igougo / CC

On Monday, for the first time ever, Windsor Castle will host a vegan royal banquet. Take a moment to let that sink in. Windsor Castle has existed for 900 years, and it's just now getting around to throwing a vegan shindig. Oh, well. Better late than never.

Do we have leading U.K. climate-change expert Lord Stern to thank for this momentous occasion? Perhaps indirectly, but the true pioneer here is none other than Prince Philip (for you folks in the most far-flung colonies, he's the guy played by James Cromwell in The Queen).

Prince Philip's Alliance of Religions and Conservation is hosting a three-day interfaith conference at Windsor called "Many Heavens, One Earth: Faith Commitments for a Living Planet," which will be attended by leaders from the Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Daoist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Shinto, and Sikh faiths. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will also attend. Because they'll be talking about the ways in which religious communities can foster environmental protection, it only makes sense that they would dine on the most environmentally friendly (i.e., vegan) foods. Still, it's not every day that environmentalists actually put their money ethics where their mouths are, so this is a pretty big deal. Are you listening, Al Gore?

All the food at the three-day conference will be vegetarian, and most of it will be organic and locally grown. In case you aren't already jealous enough, here's what's on the vegan lunch menu at Windsor Castle: roasted pear salad with cobnuts and chicory, portobello mushrooms stuffed with artichoke and herbs, pearl barley risotto, and organic wine.

Yum—being a royal environmentalist tastes pretty good!

Posted by Alisa Mullins

Fox News host Glenn Beck may not be ready to sign PETA's "Pledge to Be Veg" just yet, but that didn't stop him from dishing up some choice words about Al Gore's continued, convenient omission of any mention of the meat industry's devastating impact on the environment.

thepulseofrevolution / CC

"… I am siding with PETA on this one—once again asking Al Gore, 'If you really want to save the planet, put down the cheeseburgers and pick up the veggie burgers. Time for soy milk and Tofurky.' … I've said before I disagree with PETA, but I respect them because they are not hypocrites: They say what they mean and mean what they say. I just disagree with what they say—except when it calls for Al Gore to eat tofu."

Makes me wanna send Mr. Beck some vegan chocolate kisses.

Folks, trying to clean up the environment without going vegan is like trying to mask the smell of rotting garbage by hanging 100 fragrance trees from the ceiling. It doesn't work. The only way to get rid of the stink and cruelty to animals is to change what you put on your plate.

Posted by Karin Bennett

famouschicken / CC

The day after the Senate votes on an extension of the Cash for Clunkers program, we're launching our new environmentally friendly program, "Cash for Cluckers."

Because a lot of nonvegetarian Americans are buy-curious about faux-meat products—and because factory farms wreak havoc on the environment—we've decided to offer consumers a rebate on their first taste of that faux goodness. For the first box of chickenless cutlets or nuggets that non-vegetarians buy, we're going to send them a $1 rebate and include a free copy of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit."

According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the equivalent of taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads. Our Cash for Cluckers program should inspire everyone to come out and try environmentally friendly products—such as those made by Boca and Lightlife—which offer the spot-on texture and flavor of chicken flesh, minus the animal suffering.

Want in on PETA's Cash for Cluckers program? Read the following rules and then head to the supermarket to explore the faux-chicken section—and remember to save that receipt!

Cash for Cluckers: Rules

• Receipts must be dated between August 6 and September 30, 2009, and must be received by PETA by October 5, 2009. Send your receipts to the following address:

  Cash for Cluckers
  PETA
  501 Front St.
  Norfolk, VA 23510

• Refund requesters must be U.S. residents.
• The product must be vegan faux chicken (no eggs, dairy products, or other animal-derived ingredients). Entries must include a statement that the entrant was not yet a vegetarian at the time of the purchase and had never tried faux chicken before.
• Limit one rebate per household.
• Open to the first 5,000 entries.

Neither Boca Foods nor Lightlife Foods are affiliated with or otherwise endorse, sponsor, or support this promotion.

Posted by Karin Bennett

When public school systems fall on hard times, they know they can count on PETA to pitch in. Remember when we sent message toilet paper to a struggling Detroit school? So, of course, we jumped into action when we heard about a cash-strapped school in Idaho that's limiting how much writing paper teachers can use.

One of Pocatello High School's teachers has actually begun selling ad space on the writing paper he uses in his classroom—one pizza joint has already placed an ad. While we respect his initiative, we thought we could one-up him. So we've written to the school's principal, Don Cotant, offering to provide the whole school with an entire semester's worth of recycled writing paper printed with our snazzy Meat's Not Green logo on it.

We'll let you know if Pocatello High takes us up on the offer! It would definitely be a more eco-friendly way to ease the budget crunch than encouraging kids to spend $5 on a pus-laced pizza. Plus it would be one step in the right direction toward being listed as one of the most vegetarian-friendly school districts next year.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

politicsonline / CC

Well … kind of. The former veep, unsatisfied with having invented the Internet itself, is now attempting to create a new domain-name suffix ".eco" for use by individuals, organizations, and companies that promote environmentally friendly causes. We think this is such a great idea that we plan to be first in line to use the new suffix that Al and Dot Eco LLC have teamed up to try to create—for our Web site OffsetAlGore.eco.

Sure, we already have the wildly popular OffsetAlGore.com, where you can go to compensate for some of the carbon and methane that Al Gore releases into the atmosphere every time he eats one of his daily Angus steak dinners or lunches by pledging to go vegetarian for 30 days. But OffsetAlGore.eco has such a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Click here to read PETA's letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (the corporation that approves new domain names) expressing wholehearted support for the opportunity to introduce legions of people to the idea that the harm their sea kitten sticks and pepperoni pizza inflict on the environment may be the most inconvenient truth of all.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

While nobody wants to get sick or injured while traveling abroad, if you're going to do it, make sure it's in the U.K. That's because all public hospitals in the U.K. are proposing to start offering meat-free menus as part of a National Health Service plan to curb the carbon emissions that cause climate change.

These hospitals should be seriously applauded for making progress and doing something positive in the fight against global warming (not to mention cruelty to animals). You don't have to be a scientist or climate-change expert to know that raising animals for food is the world's leading cause of carbon dioxide emissions.

PETA's "naughty nurses"—who have been visiting hospitals around the U.S. urging heart patients to go vegan—obviously endorse NHS's proposal. Click here to see for yourself!

Posted by Lianne Turner

We've decorated Washington's Pedicabs with this ad

Next week's historic presidential inauguration is being touted as the "greenest" of all time, so of course, we at PETA will be there in all our green glory!

Tomorrow, we'll already be on the streets of D.C. handing out fur coats to the homeless. Yep, you read that right. See, fur does nothing to raise a person's social status. On the contrary, only if you have nothing do you actually have any real excuse for wearing someone's cast-off fur. Next—to show our appreciation to all the fur-free folks attending the inaugural festivities in the cold—we'll be serving free hot soy cocoa in PETA cups printed with the message, "Thank you for not wearing fur."

D.C. fur coat giveaway

If you'll be in D.C., keep an eye out for PETA staffers and members dressed as foxes, raccoons, and rabbits and wearing pins that read, "Be Fur-Free."(Yes, they'll pose for photos.) If that isn't enough excitement for you, the peta2 "not-a-nugget" chick, "cows," and "pigs" will also be working the crowds with signs reading, "Yes We Can: Go Vegetarian!" They'll also be handing out copies of our free "Vegetarian Starter Kit." Even if you don't spot a PETA mascot, you'll probably catch a pedicab adorned with PETA's anti-fur ads.

As you know, fur is anything but green, folks. It's treated with chemicals (to keep it from decomposing, ewww), and the production of the ugly stuff pollutes rivers and streams with tannery runoff. It also takes 15 times the energy to produce a fur coat than it does to produce a faux-fur one. Then there's the business of ripping animals from their natural environment and killing them painfully. We're thinking that if Styrofoam isn't allowed, then fur certainly has no place at the inauguration.

So, here's to a truly green inaugural celebration.

Also, if you would like to donate your "change of heart" fur to us, click here. We'll make sure it is put to good use: We send donated furs to animal sanctuaries so that rescued animal orphans can be comforted by them. We also cut them up for refugee children in war zones and use them in educational displays.

Posted by Missy Lane

A few months ago, we shared photos from the Times Square launch of our "Clean Your Conscience" shower campaign. The campaign highlights that it takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce just 1 pound of meat.

I wanted to let you know that we definitely didn't stop the campaign following the NYC demo. In recent months, we've taken the shower, our soapy ladies, and the message that producing 1 pound of meat uses roughly the same amount of water as six months' worth of showers to Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Rochester, and more. In each city, we've gotten loads of media and spectator attention, meaning that thousands upon thousands of people have learned that if they care about the environment, they should go vegetarian today.

Here are some of the highlights from the tour:

If we haven't hit your city yet, don't worry. The tour—and the message that "1 Lb. of Meat = 6 Months of Showers"—is still going strong. Next up, our now squeaky-clean ladies will be showering in Columbus and Pittsburgh.

Posted by Carrie Ann Harris

Al Gore admitted to an audience at a political blogger conference that he may, indeed, be bad for the environment and guilty of contributing to global warming. Why? Because he just can't seem to stop eating meat, which is more harmful to the global warming crisis (which Gore is known for being a teeny bit fanatical about) than all of the world's cars, trucks, SUVs, and planes combined!

According to Ezra Klein at Prospect.org, Gore said, "It is true that it would be healthier for us as individuals and as a planet if we consumed less meat. I acknowledge that. … I myself am a meat eater and maybe that's had some effect" (emphasis mine). How did he go from acknowledging that vegetarianism is better for individuals and the planet to saying that maybe his choice to eat animals has some negative effect?

Without committing to any changes in the present, Al Gore explains that he "plead[s] guilty" and that we must "walk before we can run." Seriously? He doesn't know how to walk the walk on this issue? Have we not been clear enough with this guy? We'd love to love you, Al, but please stop clinging to the one thing that is so devastating for the world while asking everyone else to drop their bad habits.

What's next, M.A.D.D. beer cozies sized to fit in your car's cup holder? Ugh.

Posted by Sean Conner

Any good Marketing professional knows their “ABCs of Marketing”* — Ability to persuade, Businesslike demeanor, and of course, Coercion through bribery. Well, yesterday, in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Beckley, West Virginia, PETA’s Lettuce Ladies rocked all three of these important guidelines as they gave away free gas and vegan sandwiches to 100 people in exchange for a brief chat about the benefits of a vegan diet.

According to the Ladies, there were huge crowds gathered to take advantage of the freebies and find out what all the fuss was about after a news report announcing this unique demonstration, and they gave away hundreds of vegetarian starter kits to a very receptive audience, who were stunned to learn that eating just a single pound of meat is the environmental equivalent of driving more than 40 miles in an SUV. Here’s what my friend and professional Lettuce Lady Colleen Higgins had to say about the experience: "In a time of rising gas prices and rising concern for the environment, we're going the extra mile to help Americans fill up on vegan fuel for their tummies and gas for their tanks." Good stuff.

*I just made these up.

At a weekend religious youth rally in Italy, Pope Benedict XVI told the more than 500,000 attendees that young Catholics should take the lead in the fight to save the earth. Check out what he said, “Before it's too late, we need to make courageous choices that will recreate a strong alliance between man and Earth … We need a decisive 'yes' to care for creation and a strong commitment to reverse those trends that risk making the situation of decay irreversible.” Amen to that.

Makes this ad even more apropos, eh?

Are you as psyched as I am for Live Earth this weekend? Mad props to the organizers of this amazing event, which is actually nine concerts rolled into one huge global event to draw attention to the global warming crisis facing the world. What an undertaking . . .

Now don’t get me wrong, anytime Snoop Dogg and Snow Patrol play the same event, I’m all for it, no matter what the cause. But let’s be real here. Because the meat industry emits massive quantities of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, selling meat at Live Earth would be like selling cigarettes at an anti-cancer fundraiser. And that’s exactly the message we sent in a letter to George Zoffinger, the guy in charge of Giants Stadium, the venue for the US portion of the event. Check out the letter here.

While it might be an Inconvenient Truth, for some at first, the reality is that what people eat is far more important than anything else they do—like, more important than switching from a Hummer to a Prius even—in determining greenhouse gas emissions, so making the concert venue vegetarian for the day is really the least the organizers can do. And the single most important step any of us can take to alleviate global warming is to simply go vegetarian.

In any event, enjoy the show, and if you’re looking for something to keep you awake while Madonna and Sheryl Crow perform, check out our “Live For the Earth” contest to win a $50 iTunes gift card.

PETA India's Campaign Coordinator, Rohini Kamath, just sent me some photos from a couple of protests that she and her colleagues held this week to draw attention to, respectively, the cruelty of the dairy industry, and the hypocrisy inherent in eating meat and trying to save the environment at the same time. Check 'em out:

Bound to a wheelchair and carrying a sign reading, “The dark side of dairy,” PETA India’s cow mascot, Ganga, protested the hideous cruelty of the dairy industry on World Milk Day. The activists also held signs emblazoned with the slogan “Doodh: not so cool, Dude,” and, though it's not entirely clear to me what that means, I'm told that if you say that to someone in Ahmedabad, they'll cut the dairy right out of their diet in a hot second.

And …

Eating out of a giant earth and holding signs reading “You Can't Be a Meat Eating Environmentalist” the PETA India folks held a demonstration on World Environment Day to protest the massive environmental devastation caused by the meat industry.

PETA India — you guys are, hands down, my favorite PETA affiliate. OK, fine, I say that to all the affiliates, but I'm totally smitten with that globe-eating demonstration. Keep up the great work.

The argument goes like this: Hybrid car owners get a tax break for purchasing a vehicle with low carbon emissions. So if a group of people are taking active steps to make purchases that are even better for the environment than switching to a Toyota Prius, they should get a tax break too, right? Given that a recent University of Chicago report proved that switching to a vegetarian diet is more effective in countering global warming than switching from a standard car to a hybrid, it seems like we're on pretty solid ground with this one. Earlier this morning, PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk, sent letters to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid making exactly that point. Not to say that choosing a hybrid vehicle isn't responsible, but if you're looking for a way to help the environment, ending your support for an industry that generates more greenhouse gases than all the world’s transportation systems combined is a pretty damn good one.