The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet by Alicia Silverstone Read Free Book Online

burning the rain forest, we are sending even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Consider this: The average American car produces 3 kilograms of carbon per day. The clearing and burning of enough Costa Rican rain forest to produce one hamburger creates 75 kilograms of carbon. 43 And once that forest is gone, it ain’t coming back.
    Biodiversity: It is estimated that within a 4-square-mile patch of rain forest, you would find the following: 60 types of amphibians, 100 species of reptiles, 125 different mammals, 400 types of birds, 750 different trees, and 1,500 species of flowering plants. 44 Some experts believe that six plant or animal species become extinct due to rain forest destruction every hour. That’s tragic enough, but biodiversity is about much more than pleasing birdwatchers and ecotourists. Our natural world is a dynamic system that has evolved over billions of years. Within this sophisticated system, every single organism has a very special job. We—the almighty humans—think these little guys are expendable, but they’re not. When we destroy them, we destroy ourselves. For example, we are all totally dependent upon bees to pollinate flowers and plants, without which we would die. For all our technology, we have yet to develop a man-made substitute for the neat trick of mass pollination. Same thing with worms aerating and nourishing the soil—we can’t do that ourselves! Well done, worms! Even fresh air and water—vital necessities we take for granted—are created by interlinking biosystems that we cannot reproduce. Ever tried making your own air?
    Finally, more than 2,000 tropical forest plants have been identified by scientists as having anticancer properties, and 70 percent of the plants identified by the U.S. National Cancer Institute as useful in the treatment of cancer are found only in rain forests. 45
    So, clearly, rain forests are much more than “just” trees. That kind of rich biodiversity doesn’t spring back in one generation or even a hundred. With the land being used to feed or graze cattle, who will soon turn it into desert, it may never come back at all.
    Hopefully, we’ll understand—before it’s too late—that we can’t survive in a world consisting of concrete and human beings, even if we wanted to. So if you choose to eat meat—whether it’s beef, pork, chicken, or fish—know that you are stepping very heavily on the planet.
    NASTY TO ANIMALS
    Animals are my friends—and I don’t eat my friends.
    —George Bernard Shaw
    Killing is a big deal: We tend to hide from this fact, but let’s open our minds to it for just a moment. That was a life. Now it’s dead. And it’s in your body. Ever seen someone make the transition to death? It’s a big deal—especially when there’s suffering involved. Just for a moment, stop thinking of it as a delicious treat. Go beyond the sensory pleasure of your taste buds and consider for a moment what you’re really doing when you eat meat. Could you eat your dog? Your cat? Why not? It’s just an animal like a cow or a pig. What’s the difference between your pet and the animal you had for dinner last night? If your answer is “I don’t know,” please meditate on that question for a while before eating meat again.
    If your answer is “Well, I love my dog and he loves me—that’s the difference,” I ask you to consider what you’re really saying. Does that mean any person I don’t love is also disposable? Is “loving” the litmus test here? Or is it a matter of aesthetics? If so, who made up the rules that cows, pigs, and chickens can be food, but dogs and cats are cute, cuddly things, or that squirrels are cute but rats are not? What’s the difference between your dog’s sweet eyes and a cow’s?
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Fish Are People, Too!
If you think that fish brains are so small they don’t do much, think again. Dr. Culum Brown, an Australian behavioral ecologist, has conducted experiments with rainbow fish and found that they have