12.09.2024
Sydney – Following this week’s news that the climate catastrophe puts almost 68% of Australia’s tourism sites at major risk, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has penned a letter to Australian government agency Tourism Australia asking it not to serve environmentally damaging animal-derived products at future events and warning that meat-heavy menus help “sound a death knell for the very industry you’re tasked with representing”.
“Photos of Tourism Australia events awash with dead animals are embarrassing,” writes PETA Senior Policy Advisor Mimi Bekhechi. “If images from your gatherings showed attendees mining coal while promoting Australia’s natural beauty, people would rightly call out your hypocrisy, yet animal agriculture, like mining, accelerates global heating, drives habitat loss, pollutes waterways, and adversely affects coral reefs.”
A comprehensive dataset study from the University of Oxford, which examined five environmental impacts associated with diet, found that vegans had a quarter of the impact that high meat-eaters (those who eat 100 g of meat or more per day) have on greenhouse gas emissions and land use, just 27% on water pollution, 46% on water use, and 34% on biodiversity. In addition to its impact on the Great Barrier Reef and inland waterways, animal agriculture is behind Australia’s status as the developed world’s only deforestation hotspot, as most clearing – including of koala habitat – is being done to make room for grazing animals.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – suggests that as well as supporting the country’s crop farmers, Tourism Australia could use some 5,000 bush plant species to help shape sustainable, unique Australian menus. For more information, please visit PETA.org.au and follow the group on Facebook and Instagram.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli Media@peta.org.au
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