Profile in Courage – Seba Johnson

Seba Johnson is the first Black woman Olympic skier, and youngest Alpine Ski Racer in Olympic History!  She placed 28th out of 64 of the world's best in the Women's Giant Slalom at age 14 in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.  She received death threats, hate mail and attempts to disrupt her safety then and through the following World Cup and World Alpine Ski Championship competitions.  Skiing was considered a white man’s sport. 

 Seba was born in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.  She lived in a public housing project, and attended Head Start.  Her family moved around living in New Hampshire, Maine, and Nevads.  A vegan since birth, Seba learned about animal exploitation and attended protests with her Mother.  By her early teens, she held her own protests, once standing alone with a handmaked sign outside a zoo.

In the 1992 Winter Olympic Games in Albertville, France, Seba qualified for the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway.  She boycotted because Norway had resumed commercial hunting for whales.  She was disqualified from a World Cup ski race for refusing to wear a ski suit with a patch of leather on it.

"We must connect to a moral and ethical regard for each human and nonhuman animal until oppression is completely eradicated.”

 

 

 

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The Meaning of 'Vegan' by SharonL. Wallenberg

‘Vegan’ is a word first coined by British activist Donald Watson (1910 – 2005), founder of the first vegan organization. He was frustrated that the word ‘vegetarian’ came to include dairy products and eggs. His definition of ‘vegan’ was a "philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude – as far as possible and practical – all forms of exploitation of and cruelty to animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.

‘Vegan’ is about compassion. It is about making the world a better place, not only for people, but for the billions of other inhabitants of this planet whose lives and well-being have been overlooked, sometimes driven to extinction, and usually used as vehicles for providing human satisfactions of all types. It is about providing solutions to complex global issues.  The meat and dairy based diet is a major contributor to Climate Change – the world's greatest threat to security and survival, and causes diabetes and heart disease and antibiotic resistance.

‘Vegan’ is not a form of depravation. It is a lifestyle which embraces life, and life lived to the fullest. Vegan holds the promise of a healthier population, a sustainable planet, and kindness and compassion for all.

 

 

Cooling For All critical during Global Warming by Sharon L. Wallenberg

According to the Representative from Rwanda at a recent Sustainable Energy For All Conference – 50% of their food is destroyed from the farm to the market because of lack of cooling.  Global Warming is increasing, and so is the need for cooling!

Cooling for All does not mean an air-conditioner or refrigerator in every home; it means providing affordable and sustainable solutions to address the needs of the vulnerable, such as access to nutritious food and safe medicines and protection from heat in the transition to clean energy.

1.09 billion people are at high risk due to lack of access to cooling and a further 2.34 billion lack access to clean and efficient cooling.  Cooling access gaps for the rural and urban poor at highest risk grew in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean compared to the previous year.

 

COVID-19 vaccination distribution is uneven, and inequities exist.  A dramatic expansion in cold chain equipment is necessary to guarantee equitable distribution of vaccines.  Those living at the last mile in countries will be at risk of not being able to access a COVID-19 vaccine specifically due to cooling requirements.  The Critical 9 are the countries with largest number of people at high risk: India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Mozambique, Sudan, and Brazil.

 

The single greatest contributor to global warming is the greenhouse gas, methane, resulting from animal agriculture for the meat and dairy based diet.  In addition, the destruction of forests to create grazing for animals raised for food and dairy exacerbates global warming and the need for sustainable cooling.  Transitioning to a plant-based diet is the single most effective way to solve global warming and need for cooling solutions.

 

Environmental and Health Consequences of Meat and Dairy by Sharon L. Wallenberg

“The animal protein culture, conventionally viewed as improved consumption in a “nutrition transition”, has serious environmental and health consequences.”  The Lancet

Seven million people die every year from air pollution.  Animal agriculture is responsible for methane which holds heat in the atmosphere more effectively than carbon dioxide.  In addition, animal agriculture causes air pollution from ammonia, nitrous oxide, methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide.  This is in addition to water and land pollution.  Manure laden with disease, chemicals, antibiotics and hormones is polluting rivers and water tables worldwide, poisoning soils and contaminating waterways.

The single most effective way to eliminate the majority of the problems faced today – food insecurity, hunger, poverty, climate change, disease, habitat loss and species extinction is the plant-based diet, and elimination of exploitation of the most vulnerable – those of other species.

The recent EAT-Lancet Commission advocates plant-based foods.  “Eating plants directly rather than in meat, dairy, eggs, much less of the crop is required to deliver the same amount of protein, without the pollution and pandemics.”