Reviews global environmental degradation, the threats posed by climate change, and the substantial contributions of animal farming to it.
Agenda
6:30pm - Start
7:30pm - Estimated finish
Speaker
Andrew Knight
Synopsis
The anthropogenic rate of species extinctions is already 1,000 times faster than the natural rate typical of Earth’s long-term history, with the result that we are currently living through the sixth mass extinction event since fossil records began.
It is clear that climate change and habitat destruction represent the greatest threats to life on Earth for many millennia.
We currently have only a short window of time (7–8 years) to enact meaningful change. Given the urgency, it is remarkable that so little attention has been afforded to livestock production.
The greenhouse gas emissions from land clearing to graze livestock and grow feed crops, from livestock themselves, and from processing and transporting livestock products are among the greatest drivers of climate change. Strategies for mitigating the environmental damage caused by livestock production do exist, but are grossly inadequate in the face of human population growth and development, resultant rapidly increasing livestock consumption, and technological and financial barriers to rapid, large-scale deployment.
To realistically combat climate change, large-scale societal change is required, especially diet change.
About the speaker
Andrew Knight
Whilst a Western Australian veterinary student in 2000, Andrew Knight caused great controversy by refusing to kill animals during his surgical and preclinical training. Instead, he helped establish a humane surgical training program, based partly on neutering homeless animals from animal shelters.
Andrew is now a Veterinary Professor of Animal Welfare. After teaching at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine from 2013-2014, he established a Centre for Animal Welfare and two animal welfare degrees at the University of Winchester (UK) in 2015. He left in 2023 to establish his own nonprofit organisations, and now does animal welfare research and outreach full-time.
He’s also an Adjunct Professor at Murdoch University veterinary school, Western Australia (one of Australia’s leading veterinary schools), and in the School of Environment and Science at Griffith University, Queensland. He is a British, European, American and New Zealand Veterinary Specialist in Animal Welfare; a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and a Principal Fellow of Advance HE.
Andrew Knight has many publications, websites, and social media videos on animal welfare issues, which have attracted numerous awards. His books include The Costs and Benefits of Animal Experiments (2011), and (as Editor) the Routledge Handbook of Animal Welfare (2023).
The latter summarises all main animal welfare issues, and key animal law in all major world regions. It’s available fully open access via www.aknight.info/aw-book, and its chapters had been downloaded well over 200,000 times within two years, making it one of the world’s leading animal welfare textbooks.
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This event is brought to you by: Green IT specialist group
Supported by: Dorset branch and Hampshire branch
