I only eat meat when going out since the veggie fares most places have the value ratio doesn't work out. Also I don't trust myself to cook raw meat at home anyway. My main thing with meat is it is very water inefficient rather than the carbon thing. Globe warms up, well eventually we'll adapt. Run out of clean water and you won't last a week. Everything I've read is the Ogallala Aquifer is still receding overall, if that ever runs out you can kiss the breadbasket of the world good bye.

 

I don't mean heat the whole flippin' house. Next time you stand in front of a mirror with the lights on see if you feel warmth coming from the lights That doesn't happen with fluorescents. Not sure where you live, but up here I use whatever I can find for warmth. I should never have left Florida.

 

Would it not make sense, if everyone ate more meat, greenhouse gas would be reduced?
I get gas from veggies.

 

queenfan, it appears I was a bit harsh in my last reply to you. Please accept my apology and please consider CLFs for the summer.

Ian

 

Think about this: Livestock graze, then pass gas, then get slaughtered. People eat meat, still pass some gas.

Does not sound like gas reduction.

 

Here a discussion going on at Grist (enviro-humor site):
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/9/12/9262/63548


Tasty tidbits
"...producing one pound of meat is the same (greenhouse gas-wise) as driving a Hummer 40 miles?
...the meat industry consumes about 1/3 of the fossil fuels and 1/2 the water we use in the US?
...more than 90% of the Amazon rainforest cleared since 1970 is used for global meat production"

Wow.

 

Why do Americans always need to define themselves in totally black and white terms. "If you eat meat, your not an environmentalist." "If you don't drive a hybrid you don't care abouth the environment".

HOGWASH! People perceive responsibility in different ways. There are lots of shades of gray and lots of room for people to reduce environmental impacts in many different ways.

I eat meat (about 12 ounces a week, but not the 12 ounces a night that a stereotypical American consumes when eating out). I also eat dairy products and animal produced products (the production of which takes as much energy and makes as much of an environmental impact -- dairy cows are a major gas producer). I enjoy salads and veggies (some that are green house grown and all that need to be transported across the equator when out of season have large environmental footprints). Yes, I drive a hybrid, but my wife's car is a 4 cylinder, small engined Subaru that gets 28MPG. I added metal roofing, hi-density insulation and appliances to reduce my residential footprint. I have taken other steps to reduce my own, and my family's carbon footprint, and will take others as I find them.

Are you telling me that becasue I eat that 4 ounces of fish, chicken or beef on pasta or salad three times a week, or because my wife drives a small displacement car that was purchased before hybrids were affordable that I am not an environmentalist or that I don't care about the environment?

Elitist attitudes are self-serving and do little to engender responsible thinking in those who are not yet amoung the group that is trying. We should embrace responsibile actions in others who do not share our passion and limit our critisms to obivious excesses and outright destructive actions.

IMHO Terrence or Aristotle had it right when they said "Moderation in all things". I beleive that is particularly true recarding criticism because in modern life tradeoffs are unavoidable. Even if you don't make them yourself, nature, chance events or other people will make them for you.

Sorry -- had to vent!

 

Bob, that reply was spectacular. Couldnt have said it better.

 

Fastmover = GOLD STAR

 

Nah, you're green.