air. We know conserving water is important and we want future generations to have access to water. One pound of beef takes 5,200 gallons of water. That is over a year’s worth of showers. Compare that to 24 gallons to make a pound of potatoes or tomatoes. In the US, fracking uses 140 billion gallons of water every year. Animal agriculture uses 340 TRILLION gallons every year.

Overfishing is destroying our oceans.  Fish help to keep the oceans healthy and reduce ocean warming. Many fish species have been depleted to the point of extinction. 80% of the fish caught goes to feeding livestock.

If you want to give up your car, live in the dark, stop taking showers, go ahead, but none of that will stop global warming and our inevitable destruction. We should be mad as heck at the meat, dairy and egg industries. They are wasting our oil and our water. They are poisoning our water and our air. They are destroying our planet and our way of life. This year make it your resolution to do something about it. Show the animal agriculture industry that they cannot get away with making huge profits by destroying our children’s futures. Go vegan. Take away their money, take away their power.  Not only will you be helping to save our planet, lose weight, and be healthier, you will be helping to end the torture and slaughter of 96 billion animals and 3 trillion fish every year.  It is amazing how one simple small step can do so much.

 

 I encourage everyone to read more and learn. Knowledge is the key to making responsible food choices.

My Sources:

“The Sustainability Secret” by Kip Anderson and Keegan Kuhn

“This Changes Everything” by Naomi Klein

“World Peace Diet” by Will Tuttle PhD

“The Food Revolution” by John Robbins

“The Conscious Planet” by Neil Pine

“Comfortably Unaware” and “Food Choices and Sustainability” by Dr.  Richard Oppenlander

epa.gov http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.html

http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/n2o.html

You can change for the better. I am here to help.

HUNTING PROMOTES VIOLENCE

HUNTING PROMOTES VIOLENCE

 

There comes a time in life, when you must reflect upon what you were taught, whether what you were taught is true and how what you were taught affects your current life. That time is long past due when it comes to hunting. Hunting propaganda seems to be passed down from generation to generation. Talking with a hunter can be a most exasperating experience. Most hunters will call themselves “conservationists”. They will proudly take pictures or display their kills. Since childhood they have been taught that this is appropriate behavior. This is what you do to be “a man”. They then teach their children to kill and their sons learn that they are not men unless they have killed something. Daughters are taught to kill to show they are just as good as men. It is very sad, that they actually believe these things.

Hunters will call themselves “conservationists”.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Hunting hurts all species. Hunters are looking for a proud trophy, something to show the world how great they are. So they kill the biggest and healthiest of the species. This leaves the sickly and weaker to breed, making gene pools weaker. Chronic Wasting Disease was directly caused by hunting. When wolves, coyotes, and other predators hunt, they go after only the sickly and the weak. Unfortunately, hunters kill these animals and leave nature a mess.

Hunters will tell you how they control populations. Again, nothing is further from the truth. As I mentioned above, killing the biggest and healthiest leaves only the sick and weak left to breed. In predators, this can be devastating to their populations. Here in Wisconsin, we have a deer hunting season. Hundreds of thousands of deer are killed in a two week period. This artificial population decrease actually increases the deer population, as pregnant deer will increase the number of fetuses they carry to accommodate the lower population. This is called “compensatory reproduction”. States with the most deer hunting, have the highest deer populations. In a natural world, there isn’t such a thing as “overpopulation”.

Hunting parties are big here in Wisconsin. Hunters get together, get drunk and go off to hunt. I imagine they get their “courage” to kill from a bottle. How can something that you have to get drunk to do be anything worth doing? You may say there is something very wrong with these people that they make a party out of killing. But this makes perfect sense. It takes great courage to go against the norm, against the status quo. Having a lot of people doing the same thing makes it easier, even if it’s doing something wrong. In 1951, Solomon Asch did a conformity study. He found that 75% of his subjects would give an obvious wrong answer just to go along with the majority of the group. So even though, these hunters think they are being “tough” by killing innocent animals, they are cowards. They need a group.

Bow hunting is the most inhumane hunting. 50% of animals are cripple and not recovered. They die agonizing deaths from blood loss and infections.

Psychology and criminology studies have shown that violence toward animals often leads to violence toward people. Albert Schweitzer wrote,” Violent acts against animals are considered recognized as indicators of a disease of the psyche that is not limited to animals. Anyone who has once accustomed to the life of any living being as unworthy of life, there is a risk that one day he also comes to the conclusion that human life is worthless.”

It is interesting to note, that the one common denominator with most of the school shootings, is hunting was big in the families of the shooters. Parents encourage violence of their children, and that is what you wind up with. Teaching children to hunt, should be considered child abuse. There is definitely something wrong with people who derive amusement from an animal’s fear or suffering. Serial killers often start by abusing animals, including hunting them.

States like Wisconsin, continue to encourage hunting for one simple reason—money. Animal agriculture encourages hunting because animals like deer, wolves, bears, bison, etc. either threaten or compete with their livestock. We can end this barbaric practice very simply. Go vegan. Let’s take the money and power away from animal agriculture. Let’s stop encouraging animal abuse. Let’s start encouraging and teaching compassion.

THE HOLOCAUST

THE HOLOCAUST

When I was a child and learned about Hitler and World War II in school, I was curious as to why so many people would allow the Jewish holocaust. It was a wonder why people would inflict such horrors on other people.  Then I read about the Milgram experiment.

In 1961 at Yale University, Stanley Milgram conducted a series of psychological experiments. His goal was to measure the willingness of participants to obey authority figures. It consisted of an authority figure, “a teacher” or someone that obeyed the authority figure, “a learner” or the person who was shocked. The “learner” was someone who pretended to be a volunteer, but was actually acting. The “teacher” would repeat words and the “learner” was to select a match to that word. If the “learner” picked the wrong choice, the “teacher” was ordered by the authority figure to administer an electric shock to the “learner”. Each participant was in separate rooms.  The “teacher” would keep giving stronger and stronger electric shocks to the “learner”. Finally “the learner” would say “I need to stop. I’m going to have a heart attack”.  The authority figure would urge the “teacher” to administer the deadly electrical shock. In 65% of the cases, the “teacher” would reluctantly administer the final shock. Reluctantly yes, but he still flicked the final switch.

This experiment was repeated by the Discovery Channel’s “Curiosity” in 2011 episode “How Evil Are You?” They found that 72% of their subjects would administer the final shock.

This is very disturbing considering we have a holocaust going on today. One that no one wants to see or acknowledge.  Every hour, 6 million animals are killed. They live horrid, tortured lives, and have violent deaths.  I think most horror movie writers base their movies on the lives of farmed animals. 

During the 12 year Nazi reign, about 11 million people, Jews, Gays, etc. were killed.  We do that to animals in less than 2 hours, every single day.

In all the wars total, throughout history, approximately 82 million people were killed. Every YEAR, 96 BILLION land animals are killed and about 3 TRILLION fish.  A holocaust of death every year.

The Milgram experiment is important, because it shows how this holocaust continues.  You allow it. It is wrong, you know this much killing is wrong, and yet you allow it. You are obeying authority. Every day we are bombarded with advertisements “Eat Meat”, “Drink Milk”. We have become to believe we need those things to live.  We don’t. In fact, many researchers have found we are healthier and live longer if we do not consume meat, dairy or eggs. The PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) has done many studies that show this. Meat and dairy causes many diseases such as cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, allergies, and obesity. Animal agriculture is also the number one polluter of our planet and number one destroyer of rainforests.

When you put items in your grocery cart, stop and think.  Do I really want to be a part of the holocaust? Do I really want to hurt my health, the planet, and other living beings?

http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/pplate

http://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2004/farm-moratorium.html