A friend recently asked - a few years ago I was an avid debater at school. Do I still have that in me.
Then and even now, if I see the logic in the other point of view, I do accept it hands down. After all, one learns and widens his/her own perspective through the other view point! वादे वादे जायते तत्त्वबोध: |
I was, and still am, a staunch supporter of vegetarianism/ no cruelty to animals. Yes, I am well aware that these days machines are used to get milk from cows; and if humans were cruel, machines are ruthless. And more often than not, its the hand that drives the machine or the hand that is too lazy to separate the machine from the cow who is the root cause. But directly killing a cow puts cruelty to a different level altogether. I recently read an article - the well-advertised push towards non-vegetarianism was started by farmers themselves, because by feeding half their produce to animals, their profits increased. More importantly, by not giving that half produce to humans, the foodgrains stayed costly and the capitalists stayed rich. The energy pyramid that was taught to me said that only 10% of energy from biomass is transferred to the upper level as you ascend the pyramid. So I still dont see how pushing people towards non-veg was profitable, forget about the water used up, or the waste created, or the environment harmed.
Then there are stupid humans who know that the rhino horn is chemically equivalent to their own nails and hair, yet will kill an endangered animal for a big */buck. I was upset at the photos of 2 wealthy guys showcasing their hunt of cheetahs and the severed tail of an elephant that they were kind-hearted enough to let the local africans eat. There are only 1024 tigers left in the world, but 18 were killed in 1 city on 1 day because a stupid human who had them as pets released them in un-wild.
My surfing led me to the mess created in the Everglades of Florida. Stupid humans who think they can pet a huge snake let them loose when the snakes grew unmanageably large. Soon, the everglades were teeming with exotic snakes, in an ecosystem where there had been no huge snakes for the last 16 million years. A few years after the snake invasion, native animals, most of which are already endangered, had dwindled by 95%. Now there was no other option but to hunt and kill the huge snakes for the larger purpose of saving those native animals. In other words, in this case hunting is totally justified, and is necessary to undo the harm to the environment.
Point noted, point taken!
Then and even now, if I see the logic in the other point of view, I do accept it hands down. After all, one learns and widens his/her own perspective through the other view point! वादे वादे जायते तत्त्वबोध: |
I was, and still am, a staunch supporter of vegetarianism/ no cruelty to animals. Yes, I am well aware that these days machines are used to get milk from cows; and if humans were cruel, machines are ruthless. And more often than not, its the hand that drives the machine or the hand that is too lazy to separate the machine from the cow who is the root cause. But directly killing a cow puts cruelty to a different level altogether. I recently read an article - the well-advertised push towards non-vegetarianism was started by farmers themselves, because by feeding half their produce to animals, their profits increased. More importantly, by not giving that half produce to humans, the foodgrains stayed costly and the capitalists stayed rich. The energy pyramid that was taught to me said that only 10% of energy from biomass is transferred to the upper level as you ascend the pyramid. So I still dont see how pushing people towards non-veg was profitable, forget about the water used up, or the waste created, or the environment harmed.
Then there are stupid humans who know that the rhino horn is chemically equivalent to their own nails and hair, yet will kill an endangered animal for a big */buck. I was upset at the photos of 2 wealthy guys showcasing their hunt of cheetahs and the severed tail of an elephant that they were kind-hearted enough to let the local africans eat. There are only 1024 tigers left in the world, but 18 were killed in 1 city on 1 day because a stupid human who had them as pets released them in un-wild.
My surfing led me to the mess created in the Everglades of Florida. Stupid humans who think they can pet a huge snake let them loose when the snakes grew unmanageably large. Soon, the everglades were teeming with exotic snakes, in an ecosystem where there had been no huge snakes for the last 16 million years. A few years after the snake invasion, native animals, most of which are already endangered, had dwindled by 95%. Now there was no other option but to hunt and kill the huge snakes for the larger purpose of saving those native animals. In other words, in this case hunting is totally justified, and is necessary to undo the harm to the environment.
Point noted, point taken!
