Survival on Planet Earth

Book Review

Title: Survival at Stake

Author: Poorva Joshipura

Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2023

Pages: 317 (including over 100 pages of Notes)

Everything on planet earth is interconnected. The survival of one depends on the survival of another. That is the fundamental message of Poorva Joshipura’s book, Survival at Stake. An example from the book for that interconnectedness: “Phytoplankton are eaten by small zooplankton, who are consumed by larger zooplankton, who are consumed by fish, who are consumed by sharks – you get the picture.” The phytoplankton, in turn, requires the whales for oxygen supply.

The relative pronoun ‘who’ is used by the author for the animals intentionally. She believes that humans are just another species of animals and the undue importance given to this species has been immensely detrimental to the other species as well as the planet.

We, humans, have misused the animals in many ways: for food, sports (hunting as well as games like cockfight, bullfight, etc), and fur and leather. Our treatment of the animals has engendered disastrous consequences for them and the planet. It has led to the extinction of many species, pollution of the planet in multifarious ways, climate change, and our health too.

Joshipura’s book is a detailed study of all the calamitous deeds of ours vis-à-vis animals. Let me start with health. “Around the world, almost 75 per cent of antimicrobial drugs on the market are used to rear animals for meat, eggs and dairy. That means far more antibiotics are used on farmed animals than for ourselves. This overuse of drugs is contributing to antimicrobial resistance and the development of superbugs – when medicines we need to treat illnesses from bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites become less effective or stop working altogether and when new resilient forms of infections arise.”

The book goes on to inform us that approximately 700,000 people lose their lives every year from drug-resistant diseases. In India, sepsis related to such infections kills almost 60,000 newborn babies every year.

600 million people suffer from food-borne diseases and 420,000 die from them every year.

Meat, fish, eggs, and milk are not quite healthy foods, the book argues with a lot of convincing statistics as well as scientific information.

Such foods form a humungous threat to the planet too as well as other animals. A lot of land and resources are used in order to grow animals for human consumption directly (as meat) or indirectly (eggs and milk). Livestock production is the single largest driver of habitat loss, the book says. This “ruthless habitat destruction” will soon be the number one reason for the extinction of many species of animals and plants on earth.

The amount of water used by the animals reared for human needs is mindboggling. It takes over 15,000 litres of water to produce one kilogram of beef – with most of it for crops that are fed to cattle. In contrast, 322 litres of water is enough to produce one kilogram of vegetables.  The “rearing of animals for food uses up a mammoth one-third of all the world’s freshwater.” One-third of the world’s cropland is used to feed cattle.

According to the FAO, meat, egg and dairy production is responsible for about 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than the emissions caused by the world’s entire transportation systems! The book surprises us with a lot of such data.

India’s obsession with the cow and her milk is no good for the planet, the book informs us. India is the world’s largest milk producer. A lot of methane is emitted by the gargantuan cattle population of India. Methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. 

Human cruelty to animals is the theme of an entire chapter. Blood-curdling details are provided about the ill treatment of sheep for their wool, rabbits for angora wool, dogs for leather, and so on. Dogs killed brutally for leather came as a new shock for me. China seems to be the most notorious for human cruelty to animals. The book has shocking details.

Animals are also used for medical research. Drugs are tried on them before being administered to humans. Joshipura says, “Scientists who question animal use in research point out the vast physiological differences between humans and animals means experiment outcomes in them cannot reliably predict how a drug or chemical will react in human body.” We ill treat too many animals for the sake of our wellbeing. Much of that cruelty is unwarranted as it does not yield expected outcomes. The book quotes George Bernar Shaw (who was a famous vegetarian and a forefather to the vegan movement): “Atrocities are not less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called medical research.”

Joshipura’s book is a commendable effort to convince us of the need for and importance of vegetarianism, even veganism. Renounce speciesism, she argues vehemently. Speciesism is a bias in favour of our species. We, humans, are not the crown of the creation. We are just another species of animals. What if we are capable of intelligent thinking? What use is that thinking if it leads to the destruction of millions of animals and plants?

The book made me think a lot. I confess that I am not a vegetarian, let alone vegan. Joshipura has succeeded in making me rethink my diet. The plain truth is that even the vegetables and fruits I get from the market are contaminated with traces of pesticides and weedicides. Theoretically, I accept vegetarianism. I wish I could put it into practice.

PS. You can have a preview of the book here.