The Apes on Earth killed Mother

If animals had social media, this post would break the internet. For all we know, we have been lied to about the state of our planet over and over again. At first, it was about being careful. Then it was about regulating the damage. After that, it was about treating the rupture. Now, in 2021, it is about putting a bandaid on the bullet wound. I know why humans became the most dominant species on the planet. It was not because of their intelligence, it was because of their greed. This is a report on what has happened, how the apes on Earth killed Mother.

The Carbon Key

We have heard this since the first time we opened a science textbook. Carbon dioxide is bad for the world. Large amount of industrial gases and air pollution causes global warming. Did you know that Carbon dioxide is actually good? It turns out that planting trees for each house was a diversion from what was actually going on around the world. When you think about stopping global warming, what comes to your mind? A lovely green blanket of trees sweeping across the mountain. Did you know that planting trees is merely a toothpick trying to stop a rock rolling down the hill? Back in 2005, Almost half of the world’s surface area¹ was given to farming. We weren’t cutting down trees to make wooden furnitures, we were destroying forests to put food in our mouths. The outcome? Over 687M people suffer from malnutrition and 650M people are obese. You really thought planting succulents is going to stop global warming? We painted ourselves out of a bigger picture.

When you think about air pollution, I can guarentee you would think about two white chimneys of thick black smoke getting released into the atmosphere. Cutting down trees don’t just stop the absorption of carbon in the air, they also release carbon from the ground. You know the craziest part? You CANNOT plant trees in the soil that doesn’t have carbon! Carbon is required for the trees to grow. Once the carbon escapes the soil, it becomes barren. It breaks apart. If no action was taken, these areas will turn into patches of desert. When all the deserts connect, there won’t be any more rivers.

The water lock

I know most of us have gone to cleaning beaches. Putting plastics away from the shore. It helps. Well, Kinda. We were concerned that turtles will eat the plastic carry bags and drown. Micro plastics will take over the coral reefs and doom us all. The oil spills will cause the birds to give defective eggs. The ships emit greenhouse gases that will increase the carbon percentage. All of this is true, but these were the small soliders acting under a ruthless emperor. Cleaning sandy beaches will clean the beaches, it won’t stop the ecosystem 10000 feet under water.

This lovely wallpaper is called The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The total area is about 1.6 million square kilometers. In comparison, South Africa is 1.2 million square kilometers.

I didn’t know anything about this until very recently. I highly recommend watching Seaspiracy² on netflix. You can watch it with your spouse, it has got great visuals. This piece of ocean is part of the Pacific. Yes, THE pacific ocean. The major contributing factor is fishing nets and gear made out of plastic. Now, you may think, how did a fishing boat with five men produce this much garbage? I am talking about industrial fishing. The kind where you take thousands of fishes into the ship. Per minute.

Taking care of the sea is important since we seem to be very keen on turning our lands into deserts. The only source of food then, would be from the ocean. There again, carbon dioxide is sequestered. The big boys of the ocean, the sharks, whales and even dolphins act as commanders in charge of moving fish around the ocean. To let the carbon mix with the sea planktons and the biomes in the ocean. What do we do? We kill sharks. Not because they bite people but because they are a competition to fishing. Yes! We kill sharks, whales and dolphins because we get less fish if they are in the ocean. If that doesn’t make you angry, I don’t know what will. More fishes die of eating plastic from the fishing nets than actual plastic that people use.

The Meat door

Since we have to stop abusing the sea, and cannot grow crops on land. We turn to other forms of food. Our beloved chicken. If you don’t serve meat in a traditional south Indian wedding, you are frowned upon. It’s almost an insult to the guest if there is no meat in their plate. Like most of us, I was brought up thinking meat is what makes you stronger. The more you eat, the better you get. I had no idea, I was feeding the devil. The problem was simple. To grow livestock, chicken or otherwise, you need fodder. Fodder comes from crops and also use a ton of water. To get 500 gram of chicken meat, you need 468 gallons of water. That is enough drinking water for a person for 442 days. Not only are we killing trees for the land used to grow these chickens, We are also depleting our water source.

I know its hard to accept that chicken is going out of your daily menu any time soon but surely you wouldn’t trade water for that would you? And that’s just the meat that gets to your plate. Wasting food that’s on the plate is even worse. Studies show that if the meat wastage in our food was to be recycled, i.e., the amount of meat that ended up in garbage was never raised in livestock, it would save thousands of gallons of water per day and equivalent land required to raise them.

Into Pandora

I know what you are thinking. So, we cannot eat fish. No meat. No crops. Do you merely want us to live on water? You see, we are not killing the planet by eating food. We are killing it by making poor food choices. I will not ask someone not to buy anything from the local store to put that poor business owner in trouble. Make an informed choice when you eat at a restaurant is all I am saying. Infact the whole reason for writing this blog is to get rid of the guilt I was carrying. The key is to make sure that we encourage vegetables as much as possible. By now, all the vegetables have a bit of pesticides in them so I won’t say it is healthier or if it helps in lowering the deforestation. But lesser of the two demons is of course, vegetables.

If you have to make a choice in what you have to eat today, order vegetables. If there is absolutely no vegetables on the menu, go for the alternates. We know we can’t save the world by pot plants on our balcony, because what the energy companies do is not in our control. What’s in our control is the food we eat and as far as I can tell, that choice we make seems to answer all the problems. You don’t have to be an activist, a vegan or have a name for it. You don’t have to tell your friend why you chose to eat vegetables instead of other heavily processed supply chain foods. Will that lead to more forests to be uprooted? Absolutely not.

77% of total land used for food production is used by livestock. If you minimise meat intake, that land will be used for agriculture. Now you are scared that you would miss out on nutrients? Virat Kohli doesn’t eat meat. Haven’t seen anyone more match fit than him. If he was lacking nutrients, he would be out of the team many years ago. Lewis Hamilton, Alex morgan and Venus Williams are a few in that list. If a guy can drive F1 cars at 260 miles per hour by eating potatoes and carrots, I am sure you would have enough energy to climb a few stairs.

You see, taking meat out of your diet is not the solution. It is making a choice between what you eat when there is an alternate. From eating meat every week, now I eat only once a month. I honestly don’t see a difference. I think I have had enough meat in my life that it will fill a farm. If anyone says don’t eat meat because the chicken will feel pain, ignore them. I am telling you to stop choosing meat because we have enough carbon in the air that our grandkids won’t know what it is like to swim in a river.

Netflix and Chill Recommendations – Ice on fire, Before the flood, David Attenborogh – A life on our planet, The game changers, Kiss the ground, Seaspiracy

_{1 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/agriculture-food-crops-land
2 Seaspiracy is available in netflix as of today}