ENVIRONMENT HOT TOPIC, YET ROOT CAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING IGNORED
Animals Count participated in the Climate Change march on 8th December in London, which attracted over 2,500 protesters despite the appalling weather. While everybody agrees climate action needs to taken NOW, we still came across environmentalists eating meat. Yet livestock farming contributes to 18% of all global warming gases, which is more than the entire transport sector combined.
A drastic reduction of at least 50% in the carbon footprint is required to simply halt the damage. More is needed to reverse damage. The devastating effects of global warming also mean that thousands of species are threatened with extinction; the polar bear being one of the most obvious animals under threat due to melting ice.
Animals Count Chair Jasmijn de Boo recently replied to a letter sent by Kate Hoey MP (shockingly, Hoey is also Chair of the Countryside Alliance, CA) regarding Climate Change. Jasmijn explained about the link between livestock farming and global warming. Ms Hoey then sent a letter completely ignoring this point and simply stating that she would press for a reduction of 80% of 1990 emission levels without listing how to achieve this. It is clear that her links to the CA prevent her from spelling out the obvious: that we need to abolish factory farming!
9 December, 2007 
CO2 MATTERS, BUT METHANE MATTERS MOST
At the 'Animals and Environment' meeting on 13th
June in London, environmental, vegetarian, and animal protection groups and two political parties
including Animals Count all agreed that the link between livestock production
and global warming, needs urgent action.
A petition to 10 Downing street has been set up to urge the Prime Minister to take this issue seriously. Please sign the petition and ask your MEP to sign Written Declaration 0036/2007 on 'greenhouse gas emissions by the livestock sector' before 28th June.
Another avenue to take this matter forward is via the the proposed Climate Change Bill. It seems that the 'livestock link' has been completely overlooked in this process. Voice your concern and mention that Animals Count is the only political party to have this issue at the top of their agenda.
Finally, the huge amounts of water used to produce animal products puts enormous pressure on the scarce water resources worldwide. Animals Count urges the government to look at the livestock farming issue from a holistic point of view, including animal suffering, the environment and people's health.
14 June, 2007
GOVERNMENT LEAKED EMAIL TO ENCOURAGE VEGANISM
A leaked email from the Environment Agency, a Government advisory body,
acknowledges the massive contribution of livestock farming to global warming. It suggests that
by adopting a vegan diet a major contribution to slowing climate change could be made.
The leaked email was sent to Viva, a vegetarian campaigning organisation. This was mentioned in an article that appeared in the Daily Mail.
The leaked email mentioned that it would be very difficult to win public support for a move towards veganism and that it was very 'unlikely' that the Environment Agency would ever suggest adopting a fully vegan lifestyle.
Naturally, the National Farmers Union rejected the idea as simplistic, but the the far more important Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) already indicated in 1995 that livestock farming is bad for the environment. In fact, the results from their extensive November 2006 report 'Livestock's long shadow' are undeniable. The FAO figures are summarised in the card above.
Animals Count is the only UK political party that takes the issue of livestock farming seriously; even the Green Party fails to acknowledge the important link and to implement the necessary steps to counter global warming.
We drastically need to reduce our meat consumption and the Environment Agency would do good to put their money where their mouth is and just face the facts.
30 May, 2007