Is there a connection between your Dinner Plate and Global Warming?

Question

Ever since "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore has been the darling of environmentalists, but that movie hardly endeared him to the animal rights folks. According to them, the most inconvenient truth of all is that raising animals for meat contributes more to global warming than all the sport utility vehicles combined.

In late November, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report stating that the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined.

On its Web page and in its literature, the Humane Society has also been highlighting other scientific studies -- notably, one that recently came out of the University of Chicago -- that, in essence, show that "switching to a plant-based diet does more to curb global warming than switching from an S.U.V. to a Camry," said Paul Shapiro, senior director of the factory farming campaign for the Humane Society.

At least I am here, unlike 'shilo9i', to inform and *raise* the level of thinking.

The only sensible answer appears to be from 'Permaculture byderule'. Most other answers are 'hogwash'. Apologies to all creatures called hogs.

Answer 1

Thanks for the update...now do you have a question you want answered, or are you here simply because nobody will listen to you face to face?

This site is not here for you to raise awareness...it is here to ask and answer questions. Go to a chat room if you want to chat.

Answer 2

The greenhouse gas nitrous oxide is produced by the nitrogen fertilisers used. Greens will say that crops can be grown organically BUT!! - organic production relies on animal dung. Get rid of the dung and crops suffer, use all the goodness from the soil and eventually ends up with a barren landscape.

Whether the greens like it or not the production and use of nitrogen fertilisers is rising fast year on year. The price of bread and sugar has doubled.

Meat based products are vital for most peoples health and have stopped millions starving.

If the US stopped eating beef millions of cattle would be destroyed. The economies of many countries like Argentina would be destroyed and people there starved.

There is no right or wrong but like many things the middle path is about right.

People who argue for one extreme or the other are always in the wrong simply because so many people would suffer disease, starvation and death!! These people seem incapable of thinking through the pros and cons correctly and recognising the down side!

Answer 3

This is apart from the effects of the winds of cows

the Environment and what we eat are directly related
Tortillas and beef are killing But nobody ,not even hard core Mexican Environmentalists will will even consider giving up tortillas

On top of that people buy 5 times as much as they actually eat and it is a huge quantity that ends up rotting in the country side ,
only a small portion of the waste tortillas goes to the pigs or dogs .

The cattle and corn fields devour Nature,deforestation to make space for the agriculture and then excessive pumping for water ,over grazing and the use of chemicals is a mayor reason of desertification ,
what once was a lush forest cool and wet ,ends up as a dry and hot dessert
,
Enough of that and the climate changes
This or similar is happening all over the world .

Northern china is changing into a giant dessert for roughly the same reasons

Wheat fields by the way reflect heat and can cause freak burn spots hundreds of miles away

And all mono culture farming is harm full
better employ the concepts of diversity and Permaculture
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AueL1qfW60A9wdXaDs.IY1Hsy6IX?qid=20070815183923AA8E0NK

Africa because of expanding urbanizations ,is killing forests and affecting the climates.

if we would farm Nature ,we would have been far better of ,but when one tries to change mans diet we come up against a brick wall.

Africa had plains full of millions of animals and a great variety of grass species,all we had to do was protect it and cull.

Instead we wiped it out replaced it with only a few species of grass ,and cows ,(which with their heavy feet stamped the salt to the surface )
The ranches in northern South Africa today have been abandoned due to dead soils and lack of ground water, peppered with contamination,

And we are supposed to be the intelligent species
that is a joke

I f only we could change mans habits ,we could initiate a healing process ,until then don`t count any chickens

Under the trees ,we could farm Deer,pheasants ,partridge,rabbits ,guinny fowl and wild boar what have you and at the same time grow coffee or fruit trees,vines that have food and much more and not do any damage to either the climate or the environment ,including ground water supplies .or soil quality .

Tell McDonald's to stop selling hamburgers or the people to stop`eating them .

you better beware or you will end up on the menu

Answer 4

It seems that a lot of human activity generates greenhouse gases. The scaremongers will pick on anything to be able tax and control people under the "global warming" banner. Al Gore is just keeping his face in the public eye for his own agenda. He is, after all, I suspect politically motivated. This global warming thing is now turning into a "business" of its own, with all sorts of people jumping on the bandwagon, although I've no doubt that human-influenced climate change is happening, but not to the horrific degree that is claimed. A lot of people have well paid jobs related to the global warming issue, and would be at a loss (and possibly out of work) if things weren't as bad as first portrayed. A bit like the Health and Safety Executive officers continually tinkering and creating work for themselves to justify their positions. They need to take a time out and think before getting calculators out and working out the next possible consequence of greenhouse emissions from petrol lawnmowers so they can look clever and scream about armageddon.

Answer 5

I have lots of info that I think you will find quite helpful and enlightening:

http://ecowellness.multiply.com/ for excellent inspirational info within my blog to help not only our world and its creatures, but to also open peoples hearts and minds to many amazing wonders that life has to offer. I also have lots of info in my blog to help fuel peoples imaginations to many possibilities that can be found only in the minds eye.

Along with lots of environmental info, amazing environmental pictures and videos (These videos show the beauty of this world and what life can be like if people take the time to appreciate life’s true beauty).

Let us all strive for a greener/brighter future by helping to create a solid foundation for future generations to build upon, so we can hand them a beautiful world, filled with never ending awe and wonders!!

Where peoples differences and uniqueness are accepted, where we all live as one, helping one another so that we can all play our own mysteriously beautiful melodies in the never ending, awe inspiring, song of life :-)

I truly have faith in humanity and believe that someday our lives and the world in which we live will truly be transformed for the better.

Answer 6

You have described Al Gore. Reject the energy guzzling mansion and preaching. The earth has periods of warmth and cold over hundreds of years, so any natural phenomenon should not be preached against and a modest home would use much less energy.

Answer 7

Everything we do in some way affects our planet,I don`t eat factory farmed meat ,I rear my own chickens, shoot and eat rabbits,duckand game in season,there are millions of rabbits in the uk if every body started to eat them instead of beef it would do everybody a favour and save the cereal crops from thousands of pounds worth of damage.

Answer 8

Yes, it is a big factor.

The farmer needs machinery that all burn fossil fuels, the fertilisers and pesticides are from fossil fuels, the truck that takes livestock & vegies to market all use fossil fuel, the processing plants use electric whic is generated by fossil fuel, nuclear fuel etc, the trucks that deliver to the supermarkets use fossil fuel, the shooper uses fossil fuel to go to the super market... Shall I stop?

So yeah, in a way your 16Valve 6 litre gas guzzler uses less fuel joy riding for a week than your sunday dinner cost to get it on your table.

Answer 9

Those damn animals, pooing everywhere, we best kill them all to save the planet. Does that sound rediculous. So does saying we must all become cabbage heads to save the planet.

By the way Al Gore is a politician, AKA professional liar.

Answer 10

You're just parroting one of the more common myths about Global Warming. Did it every occur to you to devoted some of your time and energy to something you DO believe in?

Answer 11

I'm so mad at cows for causing global warming, that I'm going to eat 2 hamburgers tonight, and a steak tomorrow!

That should help reduce the number of cows om the planet!