Angel Chen on the Global Climate Strike and 100 Debates for the Environment

Listen to this show here!

To start the show, we give a review of the Canadian première of the new vegan documentary film called “A Slice of Life”.

Then we speak about the environmental crisis of the Planet and play a clip of last week’s video made by actor Woody Harrelson and singer Billie Ellish, both vegans and environmental activists, who put out a call to drop meat, dairy and plastics out of our lives to help curb climate change. You can watch the video here:

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We also discuss the CBC’s current media series on the rise of veganism in Vancouver, which has featured an interview with our own Elyse Jacobson, as the administrator of the exponentially-growing Vancouver Vegans Facebook group (with 8100 member thus far).

Activist Angel Catherine Chen on the Climate Strike and 100 Debates for the Environment in the Election Season

Local Vancouver social justice activist Angel Chen joins us in the studio to speak about her experience at the Vancouver Global Climate Strike last Friday, September 27th, which our co-host Carole Davies MacIntosh also attended. They were both present to educate the public on the devastating impacts of the animal agriculture industry on the environment, which seemed to not be addressed much in this rally and march that 100,000 people attended. Angel was part of an animal activist group in the march that held a ginormous sign that read “Animal agriculture is the leading cause of: global warming, deforestation, species extinction, water depletion, ocean dead zones. Plant-based for the Planet.” In this talk with Angel and Carole, we find out what the atmosphere was like when it came to recognizing that we must fight climate change with diet change.

Angel’s personal sign at the Vancouver Climate March. Love the message!

The 100 Debates for the Environment is a national initiative to hold all-candidate debates on the environment in 100 ridings across Canada on October 3rd. At the public debate last night for Vancouver-Quadra, at the University of British Columbia, the participating politicians were Liberal Party MP Joyce Murray, Green Party candidate Geoff Wright, and NDP Party candidate Leigh Kenny. (Conservative Party candidate Kathleen Dickson was also invited, but declined attendance) The debate was hosted by Dr. Simon Donner, a professor at the University in the Department of Geography, and an expert on climate science.

The first four topics covered were on: water; the old growth forests; keeping to our climate (greenhouse gas emissions) targets in Canada; and pollution, toxic substances and pesticides. Further topics included: the Paris Agreement; climate adaptation and lawsuits against fossil fuel companies; how to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their pollution; jobs; and the right to a clean environment.

They also took questions from the public, and Angel took it upon herself to ask the candidates about the role of animal agriculture on climate change and what their position was on this subject (and how they plan to address this, if elected). This topic would not have been covered had it not been for Angel asking this question. Listen to this show (and watch the livestream video of the debate itself, below) to find out the answers! (hint: none of the candidates had any concrete plans of action in this area)

Animal agriculture is heavily subsidized in Canada, to the tune of $4 billion a year. In this next federal election on October 21st, the party elected will be responsible for trying to mitigate the damage we have done to the environment in 4 of the next 11 years left. It is arguably one of our most important elections. So far in the pre-election period, about 27% more Canadians have voted than the total of voting participating in any past federal election in Canada. Now is the time to vote, and make your voice be known!