Cowardice, Carnage, and Carbon

We are living through the most documented collapse of life in Earth’s history. And yet we still have climate summits filled with applause for pledges to "reduce emissions" by 2050. We don’t have decades. We don’t even have the guts to name the killer.

Let’s do it properly. Let’s say it clearly. The animal agriculture industry — and the systems that protect it — are slaughtering the planet. The politicians, corporations, and charities too afraid to confront it are complicit. This isn’t up for debate.

A System Built on Fire

The livestock industry alone causes more greenhouse gas emissions than every plane, train, and car on Earth combined. And yet, the headlines stay fixated on plastic straws and shorter showers. Why? Because unlike fossil fuels, animal agriculture is still socially acceptable. It's still someone's dinner. Someone’s tradition. Someone’s income stream. And so we’re supposed to ignore the fact that cows emit vast quantities of methane — a greenhouse gas over 80 times more potent than CO₂ in the short term — while forests are flattened and soils destroyed just to feed them.

Nearly 80% of all agricultural land is used to raise and feed animals, yet it provides less than 20% of the world’s calories. It is the most inefficient and ecologically destructive way to produce food — and it's entirely avoidable.

Cattle ranching is the single biggest driver of deforestation in the Amazon. Indigenous people are being displaced, their land stolen, their water poisoned, so that cows can graze and soya can be grown — not for human consumption, but to feed farmed animals.

We burn forests for burgers.

Rivers run brown with waste from factory farms. Oceans are dead zones, choked with agricultural runoff. Fish populations collapse while industrial trawlers sweep up everything in their path — not just fish, but turtles, dolphins, seals, and seabirds. And the people on those boats? Often trafficked. Often enslaved. Some jump overboard and are never seen again.

On land, modern slavery runs through slaughterhouses and processing plants. Some workers are undocumented. Some are children. Some were promised something better.

Slaughterhouse workers are among the most traumatised individuals in the labour force. Rates of PTSD, substance abuse, and domestic violence are sky-high. It turns out that killing sentient beings all day long and hearing their screams takes a toll. Who knew?

And this suffering — animal and human — is hidden behind “high welfare” labels and carefully cropped advertising.

It’s a pyramid of violence. The animals at the bottom. The workers just above them. And at the top? The customers, with clean hands, full bellies, and no idea what’s done in their name.

The Boiling Frog

Maybe the scariest part is how normal this all seems. Because we’re not reacting like a species in crisis. We’re reacting like a species in denial.

We’ve become the boiling frog. The water’s getting hotter, but instead of jumping out, we’re debating whether turning the dial down slightly will be enough. It won’t. This is not a system we can tweak into safety. This is a system we have to end.

Meanwhile, the industries that profit from destruction are still spending billions to make you think otherwise. Just like tobacco lied about cancer. Just like oil lied about climate change. The meat and dairy industries lie about your impact. “Don’t worry,” they say. “Your choices don’t matter. Focus on the real issues.” As if this isn’t one of them.

And it’s working. A 2023 poll found that 74% of Americans believed reducing or eliminating meat consumption wouldn’t help the planet. That’s not ignorance. That’s the result of a well-funded misinformation campaign stretching back decades.

They don’t want you to feel powerful. They want you to feel paralysed.

The Pathogens We Brought Upon Ourselves

This system isn’t just fueling climate collapse. It’s breeding the next pandemic.

Three out of four new infectious diseases are zoonotic — meaning they jump from animals to humans. And animal farming is the perfect breeding ground. Factory farms cram stressed, genetically similar animals together in filthy conditions. Pathogens spread fast. Viruses mutate. And every year, experts warn we’re rolling the dice on the next spillover event.

And when animals aren’t being dosed with antibiotics just to keep them alive in these conditions, they’re building resistance to them — passing it on to bacteria we might one day need to fight.

Antimicrobial resistance already kills over a million people a year. By 2050, it could kill more than cancer. And what’s one of the biggest drivers? The routine overuse of antibiotics in animal farming.

It’s not just climate. It’s not just cruelty. It’s public health. And we’re sleepwalking through it.

Fungi Are Evolving

Fungi are adapting to survive in higher temperatures. That might not sound like a big deal — until you realise that one of the reasons most fungal species can’t infect humans is because we’re too warm for them.

But now? They're catching up. Candida auris has already made the leap. Others may follow. If fungi gain the ability to survive in the human body, we will enter a whole new era of medical vulnerability — one we’re not remotely prepared for.

And again, what’s fuelling this shift? Global temperature rise. Methane. Deforestation. The same drivers behind animal agriculture.

Meat, Masculinity, and Emissions

We need to talk about the gender gap in climate collapse.

Globally, men are responsible for significantly higher emissions than women — largely because of what they eat. Meat consumption is higher among men in almost every country. In some studies, the emissions difference between male and female diets is as high as 40%.

That’s not a coincidence. That’s culture. Meat is marketed as masculine. As powerful. As necessary.

But there is nothing powerful about needing someone else to die for your lunch.

The Silence of Cowards

And where are the loud voices on this? Where are the mainstream environmental organisations calling for an end to animal farming? Where are the politicians proposing a transition plan that includes shutting down slaughterhouses, not subsidising them? Where are the major climate charities, still running campaigns about electric cars and “eating less meat” while partnering with burger brands?

They’re not coming. They’re scared. Scared of upsetting donors. Scared of alienating voters. Scared of being labelled “extreme.”

So they play it safe while the planet burns. They recommend personal change, but not political action. They call for lower emissions, but abolition. They support “better” animal farming, as if such a thing exists. As if you can have compassionate killing or ethical exploitation.

It’s cowardice. It’s betrayal. And animals — human and non-human — are dying because of it.

And Still… Silence

Billions of animals killed every year. Billions of tonnes of carbon emitted. Land stolen. Forests razed. Oceans emptied. Workers enslaved. Pathogens unleashed. Resistance building. Fungi evolving. And still, people say: “But what about taste?”

Still, people say: “It’s just a personal choice.”

Still, people say: “I could never give up cheese.”

So What Now?

We’re not waiting for permission. We don’t need another committee. Another watered-down pledge. Another campaign that avoids naming the real cause.

We are naming it.

We are rejecting it.

We are dismantling it.

We are building something better — not just for the planet, but for everyone on it.

You want climate justice? Start with animal liberation.

Because Earth isn’t dying of natural causes. It’s being killed.

And it’s time we stopped being polite about it.