If you want to live a healthy low-carbon life, eating less meat and more vegetables could be an effective and practical way of doing it, according to the organizers of the Meat-Free Monday campaign.
Following the lead of famous British singer and former Beatle Paul McCartney, who is promoting the Meat-Free Monday campaign, some local activists are launching a “Meat-Free Monday platform” in Taiwan on Sept. 21.
Alex Su, a vegetarian writer and one of the platform’s founders, says it’s vital that the campaign to wean people off meat eventually bears fruit. “Nature’s counterattack is reminding Taiwan that it is time to actively protect our environment,” he says. Su points out that, according to statistics compiled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in 2006, livestock production, not humans, is the biggest producer of carbon dioxide, as it accounts for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions — a bigger share than the petrochemical industry, cars, and motorcycles, which were mistakenly thought to be the major causes in the past.
The goal of the platform is to encourage people to keep their tables free of meat on Mondays and ask restaurants to offer their customers meat-free dishes as one-third of all items on the menu on that day. It will also work with supermarkets to introduce vegetarian counters, and with airlines to offer vegetarian meals on board. It will hold a meat-free forum and invite the mayor of Ghent in Belgium, which is known around the world for promoting Thursday as a vegetarian day, to give a speech. At the same time, it will cooperate with the media by flasing up Meat-Free Monday reminders during TV shows.
Su says the demand for meat products has been growing at an astonishing speed. The growth of the livestock industry has led to forests being destroyed to make room for pasture, while a massive amount of carbon dioxide is created during the production of both frozen meat and processed meat products. Tree planting as a means of protecting the environment takes three to five years to yield results. Transforming the petrochemical industry will be even more difficult. Meat production is the prime culprit of global warming, but it’s an area that’s relatively easy to improve.
Su said that the platform will set a two-year goal. It will first try various methods to turn meat-free Mondays into a habit, calling on the government to declare Mondays to be veggie days throughout Taiwan within the first year. Then, in the second year, it hopes to make the country a starting point to link up with likeminded groups worldwide and get all major countries in the world to join the Meat-Free Monday campaign.<>P>(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG)
想要過健康減碳新生活，少吃肉，改吃素，可能是有效的具體行動之一，響應「週一無肉日」更是民眾的新選擇！
繼英國前披頭四樂團知名歌手保羅．麥卡尼帶頭推廣週一無肉日後，國內民間人士也將於九二一當天，正式發起台灣版的「週一無肉日平台」。
發起人素食作家蘇小歡說：「大自然的反撲，提醒台灣的人民，該有些積極的環保作為了！」他指出，聯合國農糧組織（ＦＡＯ）在二００六年所做的統計資料就已經指出，二氧化碳最大的製造者，並非人類，而是畜牧業，畜牧業所排放的二氧化碳占全球總排放量的百分之十八，比過去被誤解的元凶—所有石化業、汽車、摩托車等加起來還高。
週一無肉日平台，目標將推動民眾週一餐桌無肉，餐館週一提供三分之一無肉菜單供消費者點用，並將結合量販業者推動素料專櫃，希望結合航空業者推動機上無肉餐，還將舉辦無肉餐高峰論壇，並邀請推動「週四無肉日」而聞名國際的比利時根特市長來台演講，同時結合電子媒體，透過跑馬燈提醒大家「週一無肉日」。
蘇小歡說，人類對肉品的需求量以驚人速度成長，畜牧業的發展不只導致森林遭濫墾來提供牧地，冷凍肉類及產製肉品過程，更釋放出大量的二氧化碳，想要透過種樹達到環保效果，需要三到五年，透過石化業輔導轉型更是困難重重，肉品產製過程就是造成地球暖化的第一元凶，但這也是比較可以有效改善的部分。
蘇小歡說，週一無肉日平台將設定兩年的目標時間，透過各種力量讓週一無肉日成為全民生活習慣，進而讓官方在第一年主動宣布週一為全台灣的無肉日，第二年則希望以台灣為起點，串聯全球有志團體，讓全球重要國家都加入週一無肉日行列。
（自由時報記者楊久瑩）
Historians are rethinking the way the Holocaust is being presented in museums as the world marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the last Nazi concentration camps this month. Shocking images of the mass killings of Jews were “used massively at the end of World War II to show the violence of the Nazis,” historian Tal Bruttmann, a specialist on the Holocaust, told AFP. But in doing so “we kind of lost sight of the fact that is not normal to show” such graphic scenes of mass murder, of people being humiliated and dehumanized, he said. Up to this
A ‘Dutch angle’ is a classic camera technique that has been used in filmmaking since the 1920s, when it was introduced to Hollywood by German Expressionists. Why is it called the Dutch angle if it’s actually German? In fact, it has no __1__ to the Netherlands. The term “Dutch” is widely believed to be a misinterpretation of “Deutsch,” which means German in the German language. In any event, the name stuck, and the Dutch angle remains a popular cinematic tool to this day. This technique involves tilting the camera on its x-axis, skewing the shot to create a sense of
When people listen to music today, they typically use streaming services like YouTube or Spotify. However, traditional formats like vinyl records have regained popularity in recent times. Vinyl records are circular discs that store music in grooves on their surfaces and are played on a turntable. As the turntable’s needle runs along these grooves, it picks up vibrations and translates them into sound. The history of vinyl records dates back to the late 1800s, but material and technological challenges delayed mass production until the 1950s. Despite early versions having short playtimes and poor sound quality, vinyl records introduced a new era
Dos & Don’ts — 想想看，這句話英語該怎麼說？ 1. 能做的事都做了。 ˇ All that could be done has been done. χ All that could be done have been done. 註︰all 指事情或抽象概念時當作單數。例如： All is well that ends well. （結果好就是好。） All is over with him. （他已經沒希望了。） That’s all for today. （今天到此為止。） all 指人時應當作複數。例如： All of us are interested in his proposal. All of us are doing our best. 2. 我們這麼做有益於我們的健康。 ˇ What we are doing is good for our health. χ What we are doing are good for our health. 註︰以關係代名詞 what 引導的作為主詞的子句，動詞用單數。如： What he said is true. 3. 大家都沿著步道跑。 ˇ Everybody runs along the trail. χ Everybody run along the trail. 註︰everyone 是指一大群人，但在文法上一般用單數。 4. 桌上有一本筆記本和兩支筆。 ˇ There were two
RSS