Skinny Bitch_ Ultimate Everyday Cookbook - Kim Barnouin [7]
5. FISH DEPLETION
Under the sea, we continue to deplete the ocean of thousands of fish species every day. Unlike our lovely freshwater fish tanks at home, we cannot just refill the ocean with another pretty fishy our kids can affectionately call Nemo. Depletion equals extinction.
The problem is in the way we fish. Forget your idyllic images of fishermen perching on the edge of their boats with a fishing pole in one hand and a soda pop in the other. It’s much more complex (and horrifically calculated) than that. Hundreds of thousands of hooks are propelled into the ocean in targeted areas to line and sink the “Catch of the Day.” In pursuit of that tasty tuna, they kill plenty of other critters as well. Commercial fishing is quickly wiping out entire populations of mammals (whales, dolphins, polar bears), birds (albatross, penguins), and other beautiful sea creatures (krill, seahorses) as bycatch. Bycatch, as in, whatever else has to die in order to get what we’re really fishing for.24
According to Jaan Suurkula, M.D., and chairman of Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of Science and Technology, our evolved way of fishing is a class-act way of telling the fishes to go play on the highway. “A new global study concludes that 90 percent of all large fishes has disappeared from the world’s oceans in the past half century, the devastating result of industrial fishing,” said Suurkula.25 Judging by the direction we’re headed, the killer whale will be sitting right next to Tyrannosaurus Rex in the museum, a relic from a lost time.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
The reality is that 99 percent of all land animals eaten, or used to produce milk and eggs in the U.S., are a product of the commercial factory farm system.26 The very system threatening our ecosystem. There is just no way around it.
You really want to do something? Start kicking meat and dairy to the curb. Toodles. Adios. Au Revoir. Screw off.
Studies have found that omnivores contribute seven times the volume of greenhouse gases that vegans do.27 For those mathematically challenged, that’s a lot.
Let me spell it out for you: If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted veggie foods in its place, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads.28 You hear that? 500,000 cars. The National Resources Defense Council is quick to throw out bold slogans like “Drive Less” and “Buy Hybrids” to reduce global warming, but they don’t have the balls to tell people the number one way they can reduce carbon emissions is by eating vegetarian once a week. Once. That’s a small commitment to solve a big problem.
YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
We have big feet. Really big feet. No matter how cute and dainty they look in those four-inch stilettos, it appears they’re leaving a hell of a footprint in their wake. Every year, the average North American produces around twenty tons of CO2 through their daily activities. To give you an idea of how big that is, Sasquatch, the global average per person is about four tons of CO2 every year.29 Do the math. We’re spewing out sixteen more tons of CO2 than the rest of the world, every year. And it has nothing to do with our shoe size.
Every day in going about our daily routines—brushing our teeth, driving to work, and eating dinner—we are adding to the scoreboard of greenhouse gas emissions. So, how big of a mark are you making on the planet? What’s your carbon footprint? Before you pull