HomeNews/Essays Hummer Hamburgers, Climate-Bomb Cows, Meat-Eating Enviros, World Meat Production
Hummer Hamburgers, Climate-Bomb Cows, Meat-Eating Enviros, World Meat Production
by various authors
07 March 2009
Today's growing obsession with meat consumption must not be conveniently forgotten as we grapple with larger scary issues of climate extinction and economic crash -- for "it is all one," as our enlightened selves must be mindful of.
These four articles convey the issues well:
Hamburgers are the Hummers of Food in Global Warming: Scientists
By Agence France Presse
Feb. 15, 2009
Chicago (AFP) -- ...Food is the third largest contributor to the average US household's carbon footprint after driving and utilities, and in Europe - where people drive less and have smaller homes - it has an even greater impact. The livestock sector is estimated to account for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and beef is the biggest culprit.
A single kilogram of beef produces 16 kilograms carbon dioxide equivalent emissions: four times higher than pork and more than ten times as much as a kilogram of poultry, according to Nathan Pelletier of Dalhousie University in Canada.
Researchers: Even "Organically Raised" Cows Are a "Climate Bomb"
By Stephanie Ernst, Change.org
Feb. 25, 2009
"[W]ith global warming, here’s the inconvenient truth about meat and dairy products: If you eat them, regardless of their origin and how they were produced, you significantly contribute to climate change. Period. If your beef is from New Zealand or your own backyard, if your lamb is organic free-range or factory farmed, it still has a negative impact on global warming."
Read the Full Article
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FOX News and Animal Advocates on Meat-Eating Environmentalists
By Stephanie Ernst, Change.org
Feb. 10, 2009
How can global warming activists accept and acknowledge that animal agriculture is responsible for roughly 20 percent of the world's
greenhouse gas emissions and that switching to a vegan diet does
remarkably more to decrease a person's greenhouse gas contributions than, say, switching to a hybrid vehicle or CFLs and then not make that change, a change that is relatively easy to make, that is beneficial on multiple other levels, and that can be made immediately? Read the Full Article
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Meat Production Continues to Rise
By Brian Halweil, Worldwatch
Aug. 20, 2008
In 2007, meat production remained steady at an estimated 275 million tons; in 2008, output is expected to top 280 million tons.1 (See Figure 1.) Experts predict that by 2050 nearly twice as much meat will be produced as today, for a projected total of more than 465 million tons. Read the Full Article
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Some articles are published under Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. See Fair Use Notice for more information.