Green Options

Music legend Sir Paul McCartney is seeking to enlist the help of an unlikely candidate in the battle to solve climate change, ex-baywatch starlet Pamela Anderson.

Apparently, his royal beatleness made the plea in a direct two page letter to Anderson, following her ongoing loyal support of animal rights group PETA. McCartney, a staunch advocate of vegetarianism for more than thirty years, was spurred on by a growing awareness that reduced meat consumption or vegetarianism is the “single most effective” way to tackle global warming.

Did you hear about KFC’s offer to fill the potholes in Louisville and four other US cities? Well, they’ve asked to be allowed to stencil an ad onto the pavement in exchange. Predictably, PETA and their KFC Cruelthy campaign now want some of the action.

“KFC might concentrate instead on improving conditions for the chickens it abuses, but it won’t, so we’re offering to double the money that KFC offered the City of Louisville—if the city will use our ads against KFC cruelty on its potholes instead,” reads a post today on PETA’s blog.

Australian musician Ben Lee brilliantly weaves daunting issues such as the global water crisis, religious intolerance, hunger, renewable energy and climate change into this catchy pop song. Lee has also been named one of PETA’s world’s sexiest vegetarians.

Despite evidence that increasing the seal hunt quota could bring the harp seal population down the dangerous levels, the Canadian government has approved a 55,000 seal increase to quota for the upcoming commercial seal hunt.

The increase brings the total to 338,000 young seals scheduled to be brutally killed. Canada’s Humane Society said the higher quota could bring the downfall of the species, much like times in the past when the population dropped two-thirds in a decade with an inflated quota.

In a deluge of incidents since last October, 14 people have been trampled or gored to death by rampaging elephants in the Indian state of Kerala. The usually mild-mannered, peaceful animals have likely been driven to retaliate due to polluted conditions and widespread abuse.

In fact, these events merely mark the latest in a string of 938 instances over the last 3 years where elephants have run amok. During that span, 207 of the animals have died from mistreatment, and 70 mahouts, or elephant trainers, have been killed in the wake.

PETA already has a website dedicated to pressuring Al Gore to drop the meat from his diet, but when they caught wind of his proposed new .ECO domain, they couldn’t resist the opportunity to take another stab at him.

Ingrid Newkirk, PETA’s president and founder, sent a letter to the CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers announcing PETA’s support for the new domain and their intention to register www.OffsetAlGore.eco if the application for the domain suceeds.

The Canadian seal hunt comes around once a year, and along with the hunt comes the international day of action against it: March 15th.

This year is looking more promising than ever. The European Union is considering a complete ban on seal products, a bill to ban the hunt has been introduced in the Canadian senate for the first time since the ’70s, and the general demand for seal products is shrinking worldwide.

An end to the hunt seems inevitable, but it won’t happen without continued pressure. Here are 5 simple ways you can help stop the hunt next Saturday:

The US Fish and Wildlife Service rejected an attempt by trophy hunters to re-allow shipments of polar bear parts from countries where it is legal to kill the embattled species.

The Humane Society of the United States lobbied the agency hard against the proposed reopening of the trade. The animals are listed as a threatened species in the United States, but other countries still allow the bears to be hunted.

Oregon State Representative Ben Cannon has proposed a 1900% increase in state beer tax, leading PETA to issue a letter asking him to instead consider a small meat tax in the state.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently re-launched the ‘McCruelty’ campaign against the fast food giant McDonald’s, saying of their treatment of animals, “I’m hatin’ it.”

The original campaign against McDonald’s was launched in 2000, and after the company worked with PETA to make some basic animal welfare changes, the campaign was withdrawn. Now, PETA says, there are more humane methods of killing animals such as chickens, but McDonald’s won’t use them. Controlled Atmosphere Killing (CAK) would allow chickens in McDonald’s suppliers’ slaughterhouses to die relatively painlessly, but they have refused to consider asking their suppliers to switch to CAK—a move that would cost McDonald’s nothing—and so PETA has unleashed their wrath at McCruelty.com. PETA says:

The 120-year-old lobster was out the door and heading towards freedom, but then an obstinate UPS driver wouldn’t agree to give the lobster’s box careful handling on its way back to the Atlantic.

Craig the 20-pound lobster made headlines after PETA asked Brooklyn restaurant owner Gina Ng to allow the animal to be released back into the wild. But yesterday, when PETA volunteers and a UPS driver arrived to take Craig away, the plan fell apart.