Its true though it is an unsettling, irritating issue. Specially for those who are not willing to make any related sacrifices (not talking about animal sacrifices here, take note).

Bhaktikanda, that global warming is at least a partly fabricated conspiracy, with very clear pecuniary objectives as underlying motive, only intellectually-challenged, delusional personages will deny. That said, you can believe whatever you want to – it’s a free world.

The simple fact that Copenhagen was being widely hailed as an embarrassing disaster even prior to its conclusion proves my point. In case you misread or overlooked the relevant part of my previous response, I did say that Vedic animal sacrifice was not being equated with modern meat-eating as such, but that there was a slim parallel between the two, as there are between most things of this world, and that your own irritating, emotionally puerile manner of trying to excoriate anyone who may not be on the same wavelength as yourself merited such an approach.

Do not expect that I shall take the time to read anything you may write subsequent to this, much less reply to your posts henceforth. I’m done with wasting my time engaging in a discourse as futile as this one, specifically with somebody who stubbornly refuses to see things as they are. My time and energy are way too valuable for that.

One may be making a nice nest for oneself and one’s family, calling oneself practical and choosing to ignore the crisis. But in reality, such nesting amounts to cutting the very branch one nests on.

And also, like your flawed argument that vedic meat eating gives license for industrial meat eating, your argument that Islamic animal sacrifice equally gives license to industrial meat eating is equally flawed. Again, one thing has nothing to do with the other. In other words, no religious ritual which involves killing of animals will ever amount to the meat industry of today.

As for numbers, the fact that the masses does things wrong does not and will never make it right. The state of the environment today is proof of it. The consumerism of the masses, and attempts, like yours, at justifying such, proves that numbers are not a power unless its coupled with wisdom.

My reason for making the comparison stems from your own technique of indiscriminately panning all and sundry, which I for one consider to be an unreasonable tactic to adopt. Even more so, I like to be practical – a plant-based diet is desirable on countless levels, but what is the probability of even a sizeable percentage of the planet’s 7 billion human souls going for such a lifestyle? None! For some, such as Muslims, this goes diametrically against their faith, for the God of the Koran demands that animals be offered in sacrifice to Him. And we do know, do we not, that Islam is now the world’s premier religion in terms of size, having surpassed Christianity on that score a couple of years back.

As for the UN’s so-called panel of experts, you surely are aware of the fact that numerous well-respected scientists hold views that differ strongly from the mainstream hysteria of alarmism that gets aired by and on the mass media day in, day out. Protecting and preserving the natural habitat of life forms is always a noble cause, but it has to be viewed in proper perspective. The meat industry is a criminal cabal of unscrupulous mercenaries, yes, but the ineluctable truth is that it is here to stay, and the best way is to work around this fact, instead of spewing forth impassioned rants that are not going to serve any purpose, after all is said and done.

Reasonable, I do think I am; after all, I do get paid to take decisions that have a direct impact on the lives of a few thousand human beings, and as much as I detest some of the practices that earning my daily bread requires abiding by, this is the harsh reality of the era in which we are existing. For me to deny this would be tantamount to attempting to escape the life that my karma has thrown at me, and that is a road down which I simply cannot go.

Your arguments are not clear. You seem to skirt the actual issue.

Adieu Bhaktikanda

Apart from that though, it is a fact that meat eating has come to its time of reckoning, Ramsoondor. In this regard, check out the recommendations recently made by the UN to the world. If there is alarm, its clearly agreed on by the experts.

As for the well-being of humans, the concept was defined by Bhaktivinode better than any bewildered jiva can possibly ever expect to match in this or any future lifetime.

Regards.

Very apt observation, the communist system did not work as didn’t the claimed Vedic system. And as you point out the reason was practically the same, i.e., that humans want higher and higher rewards. Well, what really has been skewed is the definition of reward, or wealth. Real wealth is spiritual. Real value is in people, in sangha, not in things. Just look and see how even the richest people in the world aspire for higher states of consciousness. Our literature is full of stories of Kings who had the world at their command and yet would bow to a complete materially dispossessed traveling sadhu, begging the sadhu to remain in their courts for always.

Even abilities and skills are more valuable than the results they produce. Abilities and skills keep on developing, they are a result of the very nature of the soul, while things perish as soon as they are used up. Real value, real wealth is in knowledge. And interestingly enough, knowledge is only sustained when shared and shared equally. So indeed the only communism which is not a contradiction in terms is spiritual communism.

Lastly, I shall terminate my participation in this particular discussion by saying that the alarmist approach to green issues has never struck me as being especially fruitful an endeavour, and some of the arguments of those who objected to my above points seem, to me, to encompass elements of wishful thinking more than anything else. We know that no one is going to put the environment before development, and a realist ought to recognise that fact and work with it.

The situation of the world as we see it today is ugly, admittedly, but I will stand by the position advocated, namely that the well-being of humans should be at the forefront of all activities, right till the end.