Animals: Tradition - Philosophy - Religion Article from All-Creatures.org

Letter to Pope Francis About COP16 and Animal Agriculture

From Virginia Bell
October 2024

Consuming animals is a much-overlooked cause of environmental damage. We pray that you will bring the need to transition from animal agriculture to organic arable farming to the attention of the participants of COP16, and to the attention of the world.

Pope Francis, Image from Wikimedia Commons

Letter sent via Royal Mail, October 14, 2024:

His Holiness, Pope Francis
Casa Santa Marta,
00120 Città del Vaticano

14-10-2024

Dear Pope Francis,
COP16 AND ANIMAL AGRICULTURE

Together, we all represent Christian organisations, each of which has a special place in our hearts for God's creatures. Your Encyclicals Laudato Si' and Laudate Deum have caused us to rejoice in the fact that you have highlighted, in a specific way, the broken relationship between humans and other creatures and, further, have shown a clear respect for animals.

Your Statement to COP28 was a clear sign of your commitment to action for environmental integrity. We wonder if it is too much to hope that you will be attending COP16, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which begins on 21st October 2024?

We know that you are fully aware of the imminent and dire threat to the world's flora and fauna, due to humankind’s exploitation of resources and destructive practices. We would like to point out that the global harm from animal agriculture is far worse than is commonly described or understood. A Report published in the Journal of Ecological Society in 2021, shows that animal agriculture is responsible for at least 87% of greenhouse gas emissions per year. Unlike the Food and Agricultural Organisation assessments, this report includes the change of land use over the past hundreds of years to give a true picture of the part that animal agriculture plays. Certainly. there is strong evidence that animal agriculture is responsible for most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The pollutants emitted by animal agriculture are highly potent, such as ammonia, methane (at least 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide), and nitrous oxide (300 times more potent than carbon dioxide). All our environmental crises affect and aggravate one another in a vicious circle, and all are driven by animal agriculture: loss of biodiversity, pollution, pandemics, antibiotic resistance, destruction of land/sea/air, ocean dead zones, global starvation, and wasteful use of fresh water and resources, as well as being a cause of ill-health.

Unfortunately, consuming animals is a much-overlooked cause of environmental damage. We pray that you will bring the need to transition from animal agriculture to organic arable farming to the attention of the participants of COP16, and to the attention of the world.

A plea to just reduce meat consumption is an inadequate request at this point in planetary disintegration. Significant and urgent changes are needed to keep under 1.5 degrees Celsius. The University of Oxford research Report, published in 'Science' by Poore & Nemecek 1-6-2018, concludes that “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth”. It’s a way that billions of us can manage.

We urgently ask you to consider writing another update to Laudato Si', focusing on animals and on how a vegan way of life is pleasing to God, because it entails avoiding using and consuming animals as far as possible. How far down this road each person goes is an individual struggle, but the aim, we respectfully submit, should be to do no harm if we can avoid it, which means striving for a vegan lifestyle.

Yours sincerely in Christ,

Virginia Bell, for Catholic Action for Animals
Amy Ellis, Committee Member of Quaker Concern for Animals.
Barbara Gardner, Founder and CEO of Animal Interfaith Alliance
Maite van Gerwen, director CAS International
Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D., Chair, Christian Vegetarian Association
Chris Lord, member Quaker Concern for Animals
Fr Terry Martin, Parish Priest, Catholic Parish of Worthing & Lancing, Diocese of Arundel & Brighton UK "
Derek Reeve, retired parish priest, UK
John Woodhouse, Co-ordinator, Laudato Si' Animators UK

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Posted on All-Creatures: October 16, 2024
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