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Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet

boyntonstu

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Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet

People will need to turn vegetarian if the world is to conquer climate change, according to a leading authority on global warming.

In an interview with The Times, Lord Stern of Brentford said: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”

Direct emissions of methane from cows and pigs is a significant source of greenhouse gases. Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6891362.ece

Goodbye Burger King!
 
Lord Stern, who said that he was not a strict vegetarian himself, was speaking on the eve of an all-parliamentary debate on climate change.
I think it's safe to call this elitism. "Do as I say, not as I do".
 
Well it doesn't give a quote on him demanding people do, even if the title gives that (false?) impression.
It does include where he is trying to get the price of meat up to a point where no one but rich hypocritical asshats like himself can afford it.

He's an elitist prick.
 
Is he going to China and demand they give up meat? I'd like to see him try. They would prepare a huge feast of roast pig for his arrival and laugh him out of the country.
 
Direct emissions of methane from cows and pigs is a significant source of greenhouse gases.

From irrefutable olfactory observations (I have witnesses too) my direct methane emissions increase dramatically after an only moderate consumption of certain vegetables (especially beans).

Since I dare consider myself a rather representative individual, it is safe to assume that my observations are a general phenomenon affecting a large percentage of the human population.

I'm afraid this is not a solution. We'd only be shifting the methane emissions from the consumed species to us, with all the social inconveniences implied.
 
It does include where he is trying to get the price of meat up to a point where no one but rich hypocritical asshats like himself can afford it.

He's an elitist prick.

Wow. Lil' chip on your shoulder there? There's a difference between banning all meat and going back to meat being a sidedish rather than the entire meal. For the record, I'm not a vegetarian, I simply think that the current mainly-meat-menu that's popular in Europe and the States is unsustainable in the long term.

More than methane production, meat production from cattle is very inefficient and resource-hungry compared to growing vegetables, farm-fish, chicken or insects. It should therefore definitely be scaled down in western diets in favour of more efficient foodstuffs.

You're growing food for animals which have a food conversion ratio (FCR) of anywhere from 3:1 to 8:1 (pigs and cows respectively), whereas chicken has a ratio of 2:1 to 4:1 and farm-fish anywhere from 1.2 to 2 (Salmon and Tilapia, respectively). All of the animals also produce waste, lots of it.

Let's take pork as an example - Smithfield is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) pork producers in the States. 500,000 Pigs at one of their production plant will generate more fecal matter per year than 1.5 million human inhabitants - about 26 million tons a year.

Industrial pig waste contains a host of toxic substances: ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, cyanide, phosphorous, nitrates and heavy metals. This is in addition to the microbial and bacterial pathogens it carries like salmonella, cryptosporidium, streptocolli and girardia. A lot of pig **** is one thing; a lot of highly toxic pig **** is another. Where do you keep millions of tons of highly toxic pig ****** Why, in the open air in the ground, of course!

Rolling Stone said:
Smithfield's holding ponds -- the company calls them lagoons -- cover as much as 120,000 square feet. The area around a single slaughterhouse can contain hundreds of lagoons, some of which run thirty feet deep. The liquid in them is not brown. The interactions between the bacteria and blood and afterbirths and stillborn piglets and urine and excrement and chemicals and drugs turn the lagoons pink.

The lagoons themselves are so viscous and venomous that if someone falls in it is foolish to try to save him. Even light rains can cause lagoons to overflow; major floods have transformed entire counties into pig-**** bayous. To alleviate swelling lagoons, workers sometimes pump the **** out of them and spray the waste on surrounding fields, which results in what the industry daintily refers to as "overapplication." This can turn hundreds of acres -- thousands of football fields -- into shallow mud puddles of pig ****. Tree branches drip with pig ****.

Some pig-farm lagoons have polyethylene liners, which can be punctured by rocks in the ground, allowing **** to seep beneath the liners and spread and ferment. Gases from the fermentation can inflate the liner like a hot-air balloon and rise in an expanding, accelerating bubble, forcing thousands of tons of feces out of the lagoon in all directions.

More here: Rolling Stone: Pork's Dirty Secret. Good read even if you don't agree with Stern.


Also: glazed crickets are delicious.
 
A recent newspaper article here claimed that the we use 80% of arable land to create 15% of the calories we eat.

Sorry, can't back that up, but i do believe that meat is an inefficient way to grow food.

Having said that, I would choose murder and cannibalism over vegetarianism. :D

Animals are yummy.
 
I was taught, "You are what you eat."

Cows, pigs, chickens...in fact, pretty much all the animals that I eat...they eat vegetables and grains. Thus, applying the above statement logically, they are all made of vegetables.

And thus, when I eat them, I am being a responsible vegetarian.
 
I was taught, "You are what you eat."
Whoa, that makes me a (insert term for lady's tender parts)

Cows, pigs, chickens...in fact, pretty much all the animals that I eat...they eat vegetables and grains. Thus, applying the above statement logically, they are all made of vegetables.

And thus, when I eat them, I am being a responsible vegetarian.
Well lookee there, Cletus, we done found the first vegetarian lupine on the planet Earth!

What say you give them smart fellas up at the Smithsonian a telephone call?

DR
 
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Wow. Lil' chip on your shoulder there? There's a difference between banning all meat and going back to meat being a sidedish rather than the entire meal.
It's not his place to tell anyone else how to eat, or to artificially jack up the price of foods he disagrees with.

When Lord Stern decides to live a lifestyle consistent with his goal for everyone else he'll have some credibility. And it goes far beyond how much meat he eats, let's compare house size and number, number of cars, travel, etc. Let's compare the resources Lord Stern uses compared to what the average inhabitant of Earth uses.

Elitist prick.
 
OK, lets say we did quit eating cows,pigs,etc. That means more animals breeding and therefore even more animals and even more greenhouse gases.

So way the I figure it,I'm helping to control greenhouse gasses by helping to control the animal population.

Ahhh, feels good knowing you're doing a good deed while eating meat,mmmm.
 
He would have come off as less crazy and controlling if he had simply suggested we consider cutting back on meat.

Btw I used to be a vegetarian and I can tell you now not everyone can do so and maintain optimal health. I felt weak without the flesh; even with all those alternative sources of protein and making great strides to balance my diet.
 
Yeah, everything he (and Rolling Stone) says *might* be true. That doesn't affect the fact the the most of the greenhouse gasses being produced now are from industrial, not agricultural, processes. But, of course, fixing that might hit him in the pocketbook, right where it hurts.
 

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