Saturday, January 26, 2008

Meat the Real Terrorists!

Growing meat (it’s hard to use the word “raising” when applied to animals in factory farms) uses so many resources that it’s a challenge to enumerate them all. But consider: an estimated 30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than transportation.

To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

The rest of the story...

15 comments:

H Nicole Young said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
H Nicole Young said...

And I just had a Big Mac for lunch, too, for the first time in probably ten years. I'm blaming it on three months of subliminal messaging from the jail, which sits right next to a McDonald's.

It is apparently the first thing everybody in San Francisco County Jail does when they get out -- go to the McDonald's, but since I missed my chance (I was released too late at night to hit the McDonalds on my release day), I guess I made up for it in spades today here in Berkeley without even thinking about it or thinking, "Why in the heck am I ordering a Big Mac when I haven't done this for ten years?"

Anyway, I agree we should cut down on meat consumption. I especially feel this way when I drive past that big, smelly (is it called Harris Ranch?) cattle farm off of Interstate 5 in California's heartland -- and I know everybody who has passed it even once knows what I'm talking about!

I am not a vegetarian by a long shot, and I certainly like my meat, but I also respect Henry David Thoreau's argument in his book "Walden" that went something like this: "I always get a kick out of the man driving his heavily loaded oxen cart into town and carrying on about how it was not possible for a hard-working man like himself to live off of vegetables alone. Meat was required for strength, he would say, as he feeds his two huge oxen, pulling a huge weight behind them, their diet of oats and hay."

This is so paraphrased as to be ridiculous, but you get the gist of what I can remember of Thoreau's point.

Also, aren't the global warming people pointing at methane production from cows as a big problem, too?

This is an example of how education alone might do the trick w/o having to pass laws and get the government involved, etc. Just infom people of how important it is (for themselves healthwise as well as the environment) to eat a little more beans and a little less meat, and viola! Problem solved.

Out of jail for barely a week and already, I am the winner of the coveted Wishful Thinker of the Week Award, no?

Anonymous said...

no

Lee said...

Speaking of real terrorists...

Looks as though that boogey man George Bush is trying to scare us again. Well, not "us" but the Spanish people...

On Jan. 20th police in Madrid, Spain arrested 14 Islamic militants, admid fears the men were plotting a TERRORIST ATTACK in Barcelona. The suspects were arrested less than two months before national elections in Spain. The country's last vote in March 2004 was held just after the Madrid train bombings (now why couldn't have George stopped those??!!)-Europe's worst ISLAMIC-linked TERROR ATTACK.

There are fears that ISLAMIC MILITANTS could try a similar plot to disrupt this year's vote, scheduled for March 9.

For those of you that STILL live in Mr. Roger's neighborhood, please just disregard...

H Nicole Young said...

It's not that radical Islamists are not dangerous, it's that all religious radicals, including the radical Christians and Jews across the world (and yes, sometimes even running this country), are equally if not more dangerous.

Put a lid on all of them! They probably represent less than 1/100th of 1% of the population, yet they seem to ruin everything for the rest of us normal Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Agnostics, etc., who just want to be left in peace.

Anonymous said...

radical jews and christians are as dangerous if not more so than radical muslims?

just when you think you you've heard the dumbest thing you've ever heard, somebody has to go and top it with something even dumber

Lee said...

I don't recall any radical Christians or Jews threatening to wipe out Western civiliation. That comment was right out of the Rosie O'Donnell school of spewing stupid shit.

H Nicole Young said...

I take it you disagree, Anon? If so, a simple, "I do not think there are such things as radical Christians or Jews," or "if radical Christians or Jews exist, I don't think they are as dangerous or threatening as radical Muslims" will do. Or whatever point it is you are trying to make...

I have no facts on this one myself, only observation, anecdote, and opinion. Radical Muslims may be the most dangerous thing to ever live, for all I know, but I somehow doubt it, mostly because I am reluctant to target just Muslims. In my limited view, I would say, "Insecure males, left to their own devices, are the most dangerous things to ever live."

Anonymous said...

"Insecure males, left to their own devices, are the most dangerous things to ever live."

that would be scientifically termed as penis envy. something most insecure and depressed women suffer from due to a lack of self confidence and fortitude.

Lee said...

For quite awhile the regulars on this site were no where to be heard. When I mentioned that Shoes has been silent suddenly Nicole appreared but still no Shoes. Are you covering for Shoes, Nicole?

H Nicole Young said...

Not sure what's going on here either, but I don't mind just talking to you two. I get the feeling my arrest and three months of jail awaiting trial for felony charges of "terrorist threats against a public official" (even though it had nothing to do with my postings here, as far as I can tell) may have spooked a lot of 9/11 Truthers here, possibly even Shoes himself!

Anyway, I am still a Truther for sure, but I think I succinctly summarized most of what I had to say about that issue in my October 14, 2007, fax that I sent to all 435 members of the US House of Representatives (mirroring an earlier fax I sent in September to all 100 US Senators). I did that the night before I arranged to turn myself in to the SFPD on Monday, October 15, 2007, and I am happy to report that I have been relatively satisfied with the slow, yet detectable, change in national and world events and attitudes that I observed as I perused the SF Chronicle every chance I got while I was in jail.

Most important, although there is always a fear, at least as long as Cheney et al are out and about and doing their thing, that this country will turn into a police state at the next big "natural" disaster or red flag event, I think we are now past the gravest danger of that (and I hope not to receive the "Famous Last Words of the Week" Award for that statement at any time in the future!)

I feel confident I came closer to the truth than anything I've seen published before or since my fax of October 14, 2007, which was also posted on this site, and that while I can go on and on with this issue, my time and my heart may be better spent on other issues now that I think we are going to be around for a while, including but not limited to:
1) Family Law Reform
2) The tremendous waste of talent and resources from having so many black women in jail.
3) Outlawing corporal punishment in the US

Anonymous said...

1) Family Law Reform(quit making threats to law officials ya' idiot)

2) The tremendous waste of talent and resources from having so many black women in jail.(what? you want to pay them more tax dollars to get knocked up and have more babies fathered by unwed ghetto crack dealers and criminals?)

3) Outlawing corporal punishment in the US(yeah, let's just let them cuss and do whatever the hell they want instead of studying and being taught proper respect and discipline)

you are a nut job imho

H Nicole Young said...

Is it my imagination, or is Anon warming up to me? We'll win you over yet, old man.

Anonymous said...

old man? not hardly sista' i just know idiots when i see them

H Nicole Young said...

Life Begins at 200mph? Is that you, middle-aged-guy-acting-like-an-old-timer? I wondered where you went. Why Anon? Did my arrest spook you, too?