Green ooze taking over the world

Check it out. This is in Texas. And so is this:

I know what you’re thinking ... stock up on the canned beans because the apocalypse is coming. These satellite images look like something out of a sci-fi movie don’t they? If only. In fact, this is what humans are doing to the world.

These pictures show big factory farming operations in the US. The giant pools of multicoloured grossness in the middle -- they’re the waste pits for animal excrement.

Now, I know nobody likes talking about poop but I just want to take a slight tangent and tell you about my day volunteering at Edgar’s Mission farm sanctuary on the weekend. I spent a good couple of hours shovelling the do-do of Hansel and Gretel (pictured right). These two are lucky enough to be able to live out the rest of their lives in the care of people who love them for who they are, not what they can produce.

So what do Hansel and Gretel eat? Grass, hay and, as a special treat Weet Bix. So, their number 2’s are ... just that. It gets used to fertilise the surrounding land, thanks to the volunteers who go home with sore muscles from scooping it up. ;) (But seriously, great day. If you live in Vic and want to be a vollie at Edgar’s click here.)

So, my point is, why on earth does the kaka of factory farmed animals turn into toxic sludge? Well for starters there's the sheer number of animals... Farm animals now produce about 130 times more waste than humans. :/

But the man who discovered these images, Mishka Henner, dug a little deeper. And he learned that these waste pits contained “elevated levels of ammonia, nitrogen and phosphorous, as well as pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli, Cryptosporidium, and fecal coliform, plus antibiotics expelled in the animals' waste.”

Henner’s satellite photographs serve as a vibrant reminder of not only what factory farming is doing to animals, but to our environment as well. These images are from the US, but millions of animals are in factory farms right here in Australia as well. And this cruel industry is having a devastating global impact.

Thankfully, the solution to this global problem is very simple. And it starts with you. Click here to take the first step to changing the world.

What would Captain Planet do?

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