Paul McCartney -- Celebrity Green Report
Written By Katherine Sansom
May 14, 2007
Sir Paul McCartney was one half of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting team that formed the heart of The Beatles and created some of the most influential and exciting music ever made - changing the face of pop music forever. After The Beatles split in 1970, McCartney released two solo albums then went on to form Wings, with whom he shared several more hits. In recent years, he has produced award-winning film scores and classical music.
Sir Paul – or Macca, as he is affectionately known to his fellow Brits – has been honored with almost every songwriting award going, including an Academy Award and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also noted in the Guinness World Records as the most successful musician in the world, having sold more than 100,000,000 singles.
Alongside the world’s most impressive musical career, McCartney holds passionate beliefs in environmentalism and animal welfare, and he has lent his name to a host of different organizations and charities. He is also a self-confessed ‘skip picker’, and says he finds recycling unwanted goods a real pleasure!
Macca became a vegetarian in the late 60s, and describes his ‘moment of clarity’ as the day he came to realize the link between the roast lamb he and Linda were preparing for dinner and the lambs they could see playing in the fields outside. He says that neither he nor Linda looked back from that day.
Viva! was set up in October 1994 to campaign against the cruel and inhumane treatment of animals in the food and fur industries, and to promote vegetarianism, and McCartney has supported the organization since the beginning. As well as selecting the organization’s magazine, ‘Viva! Life’, as the publication with which he would give his first interview after the tragic death of his wife in 1998, Paul has also lent his name and given quotes to several of the Viva! campaigns over the years. These include protests against the abuse of kangaroos, ducks, horses, and others, and more general campaigns to encourage vegetarianism.
In 1999, Paul presented the founder of Viva! – Juliet Gellatley – with the first Pride of Britain Linda McCartney Award for Animal Welfare.
Earth Love Fund was set up in 1989 in an attempt to use the music and support of musicians and performers to help save the endangered rainforest. After successful fundraising concerts (including a performance by fellow ex-Beatle, Ringo Starr), Paul donated the rights to one of his songs for use on the 1992 benefit album, ‘Earthrise: The Rainforest Album’.
In 1995, Paul narrated a short documentary for The Vegetarian Society, titled ‘Devour the Earth’, which called for an end to the destruction of various areas of natural landscape and wildlife. (The documentary is currently available on YouTube – link given below.)
McCartney has spoken out against China’s fur trade, citing the inhumane treatment of cats in the industry, and urged people to boycott Chinese goods until an end is put to the process. Paul actively supported the (ultimately successful) campaign to ban fox hunting in the UK, and has criticized the US practice of slaughtering horses for food consumption overseas.
In 1999, Paul committed £3,000,000 of his own money to ensure that the Linda McCartney line of vegetarian foods remains free from GM ingredients; and he has since given his support to a campaign against a proposed ban on the sale of various vitamins and herbs in Europe. He was also one of many people to campaign against the production of foie gras as a result of the force-feeding of ducks that is involved in its manufacture. The delicacy is now banned in Chicago.
Last year, Paul and his then-wife, Heather Mills, visited Prince Edward Island in California to highlight the horror of the annual Canadian seal hunt. The subsequent documentary was watched around the world, and many more people became aware of the practice that results in the deaths of 325,000 seal pups every year. McCartney appeared on Larry King’s CNN show and argued passionately with the Newfoundland Prime Minister, Danny Williams, about the practice and suggested ‘seal watching’ as an alternative business to replace lost revenues.
Earlier this year, the one-of-a-kind Paul McCartney Signature Edition RX 400h Lexus Hybrid SUV was given away to the winner of a fundraising sweepstakes. The competition raised money for ‘Adopt-a-Minefield’, the charity that is seeking an end to the use of landmines worldwide; and adverts were accompanied by tracks from Paul’s new album – making Lexus the first company ever to be given permission to use the musical legend’s music in advertising.
"It's good to be involved with a company that sees the value of an environmentally conscious product", Macca said. "I was happy to provide the music."
McCartney now keeps an organic sheep farm just outside London and received the first Gretchen Wyler Award from the Humane Society of the United States earlier this year, in recognition of his life’s work in campaigning for animal welfare.
http://www.viva.org.uk/
www.vegsoc.org/
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0b2k98YLSnk
