Did it come from an animal or did it not come from an animal?
(Tara Garnett, Food Climate Research Network)
Yeah, like it or not, those of us that eat meat and dairy products contribute significantly to climate change.
I got an e-mail yesterday recommending a story in the Audubon Magazine. The person that sent me the e-mail was right. The article is worth reading, even for the folks that know something about this subject.
For example, we know that methane (CH4) is twenty to thirty times better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide is. Livestock produces a lot of methane.
But how many people know that we Americans account for 65% of the planet’s anthropogenic nitrous oxide emissions? N2O is a greenhouse gas that we don’t want to encourage.
Livestock makes a lot of manure, which causes the arrival of more nitrous oxide. It has been increasing for a long time.
The Amazon rainforest is being cut down by a collection of shortsighted people, in order to raise more cattle or grow crops like soybeans to feed to the cattle. It’s probably not terribly intelligent.
Of course, the growing middle class in China, India and elsewhere want meat. Should we Americans tell them it’s bad for them?
It is a good article, with some good facts, and it has some pretty good suggestions for all of us. Yes, like it or not, this is an area we had better make some changes in. It might make a difference. Of course some people will just call it an environmental conspiracy. Go to The Low Carbon Diet.
