The McCartney family
launches short film ‘One Day a Week’ highlighting the environmental impact of
animal agriculture and encourages people to help by eating less meat, with
appearances by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney, Woody Harrelson and Emma Stone.
Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 23) next week, Meat Free Monday
has released a short film about a huge contributor to climate change that is
often left out of conference discussions – animal agriculture. “There’s a
simple but significant way to help protect the planet and all its inhabitants”,
says Paul to camera. “And it starts with just one day a week. One day without
eating animal products can have a huge impact in helping maintain that delicate
balance that sustains us all.” With dire consequences for ourselves and future
generations, livestock production results in vast amounts of greenhouse gases
being released into the atmosphere. It requires increasingly unsustainable
levels of precious resources including land, water and energy, and is a major
contributor towards global environmental degradation and climate change. The
Meat Free Monday campaign has had an incredible response since its launch in 2009,
with many of the world’s leading authorities on climate change endorsing meat
reduction as an effective way of fighting global warming. The campaign’s new
film ‘One Day a Week’, largely funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and produced
in collaboration with French film director Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Hope
Production, amplifies this message using the breathtaking aerial photography
with which Arthus-Bertrand has become synonymous. Narrated by Paul, and with
appearances from Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney, Woody Harrelson and Emma
Stone, the film describes how the beauty of the planet only exists through a
delicate balance of climatic conditions – a balance we are dangerously
disrupting through our insatiable desire for animal products. The film uses Paul's
own music – tracks from his 1997 classical music album Standing Stone, as well
as an unreleased song called Botswana. Meat Free Monday’s aim is to raise
awareness and inspire people to make a change in their diets from an easily
achievable starting point.
