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Exigent Change

Paul Kotschy

29 January 2020

This is about me. Only me. When I watch the Cowspiracy, An Inconvenient Truth, and Before the Flood documentaries, and read The End of the Line,[1] I feel a quickening of spirit, a sense of urgency.

When I learn about the horrific injustices and cruelty we still see fit to inflict on our fellow animals,[2] such as Earth's fish, chickens,[3][4][5][6] pigs[7][8][9][10][11] and cows[12] as if they are our slaves, objectified and de-personalised, I feel ashamed.

pig-in-cage3.jpg
Farrowing crates.
chickens-in-cage1b.jpg
Farrowing crates.

I discover how the 400 year trans-Atlantic slave trade was systematically and systemically abetted by Confederate Protestant Christianity, preached from the loftiest pulpits.[13][14][15][16][17]

slave-ship-stowage.jpg
Schematic of the stowage of the British slave ship Brookes under the regulated Slave Trade Act of 1788.[18]
david+john-deas-poster.jpg
A broadside (or poster) for a slave auction (Charleston, South Carolina, 1769).[19]

I learn with near disbelief how religious doctrinal bigotry caused the wound of anti-semitism to fester and seep for 2000 years.[20][21][22][23] And it bled at Christianity's pivotal moments, from the early utterances and writings by Emperor Constantine (272–337 ce) at the Council of Nicea,[24][25] to the founding of the Protestant Reformation under Martin Luther (1483–1546 ce), as reflected in his writing entitled, Von den Juden und Ihren Lugen (On the Jews and Their Lies).[26][27][28][29][30] I look up. And at long last, I see the moral arc of secularism's rainbow pointing to justice.

I learn about ever growing yet unsustainable income inequality.[31] I peruse empirical evidence that after a certain income threshold, happiness and wealth are not correlated.[32] This tells me that there's ample room for a seismic shift in the ethics, values and jurisprudence undergirding our present perpetual-growth systems.

As I stare and stare at my data graphs on spiking atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, a realisation dawns. Like a silent dark ship looming. The concentrations have not spiked; they are busy spiking. A deep conviction grows that real non-hoax facts undergird and legitimise this stirring.

most-nb-graph.svg
Histories of the globally averaged normalised atmospheric concentrations of the carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) greenhouse gases over the last 2000 years. The industrial era began around 1750. Normalised concentrations are expressed as the relative mole faction, i.e., as the number of molecules of the gas in a well-mixed atmospheric sample divided by the corresponding number in 1750. The plot combines data from measurements of gas concentrations trapped in ice cores at Law Dome, Antarctica, and of directly measured marine surface annual mean data. Data for the ice cores at Law Dome were accessed from [33]. Marine surface annual mean data were accessed from [34][35][36].

When I witness the tragic destruction of ecosystems[37][38][39] of parking lots replacing, of rainforests one thirtieth, of an efficient _____sameness _____for _____miles _____ , I feel sad. Every eco-heritage loss is my loss, for through connection upon connection, I had connection with it. Wild as a word is away from us.

amazon-destruction.jpg
Virgin jungle next to a burnt area located near Porto Velho, Brazil, 23 August 2019.

But when I learn about the talis(wo)manic work of various environmental activist people, of Avaaz, of 350.org and others, I am impelled to take part. And when I learn how the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is helping to promote Earth's biodiversity and ecosystem services,[40] and when I read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports,[41] I'm overcome with awe and with respect for what we can pull off. I am amazed for our capacity for prescience and for our values and ethics to change in step.

Something organic is stirring. I can feel it. Paradoxically, as it moves us to constraint, it liberates. It is reconnecting us with Earth and with Earth's richness. It is reminding me of what I am. Inasmuch as I am connected to Earth, I am fish, I am chicken, I am cow, I am my wife, I am my children. I am human.

I am ready for exigent change.

  1. [1] Charles Clover. The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat. Number 0-09-189781-5 (UK) 0-520-25505-4 (US). Ebury Press (UK), New Press (US). 2004 (UK), 2006 (US).
  2. [2] Wikipedia contributors. Intensive animal farming. Wikipedia. Accessed 29 January 2020. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intensive_animal_farming
  3. [3] Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations. Gateway to poultry production and products. Accessed 30 January 2020. https://www.fao.org/poultry-production-products/production/poultry-species/chickens/en/
  4. [4] Karen Davis. Chickens: Their Life and Death in Farming Operations. Advocacy for Animals. Accessed 30 January 2020. http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2018/10/chickens-their-life-and-death-in-farming-operations/
  5. [5] United States Department of Agriculture. Poultry Slaughter. Cornell University. Also 'https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/3197xm04j/ww72bt67r/3n204f353/psla0120.pdf'. Accessed 30 January 2020. https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/3197xm04j
  6. [6] Staff writer. Chickens Used for Food. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Accessed 30 January 2020. https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/chickens/
  7. [7] John J. McGlone. REVIEW: Updated scientific evidence on the welfare of gestating sows kept in different housing systems. The Professional Animal Scientist. 29():189--198, 2013. Accessed 30 January 2020. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1080744615302242
  8. [8] United States Department of Agriculture. Livestock Slaughter. Cornell University. Also 'https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/rx913p88g/fn107f118/1257b8885/lstk0120.pdf'. Accessed 29 January 2020. http://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/rx913p88g
  9. [9] United States Department of Agriculture. Quarterly Hogs and Pigs. Cornell University. Also 'http://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/rj430453j/8910k879r/5t34t1418/hgpg1219.pdf'. Accessed 29 January 2020. https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/rj430453j
  10. [10] Wikipedia contributors. Gestation crate. Wikipedia. Accessed 29 January 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestation_crate}
  11. [11] Wikipedia contributors. Learned helplessness. Wikipedia. Accessed 30 January 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness
  12. [12] Brian Machovina, et al. Biodiversity conservation: The key is reducing meat consumption. Science of the Total Environment. 536():419--431, 2016. See the "Introduction" section.
  13. [13] Bird Wilson. Memoir of the Life of the Rt. Rev. William Meade, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Pennsylvania. Number 978-1271130788. Nabu Press. 2001. This is a reproduction of Johns and Sparrow's book published in 1867.
  14. [14] Harriet Beecher Stowe. A Key to "Uncle Tom's Cabin"; presenting the original facts and documents upon which the story is founded. Page 249. Number 1-557094934. John P. Jewett & Co. of Boston and Jewett, Proctor & Worthington of Cleveland, Ohio, and Low & Company of London. 1853. This source contains some of the writings of Bishop William Meade.
  15. [15] Jeffrey Robert Young (ed). Proslavery and Sectional Thought in the Early South, 1740--1829: An Anthology. Page 198. Number 978-1570036170. University of South Carolina Press. 2006.
  16. [16] John Johns (1796--1876) and William Sparrow (1801--1874). A Memoir of the Life of the Right Rev. William Meade, D.D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Virginia. Baltimore, Innes & company. 1867. https://archive.org/details/memoiroflifeofri00john/page/n10
  17. [17] Stephen Elliott, Bishop of the Diocese of Georgia. "Our Cause in Harmony with the Purposes of God in Christ Jesus." A Sermon Preached in Christ Church, Savannah, on Thursday 18th September, 1862. Academic Affairs Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 2000. Accessed 16 April 2019. https://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/elliott5/elliott5.html
  18. [18] Prints and Photographs Online Catalogue, US Library of Congress. Stowage of the British slave ship Brookes under the regulated slave trade act of 1788. Accessed 29 January 2020. http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a34658/
  19. [19] Author unknown. David and John Deas's broadside for a slave auction (Charleston, South Carolina, USA, 1769). The Adverts 250 Project. Accessed 29 January 2020. https://adverts250project.org/tag/david-and-john-deas/
  20. [20] Robert S. Wistrich. Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred. Number 978-0679409465. Pantheon. 1992.
  21. [21] Author unknown. The Origins of Christian Anti-Semitism---Interview with Pieter van der Horst. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Accessed 22 April 2019. http://jcpa.org/article/the-origins-of-christian-anti-semitism/
  22. [22] Wikipedia contributors. History of antisemitism. Wikipedia. Accessed 22 April 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_antisemitism
  23. [23] Wikipedia contributors. Antisemitism in Christianity. Wikipedia. Accessed 22 April 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Christianity
  24. [24] Eusebius. Life of Constantine (Book 3). Chapter 18, Also available at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library 'http://www.ccel.org'. Accessed 30 June 2019. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iv.vi.iii.xviii.html
  25. [25] Theodoret. The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret (Book 1). Chapter 9---`The Epistle of the Emperor Constantine, concerning the matters transacted at the Council, addressed to those Bishops who were not present, Also available at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library 'http://www.ccel.org'. Accessed 30 June 2019. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf203.iv.viii.i.x.html
  26. [26] Wikipedia contributors. Martin Luther. Wikipedia. Accessed 22 April 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
  27. [27] Graham Noble. Martin Luther and German anti-semitism. History Review. 42(1-2):246, 2002.
  28. [28] Robert Michael. Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. 1st Ed. Number 978-1403974723. Palgrave Macmillan. 2006.
  29. [29] Christopher J. Probst. Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany. Number 978-0253001009. Indiana University Press. 2012.
  30. [30] Richard Harries. After the evil: Christianity and Judaism in the shadow of the Holocaust. Number 978-0199263134. Oxford University Press. 2003.
  31. [31] Wikipedia contributors. Economic inequality. Wikipedia. Accessed 29 January 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_inequality
  32. [32] Richard Layard. Happiness---Lessons from a New Science. Number 978-0143037019. Penguin Books. 2006.
  33. [33] Earth System Research Laboratory. Law Dome ice core 2000 year CO2, CH4, and N2O data. Global Monitoring Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Accessed 19 March 2019. ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/icecore/antarctica/law/law2006.txt
  34. [34] Ed Dlugokencky and Pieter Tans. Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide. Earth System Research Laboratory, Global Monitoring Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. See also 'ftp://aftp.cmdl.noaa.gov/products/trends/co2/co2_annmean_gl.txt'. Accessed 10 March 2019. https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/gl_full.html
  35. [35] Ed Dlugokencky and Pieter Tans. Trends in Atmospheric Methane. Global Monitoring Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. See also 'ftp://aftp.cmdl.noaa.gov/products/trends/ch4/ch4_annmean_gl.txt'. Accessed 10 March 2019. https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends_ch4/
  36. [36] Ed Dlugokencky. Combined Nitrous Oxide data. Earth System Research Laboratory, Global Monitoring Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. See also 'ftp://ftp.cmdl.noaa.gov/hats/n2o/combined/HATS_global_N2O.txt'. Accessed 10 March 2019. https://www.n2olevels.org/
  37. [37] See Brian Machovina, et al [12].
  38. [38] Staff writer. Measuring the daily destruction of the world's rainforests. 19 November 2009. Scientific American. Accessed 29 January 2020. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-talks-daily-destruction/
  39. [39] Andrea Burgener. Destructive farming is the issue. Business Live. Accessed 29 January 2020. https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/life/2019-08-28-destructive-farming-is-the-issue--not-whether-you-eat-meat-or-vegetables/
  40. [40] Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Accessed 31 January 2020. https://www.ipbes.net
  41. [41] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. Accessed 31 January 2020. https://www.ipcc.ch/reports

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