Why PETA Is Publicly Rebuking Al Gore

There have been multiple HuffPo posts about PETA's efforts to convince former Vice President Al Gore to advocate a vegetarian diet, and we are grateful to environmental activist Susan Smalley for raising this issue again last week, since we strongly believe that the dialogue needs to continue. Are you listening, Al?

By way of background: I went vegan more than 20 years ago for environmental reasons, and while I resonate with much of what Susan says, I can't help but wonder how someone who clearly cares deeply about the environment can reconcile that caring with eating meat--and I don't think that Al Gore even bothers to try, which is unfortunate, to say the least.

The chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who shared the Nobel Prize with Mr. Gore, is vegetarian and said that the two most important ways to protect the environment are to drive less and adopt a vegetarian diet--drive less because its not possible for most people to give up driving altogether, but everyone can, as Susan and her husband have, adopt a vegetarian diet.

As Susan knows, United Nations scientists concluded that the meat industry is "one of the ... most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global," including "problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity." As for global warming, meat production causes 40 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. Eating meat is by far an individual's number one contribution to global greenhouse gases.

Of course, as Susan rightly says, "[W]e all need to make our own choices." But personal choices can only be allowed to go so far. For example, most environmentalists would agree that people shouldn't have the personal choice to dump their motor oil in a river. And if our choices involve direct support for the number one human cause of global warming--and a refusal to even mention the meat industry when telling people what they can do to decrease their global-warming footprint--at what point is someone's oversight on such a crucial issue cause for publicly calling them out on it?

We wish that we didn't have to make this discussion public the way we have. We have a great deal of respect for Mr. Gore and everything he's done to better the world--and he's done a lot. We've repeatedly tried to contact Mr. Gore privately, but we never hear back from him or even anyone on his staff. The fact is that many environmentalists take their cues from Mr. Gore, and his refusal to adopt a vegetarian diet (or even discuss it as a way to curb global warming), gives many others the license they might be looking for to continue eating meat and ignoring the issue.

We agree that the means of achieving one's goals are important, and we certainly try to be civil. Of course, we are also playful. So when we show up at one of Mr. Gore's speeches with large posters featuring a caricature of Mr. Gore holding a chicken leg and reading, "Mr. Gore: Too Chicken to Go Vegetarian?" or send our Lettuce Ladies to pass out faux meat and information about eating meat and global warming outside his appearances, we're not lacking in civility; rather, we're attempting (in a way that is more Ken Kesey than Malcolm X) to reach Mr. Gore with some key information--an "inconvenient truth" for him, apparently.

Of course, meatless Mondays are better than meat-filled Mondays, and it's true that according to Environmental Defense, "If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetables and grains ... the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads." But to me, as an environmentalist, this impact dictates that I eat chicken no days of the week, not six.

Obviously, as Susan rightly notes, no one is perfect, but isn't it reasonable to expect that the most famous advocate of taking global warming seriously--the man who very justly won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts--would address the cause of one-fifth of all global warming gases, which is about 40 percent more than all planes, cars, trucks, and other forms of transportation combined?

Only energy production causes more global warming, but much of that energy goes into the meat industry, which is why the Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook explains that "refusing meat" is "the single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint" (emphasis in original).

Our understanding, which is backed up by Susan's post, is that Mr. Gore listens to people who care about this issue, but he does not engage at all. And he shouldn't be let off the hook so easily--just as anyone who engages in environmentally destructive behavior (regardless of who they are or what they've done) shouldn't be let off the hook.

If Mr. Gore were not the target in this instance, we believe that he'd be leading the charge. We wish he'd join us on this side of the barricades. We will welcome him when the truth becomes too inconvenient for even him to ignore.

Readers can find thousands of Earth-friendly vegetarian recipes, a transitional meal plan, cookbook recommendations, and more at VegCooking.com.

Comments

[warwak]

"All ancient philosophy was oriented toward the simplicity of life and taught a certain kind of modesty in one"s need. In light of this, the few philosophic vegetarians have done more for mankind than all new philosophers, and as long as philosophers do not take courage to seek out a totally changed way of life and to demonstrate it by their example, they are worth nothing."
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philosopher

Lets bring back Nietzsche, gather a few more friends,
find Al Gore's barbeque hideaway, TP his house
and take away his "no tell please prize"

Unless Gore didn"t read the United Nation"s LongShadow Report regarding Factory Farming.
In which case, I would have to forgive him for he knows not what he does not want to face.
GIVE ME A BREAK!

"There is no moral precept that does not
have something inconvenient about it" Denis Diderot

Al Gore, who is your master?

[vnetuolsbm]

Damn Right... I'm a vegan and have been for five years and am amazed at how defensive people get when it comes to talking about not killing other animals for food. You know what is funny though, people couldn't survive on an only meat diet. Their bodies would eventually exhaust even before a year on the diet. Many people have been eating plant food and just that for years and not only living, but thriving as well. Not only should people give up eating animals just because it makes sense but also cause it makes you feel better and smarter. In fact, I ran into this person who runs a website and preaches about how he used to adhere to the vegan diet and nearly killded himself doing so and tells everyone to go the other way and eat "meat" but in strict moderation. Now I myself and many like me haven't eaten an animal product in years and in fact are healthier for it. This person who I speak of that tells people to eat "meat" when you feel like it, looks just like the unhealthy person I used to be. No way eating animals makes sense on any level. It just increases aggresion and slows the lifespan of everything. Visit the Go Veg site listed above and find out what Bruce is saying for yourself.

[Soliel]

I agree, Gore could have and should have done better.

Not many people care enough to change their diet for the environment alone.

That is why I want to expound on the many joys of being veg...

*You feel lighter and healthier
*It enables you to avoid many diseases of our culture
*You can remain active and healthy until late into life
*It's really creative!
*It's delicious,
*It's FUN and HIP!
*It makes you feel YOUNG again!
*You can stay cute well into middle age

But the BEST part, aside from the global change issue is this:

It's WONDERFUL to eat a diet that involves no harm to living beings.

Peace.

[downstream]

Well, I suppose this global warming debate will never die, there are even non-believers on huffington. But honestly I don't even see why it matters. Damaging our ecosystem, polluting our air, destroying biodiversity, overpopulation, living an extravagant and unsustainable lifestyle that relies on underpaid labor in foreign countries with poor human rights records, and causing pain and suffering to animals all seem like bad ideas, regardless of what long term effects it may or may not have on the temperature of the planet.

[ch4r1iegr1]

Al Gore used to be vice-president, so I'm sure he is very friendly with all the Big Agra lobbyists. When President Clinton created NAFTA, it wasn't for anyone's benefit but Agra-Business. So Al Gore isn't just a meat consumer.... he's in bed with the people who are pushing the eat-meat-and-high-fructose-corn-syrup-everyday agenda. His global warming movie was just a front to make liberals think Al Gore and Hillary Clinton give a sh*t about people. They don't. Politicians are just puppets for the agendas of the CEOs of banks and transnational corporations. And none of these people care about the planet or the people on it.

If you read up on the farm bill and government subsidized food.... on the deceptive advertising practices of Big Agra... and you start to become conscious of the fact that the goverment basically dictates to us what we eat thru price subsidies.... you will want to start eating locally grown, non-processed, organic food, vegetarian or otherwise. Support your local organic farmers... who are utilizing the land sustainably so that your children may eat one day too.

http://www.celsias.com/2008/02/22/why-eating-a-big-mac-is-cheaper-than-eating-a-salad/

[Tator]

I agree folks should be vegetarians (not necessarily vegans if you can find a humane source of dairy), and not because of environmental Religions based on a scam, but because of the cruelty to animals as our food supply.

Gore the the king of hypocrisy. He can not even follow his on preachings much less pass up a animal to munch on.

[SweetJudith]

Bruce,
If you remember watching Gore's movie at about half way through he was walking his land and
there were cattle in the back ground. I can't remember who told me but they said that his father raised cattle at one time. He is not going to give up his meat eating bad habits. He also has friends
that raise cattle. But alot of what he says is happening. But he could help much more by telling the truth about
meat. All he has to do is read about it in the United Nations Report.
United Nations has nothing to lose in this, they are just stating the facts, the truth.
I have been a Vegan for almost 12 years now.
I am doing my part and alot of people are following the good path.
There will be many more to follow, for we are the good and compassionate people.

[kingcityguru]

Go ahead and chow down on a drumstick because global warming is a fraud. The earth's temperature has not warmed in almost 10 years eventhough CO2 production has increased every year. You might as well as Al Gore and other global warminmongers why they do not support closing all the oil, coal, and natural gas production of electricity with electricity generated from CO2 and air pollution free nuclear energy. Maybe they don't believe it is a problem beyond you not living like they want you to.

[CommonSenseRules]

See, the whole problem with your post is that Mr. Gore really does not care about the envirnoment as he does filling his bank accounts and his grandkids bank accounts. He really does not care about the envirnoment at all. His movie is slowly being debunked and proven to be propaganda. He continues to fly on private jets and drive around in huge SUV motorcages. He continue to live in houses that are way too much for him and his family. He continues to throw huge concerts for awareness that polluted the air more than him eating meat.

Oh, and the big one, Climate Change has always happened and will continue to happen and it has NOTHING to do with human activity or eating meat.


Mmmmm, meat....can't wait to cook up a steak tonight on my grill!