Is Religious Ambivalence to Blame for the Climate Crisis?
Humanity’s ignored get-out-of-jail-free card.
Seventy percent of the world’s population adheres to one of three religions. As scary as that fact may sound, it’s also powerful.
The Christians and Muslims are 55% alone, already past the tipping point of majority. Add the Hindu 15% and we have critical mass!
What we do with that critical mass as a species is up to us. Presently, the powers controlling our world choose to divide it. Separating the overwhelming majority based on minute differences in interpretation of their core beliefs. Taking details out of context to create points of control. Leveraging them further like puppeteers to divide and conquer.
Sun Tzu is an appropriate reference for big business. Governments and industries use the Art of War daily to create inequalities. Thus capitalizing on market imbalances and inefficiencies. Arbitrage. But when faced with critical challenges, such as the survival of our species — Art of War seems wholly inappropriate.
Looking at three religions that comprise 70% of our world — what common truth can we leverage to create win-win solutions?
The simplest place to start is with individual habits. The more we all perform a common habit, the more impact that habit has on the collective. If the habit transforms, then the way our world functions is likewise transformed. The things we all have in common is the need to eat, move, rest, and release waste. Primitive, isn’t it?
It’s difficult to leverage religion’s core truths to help us change our transportation issues. The world has become far too advanced. Likewise, waste and rest patterns are largely out of our individual control. The way we eat, however, is an interesting place to explore.
What did the big three religions teach their followers about the way to fuel themselves?
Christians, for one, are taught to be more Jesus-like. According to the documents we have available, Jesus ate a whole-foods-plant-based (WFPB)diet. With occasional exceptions for fish. The prophet Muhammad was likewise not a barbecue fan. Dates, barley, and water were more his thing. Hindus? Even more stringent about their veggies than Christians and Muslims. Hindus added the complexity of Ayurveda to the mix. Further restricting and balancing foods based on authentic individual needs.
Today, however, folks who adhere to these faiths live quite differently. Choosing only those bits and pieces of the practice that suit their modern and scattered lifestyles. Hanging at the trendy burger joint and remembering to pray and confess when the time is right.
With the holy month of Ramadan ending, many countries saw a rise in meat sales. Likely due to observant Muslims breaking their fasts with increased consumption of animal products. While Muslims comprise 4.6% of the population of the UK, they consume 20% of all lamb. This statistic is so vital, it’s used by the UK meat industry for marketing. Not very Muhammad-like!
Christmas is likewise a sales boon for the Western meat industry. The ham, goose, and beef seem so normal on a celebratory holiday table. Yet strange, considering the man’s twho’s birthday is being celebrated likely wouldn’t be eating this shit.
The disparity is especially vivid during Lent. For forty days Christians the world over endeavor to really be more Christ-like! Not only to share in his passion, but to gain better control over mind, body, and spirit. Strengthening one’s resolve through discipline and training in the process.
It seems like something everyone should be doing! And not just forty days out of the year.
What the Great Lent entails gastronomically is a WFPB diet with minimal use of oil. Millions of Christians adhere to this regimen for only forty days out of the year, yet this lifestyle is dubbed monastic for a reason. Christian monks live their entire lives by these principles. Occasionally partaking in fish and oil on specific holidays, celebrations, and natural needs.
This regimen is not meant as a sacrifice or torture, but as a pathway to peak performance and mental clarity. A lifestyle that not only sustains the individual at his/her peak but is beneficial to society and nature as well. Win-win-win!
The solutions to so many of our problems seem right in front of our eyes. Follow our oldest known teachers to a better place. Whatever that may have meant in the original context is irrelevant. The “better place formula” is still applicable to the fucked-up world of 2019!
Jesus and Muhammad’s views on fuelling our bodies also align with T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. and renown researcher and author of the China Study. The most comprehensive nutrition study ever conducted, which isolated a whole foods plant-based (WFPB) as key to wellbeing. But I can’t say I’m that altruistic. I care about your health, but this isn’t the motivation for this article.
While the WFPB lifestyle is not only prescribed by the religions of 70% of the world population and advocated by top medical professionals, it can also save our planet.
- Animal agriculture accounts for at least 32,000 million tons of CO2/year, 51% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
- Growing feedstock for animal agriculture consumes close to 60% of our potable water
- The runoffs and wastes of animal agriculture are showing catastrophic effects on marine life and fish stocks.
Our whole ecosystem has become so dependent on meat, we’re literally killing ourselves from every visible angle. From inside our bodies, to our environment, and to those that believe, our spirits. We’re spending 83% of our land to produce 15% of the calories we consume. This conditioned pattern of behavior makes little sense in today’s vivid reality.
It’s easy to brush aside religion as an adage of another era, yet billions of people still believe in these teachings. Intending that their dedication and faith will lead them and their dear ones to a better place. And so let us unite. Let us agree that our fuel and the consumption it entails is the single thing we can all change to avoid demise. Personal and collective.
In ancient scriptures often revised hundreds of times, very little original context remains. Yet when all faiths share commonalities that are said to help the devout achieve transcendence, perhaps it is worth a listen. And in the age of information, if science and medicine point to the same conclusions as the timeless tales of our prophets — it may just be Truth!
