"Although we are in different boats you in your boat and we in our canoe we share the same river of life."
- Chief Oren Lyons, Onandaga Nation
The world is awakening to a new perception of reality and morality is evolving both positively and rapidly. The fastest growing movements in the world today are environmentalism, conservation and animal rights and the one thing that all three movements have in common is respect for life.
Thirty years ago the average person had no concept of veganism. Vegetarians were considered a little odd and certainly far removed from the mainstream. What was once unknown and odd is rapidly becoming popular. Veganism is the answer to environmental challenges. The meat industry produces more carbon emissions that the auto industry. And people are beginning to see the connections between the diminishment of biodiversity in our oceans and with what we eat. We are eating our oceans alive and forty percent of the fish taken from the sea is fed to pigs, chickens and farm raised salmon or rendered into cat food.
In fact a vegan driving a Hummer would contribute less greenhouse gas emissions than a steak eater riding a bicycle.
Pigs now eat more fish than sharks, chicken in factory farms eat more fish than puffins at se and domestic housecats eat more fish than all the world`s seals.
This is a world out of balance with the laws of nature and if our living oceans die, we die. It is as simple as that. We don`t live on the planet with a dead ocean.
If we are to save our oceans and ourselves, we need to find answers through imagination and the adaptation of new ideas and new perceptions. Conservation and environmental activism is one answer. Veganism is another answer. Animal rights is another answer.
We need to stop the killing of animals in the name of tradition, sport and culture. The Faeroese should not be allowed to slaughter pilot whales on their beaches for sport. The Ukrainians should not be allowed to kill stray dogs just so people can watch some men kick a ball around. Animals should not have to die to test cosmetics or to provide fur coats. Sharks should not have to be mutilated and thrown back into the sea to slowly die for a bowl of soup.
This is our choice. Do we evolve into benevolent beings valuing empathy and kindness for all living things or do we continue to preside as monstrous primates slaughtering billions and inflicting horrific cruelty to so many innocent species.
In this movement we believe that humans can rise about our savage genesis to become compassionate custodians of life and beauty laying the foundation for a better world where kindness, love, and respect are paramount and slaughter, cruelty, ignorance and arrogance are abolished.
Veganism is compassion and commission is respect for life and together compassion and respect equal hope for the future.
Captain Paul Watson
July 2012
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