Pirate's Cove

So this whole anti-coal campaign has been a waste of time?

Cows — Not Coal — Are the Real Climate Change Culprits

President Obama recently likened denying climate change to believing the moon is made of cheese. As it turns out, ignoring this particular food’s role in climate change is just as irresponsible. Getting serious about climate change would mean finally addressing the gorilla – or, more appropriately, the cow — in the room. If you really care about the environment, you’d leave the cheese — and all meat and dairy products for that matter — off your plate.

By some estimates, the meat and dairy industry is responsible for up to half of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions — contributing more to climate change than even coal-fired power plants. Trying to regulate climate change without touching the meat industry is like trying to curb the obesity crisis without confronting, well, the meat industry.

Interesting. Have I not noted many, many, many times that agriculture is one of Man’s biggest contributions to the release of greenhouse gases, mostly due to methane? It can also cause land use issues. The methane would be global, land use localized.

So as weather patterns become more and more chaotic, blame the burgers, steaks, ribs, sausage, and other products of the massively overpopulated cows across the globe. Sure, cracking down on coal may be part of the fix. But there is a long-term solution to climate change that everyone can do right now: get the animals off our plates.

So, doom, eh?  Dr. Neal Barnard must have a solution, right?

So, that’s the bad news. The good news is that when people eat grains, beans, and other plant foods directly, instead of feeding them to animals, we need much less acreage and less energy, and we end up with a dramatically cleaner–and cooler–environment. Instead of turning corn and beans into chickens, pigs, and cows, we can make corn into corn bread, tortillas, stews, soups, or polenta and turn beans into chili, burritos, veggie burgers, or soymilk. We can turn grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes into a spaghetti dinner, an Asian stir-fry, or ten thousand other meals. And we can toast our environmental stewardship, as the Earth breathes easier.

But, he won’t come right out and say “kill all the cows (and other farm animals), do not raise any more”. He just dips around the edges. Nor will I say that, because, at the end of the day, agriculture is just a small addition when it comes to global warming, most of which is natural, rather than due to the works of Mankind.