recently on unplug
- 4 Years and Counting...
- Stop Canada's Seal Hunt
- You Really Can't Be a Meat-Eating Environmentalist...
- Global Warming: We Frickin' Told You So
- Great Strides for Animal Rights
- I'll believe it when I see it....
- Congress Finally Gives a Hoot!
- The Amazon and Idaho's Wolves: In Crisis
- Living Your Ideals
- Consumerism Season and a few links
great minds think alike: blogs of note
- alternet: peek
- green options
- treehugger
- sustainablog
- small failures
- the peta files
- a green idea
- another limited rebellion design blog
- mother jones
- amnesty international
unplug
unplug magazine asks you to unplug from your current modes of thought and look at life in a new way, whether this means unplugging from our toxic consumer culture, mainstream society, the tv, or a limiting mindset. author megan prusynski explores life's alternatives and discusses activism, progressive thinking, and moving towards a "green" & sustainable life.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Recent Sources of Inspiration...
I am getting ready to leave for a vacation to Spain (of course I offset the carbon emissions of my flights!) but I had to take a break from packing and finishing up projects to share two recommended sources of inspiration I have encountered recently.
The first is a film: The U.S. vs. John Lennon. It's about John Lennon (obviously) and Yoko Ono and their revolutionary art and music. Being a huge fan of the Beatles, I was surprised at how little I knew about John Lennon's political views and post-Beatles music. Let's just say he is my new hero! He was a self-described "Peacenik" and used art and music to open minds, reach out to others, and shed light on important issues. This film has renewed my belief that art can truly change the world. Of course, the end is sad, since such a wonderful, revolutionary, creative, and inspirational person was murdered and thus silenced (wait, you all knew John Lennon was dead, right?). But overall the film is uplifting and inspiring - and sheds some light on the 60's and 70's era of radical politics and music, but not enough change...
The second inspirational item is the book Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness and the Future of Life on Earth by John Robbins, which I have been reading for months and just finished. This book is not new by any means, it was written in 1987, and I must admit that I wish I had read it years ago. This book is revolutionary. Robbins examines the typical American diet (namely an obsession with meat, eggs, and dairy products that pads the pockets of the industries that produce them while robbing everyone and everything else). Diet for a New America is very well-researched and based on solid science, all presented in digestible language. Basically, the point of the book is that our country's meat-centered diet is the hidden cause of many of today's biggest maladies: world hunger, overuse of water, the destruction of the world's forests, our deadliest diseases (including heart disease, many forms of cancer, diabetes, obesity, and many more), our reliance on foreign oil, pollution, soil erosion, depleting resources, unmeasurable animal suffering, and even a dwindling economy. After examining every possible effect of our meat-centered diet and especially the post-WWII industrialization of farming, Robbins ends on a positive note. There is a solution that will in time reverse many of the diseases we are afflicted with, make our lives more sustainable, boost our economy, and ensure clean food, water, air, and land for future generations: a shift in the American diet-style towards a plant-based diet. Even reducing our reliance on meat for food by 10% can have an enormous impact. Not that I really needed any more convincing to be vegan, but this book is life-altering and very enlightening (although I must admit parts of it were hard to get through and often left me in tears - yes, the truth is harsh).
I will end this post with a quote from Chief Seattle, which appears at the end of Diet for a New America and is one of my absolute favorite quotes:
The earth does not belong to man:
Man belongs to the earth.
This we know:
All things are connected
Like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth
Befalls the sons of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of live.
He is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web,
He does to himself.
Labels: animal rights, art/culture, environment/sustainability, lifestyle, peace
