Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

International Environmental Issues

Mariana Contreras Maldonado
Final Essay- Cowspiracy

The silence of environmental organizations

“Do what you can do as well as you can do it every day of your life and you will end up dying
one of the happiest individuals that ever ever died.” -Howard Lyman

As we know the planet is the place were humans and living things live, as our home
we depend of it and have the responsibility to take care of it. However we are
excessively using our commons; resources that we shared, for example oceans,
forests or the atmosphere, with the excessively use of it, we are coming to the point
of extermination of the living things. Moreover, the little interest of the wellness of the
planet is causing a lot of problems like the climate change, with the excess of carbon
dioxide, the use of fossils or the greenhouse effect we are losing the potential of the
planet and we are putting in risk future generations. The effects of the climate change
are many, but some of them are the losing of the habitats, the extinction of wild
animals, drought-causing poverty and lose of houses, creating economic problems in
countries and also ecological crisis. However as we know, the effects of the climate
change that every organization or the media are telling us, is not only the problem, in
the documentary “Cowspiracy” they tell us that the main problem of environmental
issues are the animal agriculture or the cattle raising, a huge problem for our planet
because is the responsible for the increasing of the climate change.

The animal agriculture could produce a lot of greenhouse emissions and methane a
gas that favor the global warming and the destruction of the ecosystem because it
leaves an ecological footprint, also “overall, livestock agriculture (including all cows,
pigs, sheep etc.) Is responsible for about 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions.”
(Oakley, 2015) making the animal agriculture the key factor in climate change. But if
it is a huge problem why the environmental organizations can’t talk about that issue?
In the documentary they tried to interview environmental organizations like;
Greenpeace, Sierra Club or Rainforests Action. But any one can’t talk about this
issue; according to the documentary there is an inability to respond about this subject
and they are ignoring these problem don’t given any important information to the
people.

First of all, one of the possible answers to know why the environmental organizations
don’t talk about this issues is the importance to not lose any popularity and money
from this industries, if they don’t talk about the issue they don’t will lose economic
help. As we know the cattle rising produce a lot of money and benefits to the
economy of a country and it is convenient to avoid talking about the problem and give
money to the organizations in exchange of silence. Also “because it will harm their
public image and sponsorship” (Woolfe, 2014). On the other hand, as we talk about
this problem is causing a lot of deforestation especially in the Amazon, as Oakley,
2015 said Cattle ranching has been the biggest cause of deforestation in the
Amazon, such that a few years ago nearly 80% of deforested areas in Brazil was
used for pasture. Is a huge concern because the tropical forests are the ones who
give oxygen to our planet and this action of the cattle rising is causing the loss of
plants, trees and wild animals.

Besides is sad to see in the interviews that “Cowspiracy” made to the organizations
like Rainforest Action, because they said that the big issue of the deforestation is the
problem of felling of trees to have wood or the palm oil that is the responsible to de
26 millions of the lost of acres but they don’t talk about the animal agriculture.
However when they go to talk with Amazon Watch they said that it is too many
causes for the deforestation; projects of oil and mining that could be illegal. However
they don’t mention the problem of agriculture until he asked directly about the issue,
and the interviewed confirm that this was a huge problem because it was a big
business that gives a lot of money to the country and the private companies, also it
has many repercussions because the cattle cause the production of the soy and this
means the use of more forests and the lose of more species. The felling of the
tropical forests it’s thanks to the cattle rising causing the 95% of the environmental
loss. Also some interesting thing that this interviewed said was that maybe the
silence of the environmental organizations was because of the fear of the
government or the big industries. An example of someone that raises the voice and
talk about this problem was an American nun that said in an openly way that she was
in disagreement with the deforestation and the animal agriculture in the Amazon, she
was shot by this agriculture industries, also is not the only one “1,100 activists have
been killed in Brazil in the last 20 years” (Woolfe, 2014) and this could be another
reason why the environmental organizations don’t talk about this, because of the fear
to be kill. So you can see how the agriculture industry is very powerful and can
handle whoever wants.

By lasts when Andersen interview Animal Agriculture Alliance they talk about the
implementations of new technologies and the option to enclose the animals to reduce
the impact of the deforestation and the loss of territory, this sounds good, however
this option is not helping the agriculture animals, because it is not worth leaving them
locked up all their lives, so this is not a good option because this could bring more
controversial problems. On the other hand, Andersen finds that the environmental
organizations don’t talk about this issue because they deny it or claim ignorance
about the huge problems that the animal agriculture are causing. Moreover the
action that the environmental organizations are taking is very worrying because if
they tell the people about this issue and the possible solutions and actions that you
could take, like the reduction or the eliminating of the consumption of animal products
“is the most effective way to minimize your impact on the environment.” (Woolfe,
2014).

So as we see is very worrying how the environmental organizations don’t talk about
this issue and remain in silence and also the proofs that the documentary
“Cowspiracy” show in the interviews of some of the environmental organizations that
ignore the problem show us the disinformation that this organizations are giving us
causing this disinformation is causing repercussions to our planet and the lose of our
tropical forests and wild animals.
However, it had been some claims about the affirmations of “Cowspiracy”, in the way
the generalized saying that all the environmental organizations don’t talk about the
animal agriculture problem. And in some way this could be false because the science
and some NGO are trying to talk about the problem through conference and articles,
they are talking “extensively about the climate impact of livestock for several years
now. And particularly about the impact of cows, especially beef cattle, which have a
much heavier global warming hoof print” (Boucher, 2016). Also with some “reports
such as Root of the Problem (2011), Grade A Choice? (2012), Climate-Friendly Land
Use (2013), as well as in scientific papers and the 2012 book Cooler, Smarter.”
(Boucher, 2016). This, according to Boucher, 2016 show how “Cowspiracy” twist the
science, but also because of what they ask us to believe, they don’t try to look about
this articles and the conferences that talk about.

Other claims that have been show after the released of this documentary is that the
animal agriculture is not the thing that cause climate change, because according to
the Environmental Protection Agency of the U.S estimates that agriculture, including
livestock production, accounts for only about 8% of total greenhouse-gas emissions
in the country. (Lusk, 2014) and also that the “livestock in the U.S. have lower
greenhouse gas footprints than in other parts of the world.” (Lusk, 2014) also the new
technology could reduce the animal agriculture impact and show the new face of
cattle ranching.

Nevertheless, it is relevant to talk about that, this is an issue that is affecting

everyone, our planet and the loosening of a huge part of the tropical forests and the
wild animals. This documentary shows a lot of actions of environmental organizations
that demonstrate the disinformation and the ignorance of the problem is our
responsibility to be capable to change our habits and including values like
compassion and respect especially for our future generations.

Likewise, the reclaims of the documentary could be relate to the theory of the
liberalism in a way that the liberalism shows the importance of the cooperation and
the use of diverse organizations or NGO’s to achieve that cooperation in the
international system. However for them is very important the progress through
economic development and the free market, the silence of environmental
organizations could be because governments give more importance to the grow of
the economy to be more competitive in the international system and it is clear that
the agriculture industries are very powerful and have a lot of money. Also as they
have power in this business this had a lot of benefit to the PIB of a country. For other
side, the liberalism show a huge importance of the self-interests to have succeed this
could be relate in the way that this could be taken as an anthropocentric because for
this theory is more important the humans and the over exploit of resources with not
limits to have a good economic. Also with the attitude of the environmental
organizations with the problem of animal agriculture, we can see a utilitarian view
because they nature as a tool to the wellness of the humans and the improvements
in the economy.
On the other hand, the problem of climate change could be seen through the critical
theory because this theory recognizes the environmental issues. Also with this theory
the environmentalist can support their ideas and find the way to show the problems
and the possible solutions to the climate change and try to guide the society to a
more eco-centric view, this is because the critical theory recognize the problems and
try to solve them, they try to cause a social change.

Finally, it is clear how our planet is suffering causing the deforestation of our tropical
forests the lungs of our planet, hunger in developing countries, droughts, inundations,
extinctions of wild animals etc. all this because of the carbon dioxide, fossil field and
one of the main issues the; animal agriculture. A problem that is silenced by the
environmental organizations and the government, however as humans that live in
this planet we are part of it, so it is our responsibility to start and make an action, to
start to be more eco-friendly and try to see another options to change the meat to
organic food to see changes and give a hand to our planet, it is important to be more
conscious about this issue, however it depends on each one of us.

Reference:

Bartolomé, M. UN ABORDAJE GENERAL A LA TEORÍA DE LAS RELACIONES

INTERNACIONALES (1st ed., p. 5). Buenos Aires: Universidad de Belgrano.
Retrieved from
http://repositorio.ub.edu.ar/bitstream/handle/123456789/3505/4104%20-%20teoria
%20de%20las%20relaciones%20internacionales%20-%20bartolome.pdf?
sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Boucher, D. (2016). Movie Review: There's a Vast Cowspiracy about Climate

Change. Union of Concerned Scientists. Retrieved 17 November 2017, from
http://blog.ucsusa.org/doug-boucher/cowspiracy-movie-review

Class material

Lusk, J. (2014). Cheeseburgers Won't Melt the Polar Ice Caps. The Wall Street
Journal. Retrieved 17 November 2017, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/jayson-
lusk-cheeseburgers-wont-melt-the-polar-ice-caps-1408317541

Oakley, R. (2015). Cows, conspiracies, and Greenpeace. Greenpeace International.

Retrieved 17 November 2017, from
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/food-for-life-
cowspiracy/blog/54404/

Woolfe, S. (2014). What the Big Environmental Groups Don't Want You to Know.
Sam Woolfe. Retrieved 17 November 2017, from
http://www.samwoolfe.com/2014/11/what-big-environmental-groups-dont-want.html