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Earth Day is a week away, so brace yourself for cuddly, hug-the-planet blubbering from the presidential candidates. John McCain will tell you we must be the “caretakers of creation.” Hillary Clinton will talk of recycling and efficient light bulbs. Barack Obama will surely tell us we “cannot afford more of the same timid politics when the future of our planet is at stake.” |
Ah, but what about hamburgers? When the candidates tell us to stay out of McDonald’s, then we will know their light bulbs are on. The end of timid politics is when they say that with the planet at stake, you must eat less steak.
With fatal food riots in poor nations, and with China rapidly approaching Western levels of consumption, we in these obese United States must redefine what constitutes, to borrow from McDonald’s, a “happy meal.” Scientists are concluding that along with more fuel-efficient cars and curbing industrial pollution, the simple act of eating less meat could help slow global warming.
Interesting, provocative – and doomed in the homeland of fast food.
So in a nutshell farts cause global warming? Hell I say let’s bottle it up and use it as a replacement for natural gas. Kinda like that first skit from the Kentucky Fried Movie.
Are these guys really trying to tell me that eating a few less hamburgers on my grill is the same as taking a few semis off the road and not adding new ones?
Global warning and hamburgers! LOL. It must be spring. The nuts are bearing fruit!
Why don’t we take all the CO2, convert/compress to carbon and burn it again?
#3 – certainly your 2nd paragraph validated the 1st.
#4 Yep. Glad you saw the humor.
For the good of the planet we need to get back to high-polluting fossil fuels and leave the biomass used to make cleaner bio-fuels for people to eat.
RBG
I think vegetarians fart too.
Why won’t every American / Canadian eat one less portion of beef, pork & poultry per week?
It’s the three meals a day, each one that “just has to” have a meat (or three) portion in it.
Not at all necessary.
Now that the “market” has been created, just like for cheap doo-dads, meat on your table is now coming from outside the US/Canada.
So much for quality control, hormone control, antibiotic control.
Enjoy your hamburgers !
For each one you eat, people starve elsewhere.
Yep. True. Don’t take my word for it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/07/scienceofclimatechange.food
#6 – I think we should cut down all the rain forests so we can grow more bio fuel crops and keep pumping CO2 into the atmosphere through power generation.
Surely, Jackson didn’t expect more than piquant attention. After all, we live in a land that not only subsidizes beef and cattle fodder; but, tobacco and grain for booze.
Our government isn’t motivated to get past the 19th Century. Our citizens – no matter how proud they are of their desktop hardware – aren’t inclined to study and learn a healthful lifestyle if it actually requires decisions counter to how Daddy did it.
Food chain – to most commenters – obviously means something akin to Albertson’s.
#7 I thought cows were vegetarians.
I say we just Neutron Bomb China and India. Move all the homeless into the now empty buildings. That will cut down on meat consumption. For all those who say I should eat less meat. F*$k That, I love my steak and burgers.
#10 – Yep. If China or other countries have food riots let them solve it. U.S. should stay out of other countries problems.
#10 – Holy cow! (pun intended)
I’m really getting tired of condescending busybodies thinking they can dictate how everyone ELSE lives their lives. I know too much beef fat can be bad for me. I GET IT, okay? We all know what you’re trying to tell us; we’ve heard it a million times. I like hamburgers, okay? So do a lot of people.
It’s not that we don’t hear you. We’re just sick of your preaching.
Food rots on the docks in Haiti. Incessant war in Rwanda prevents harvest. Blaming starvation on world overpopulation is naive and simplistic. Any scientific “study” that ignores real logistics is a waste of paper.
My not eating that Big Mac can’t possibly transfer it (or its per-grazing-acre) grain equivalent to where it really needs to go.
#13 – “My not eating that Big Mac can’t possibly transfer it (or its per-grazing-acre) grain equivalent to where it really needs to go.”
I know we can just cut our diet down and ship all excess food to other countries free of charge. As lack of land isn’t the problem for these other countries but corruption is it wouldn’t solve the problem. But, I guess it would give some a warm fuzzy feeling.
#7. “I think vegetarians fart too”, no, they compost.
We could rename this blog http://www.missthepoint.com
14 Pat. How many billions of people can we support before there’s a problem, you figure?
RBG
#17 how many billion live in the US, you figure?
I refuse to go out of my way to “help the environment”. You see, I have already done the most important thing that anyone can possibly do to cut consumption of resources and generation of pollution. I did not reproduce.
Bringing a new human being into the world is worse than just about anything I can imagine from an enviornmental standpoint.
And of course, I don’t really care what happens to the planet after the next 50 years or so. I turn 46 very shortly, so I won’t be here and neither will my non-existent little brats!
#16, yes, agreed, trying to discuss objectively the merrits of an inconclusive article on a subject founded on contestable philosophy, is likely to cause confusion. Learn from my mistakes, don’t offer an opinion on anything unless you’re mentioned in the actual article. Feed worthy debates with bufoonery.