Pirate's Cove

Quick, every Warmists around, here’s your chance to Do Something

Eating Beans Could Be A Magical Solution To Climate Change

There is a cause of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that nobody likes to talk about, and it is cow farts. In a single day, a lone cow can fill a 55-gallon bag with methane-laden gas–methane being a GHG as much as 30 times more damaging than carbon dioxide–and at least 1.5 billion cows roam the planet. The meat and dairy industry accounts for as much as 15% of global emissions.

Various solutions have been proposed to rein in cattle-fueled methane: A scientist at Texas A&M University is developing a closed-loop dairy concept to trap emissions from manure and convert it into fertilizer; a group of farmers in Argentina has gone down a less sophisticated route and begun to harvest cow farts in giant bags. But a team of American researchers, led by Helen Harwatt at Loma Linda University, are suggesting that the key might be people switching up their diets–and swapping out beef for beans.

Before we get sidetracked by the myriad “one gas for another” jokes to be made, let’s first get through the science of it all. This one change, the researchers found, would lead to the United States immediately hitting 50% to 75% of its GHG reduction targets for the year 2020. Beef is the most emissions-intensive food to produce, but–despite the fact that we, as a nation, have collectively reduced our consumption of it by 19% since 2005–it’s among the most popular proteins of choice in the country. Beans and legumes don’t carry the same all-American cache as a burger, but the researchers found that their production results in one-fortieth of the emissions produced by the livestock industry.

Tell you what: the Cult of Climastrology can give up their eating of meat, especially beef, and the rest of us will benefit from lower beef prices due to lower demand.

But, they won’t. So few make more than token changes in their own lives.