Feeding the world causes global warming!
Published Mon, Dec 11 2006 10:28 AM
Technorati Tags: Food and Drink, News and Politics, Global Warming, United Nations
According to the Independent Online Edition, eating meat is the cause of global warming.
A United Nations report has identified the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. And they are blamed for a host of other environmental crimes, from acid rain to the introduction of alien species, from producing deserts to creating dead zones in the oceans, from poisoning rivers and drinking water to destroying coral reefs.
The 400-page report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation, entitled Livestock's Long Shadow, also surveys the damage done by sheep, chickens, pigs and goats. But in almost every case, the world's 1.5 billion cattle are most to blame. Livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.
Burning fuel to produce fertiliser to grow feed, to produce meat and to transport it - and clearing vegetation for grazing - produces 9 per cent of all emissions of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. And their wind and manure emit more than one third of emissions of another, methane, which warms the world 20 times faster than carbon dioxide.
Livestock also produces more than 100 other polluting gases, including more than two-thirds of the world's emissions of ammonia, one of the main causes of acid rain.
Excuse me, could someone explain to me how a basic chemical can cause acid rain? If this is actually in the report, it's no wonder these alarmists can't be reasoned with. They don't understand basic chemistry, let alone science.
The report concludes that, unless drastic changes are made, the massive damage done by livestock will more than double by 2050, as demand for meat increases.
So what's the solution according to the U.N.? Well obviously it's to stop eating meat. PETA will probably get behind this.
At least I can start driving again.
Hat Tip: Sister Toldjah
Trackposted to Wake Up America, Perri Nelson's Website, Permanent Floating Ping Festival, The Random Yak, third world county, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate's Cove, The Bullwinkle Blog, Pursuing Holiness, and bRight & Early, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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Pirate's Cove trackbacked with "It’s Official: Cow Farts Are Worse Then Cars"
I'm glad the United Nations are around to tell us these things
Meet the world's top destroyer of the environment. It is not the car, or the plane,or even George Bush: it is the cow.
A United Nations report has identified the world's rapidly...
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David responded with: A base canard
 | It does seem off to blame a base chemical for acid formation, doesn't it? Perhaps someone got lost in the wasteland of bovine scatology and conflated urea/uric acid and ammonia? Still, it would seem odd for even urea/uric acid from cattle to be a major cause of acid rain.
I would like to know the process posited for the "causation" of acid rain by means of ammonia produced from cattle wastes. As you said, it's not shown in the article cited, just stated bluntly, as though it were fact.
Methane as a "greenhouse gas"--my only problem with cattle producing methane is that no one's figured out a way to capture the stuff and use it for fuel (though there are ingenius methods for composting manure to capture "waste" methane and produce a higher-quality fertilizer at the same time).
Of course, good livestock management programs allow for high-yield rotation of grazing lands so that the surrounding ecosystem has opportunity to recycle cattle excretions pretty efficiently with no other human intervention save for moving the stock at periodic intervals (though that does lose the chance to "harvest" methane production *sigh*).
But, as you say, at least we can drive our cars (down to Sonic for a burger, in my case) guilt-free (well, especially me. 35-38 mpg, and getting better). |
Wadard responded with: Mug a Skeptic
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