First of all, sorry for my lapse in posting weekly. Not a valid enough excuse (since I could’ve written and scheduled something), but I had an exceptionally hectic week. In between all of the commuting and interviews, I had a few minutes here and there to read about what’s been happening in Brazil – and how people are suggesting we deal with it.
Now, this is going to sound like a bit of a hot take, but putting the hashtag #PrayForAmazonia and making memes about the “wrong Amazon burning” doesn’t do s**t . Thoughts and prayers aren’t going to solve the problem – immediate action will. I don’t know about you, but I was certainly overwhelmed with all of the suggestions coming through my social media channels, and the variety of information I was finding on the state of the problem at hand.
I read somewhere that 72 000 fires have been started deliberately in the Amazon since January 2019 to clear the way for cattle-raising and whatnot. We’re about to enter week 4 on these fires in particular, yet we’ve been involuntarily dealing with this since the beginning of the calendar year? That doesn’t sit right with me. The information was really well detailed, which tells me that it’s not as undercover as some folks would like you to believe. It’s just that governments don’t care. Period.
Every year, we keep getting told that we have 10 years left and that we should be grateful. By my calculations based on that, we’ve only got until about 2025 until we’re SOL.
Back to the cattle thing: Not a thing is wrong with being vegan, but I’ve seen a lot of folks from the vegan community bashing people for still eating meat and that immediately changing your ways and not eating it will solve the problem. That’s obviously a very surface-level argument and we all know that it’s going to take more than that. As well, vegans that I personally know have done their research and didn’t just go cold turkey/go vegan immediately, as your body will need time to adjust and you need to understand how to substitute for the things your body needs that it would normally get from the consumption of meat.
*Note: I’m not saying that all vegans are making this argument, I’m just saying that I’ve seen a lot of posts from members of the vegan community along this line.
Finally, I’ve seen A LOT of charity orgs being brought up all of a sudden that are focused on wildlife relief. Call me cynical, but I doubt the legitimacy of a lot of these “Amazon aid” organizations given the timing of their presence. Remember Kony 2012? All I’m saying if that you’re considering donations of some sort, do your research and make sure that you clearly understand where you hard-earned coins will end up.
Khadijah Plummer Consulting 