more damaging. Even if it wanted to act on the latest desperate warnings, the lobbying power of the agricultural, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and food marketing sectors of the economy will ensure behind the scenes arm twisting on an intergalactic scale.


Part of the popular media has largely decided that global warming is a sham and encourages every half- baked and unscientific denial. The Daily Mail has made climate denial editorial policy. You can imagine the outcry these titles will whip up if our ‘brave farmers’ are threatened. Newspapers and magazines are, of course, an integral part of the consumer society and depend upon mass advertising for a large chunk of their revenue, much of it for meat, dairy and leather products.


We are therefore facing a watershed in the way our society is governed and our attitude to the planet on which we live. The policy decisions that are so vitally needed may be a long, long way off. With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warning that as far as


with the environment, and global warming in particular, the major problems do not become apparent until long after it is too late to do anything about them


global warming is concerned it may already be too late, action is needed now not a decade or two down the line.


Fortunately, you can exercise your freedom of choice and have an immediate impact on the world. Give up meat, fish and dairy now, adopt a vegan diet and reduce the impact of global warming, end the mass suffering of animals, slow the advance of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, end your part in the clearing of forests, the spread of deserts, the loss of species and the waste of fresh water.


It is an extraordinarily empowering decision and the only tragedy is that there are so few voices prepared to advocate it.


The one thing we cannot do is allow market forces to determine what happens. Even if you believe that markets work, they will not and cannot in this situation. Central to their working is their ability to adapt and change as circumstances develop or problems arise.


With the environment, and global warming in particular, the major problems do not become apparent until long after it is too late to do anything about them. Once global warming passes the tipping point, enters into positive feedback and becomes unstoppable, which the IPCC thinks may already have happened, our free marketeers will be impotent.


Make no mistake, effectively tackling environmental decline is going to result in a battle that pits ordinary, concerned people against huge vested interests and weak governments. In fact, it has already started!


20 VIV A! DIET OF DIS A S TER


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