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| Rio Conference Should Ban Meat to Save the Climate |
| 2012-06-17 |
| More than 50,000 U.N. officials, scientists, environmental advocates and a few heads of state will gather this coming week in Rio de Janeiro for a conference on sustainable development. They're assembling 20 years after the first Earth Summit was held in the same city, and the goal now, as it was then, is to figure out how to So who is setting the example? Gore? No one really believes that the Rio+20 meeting will result in a new agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. In that case, the best thing the conference could do for the climate is to remove meat from the menu -- and to make a big deal about it. Everyone at that meeting should know that meat is a major contributor to climate change. It is also one problem that can be solved more quickly than others. Cutting out meat would do more to help combat climate change than any other action we could feasibly take in the next 20 years. Starting with the authors of this piece, I daresay. A 2006 U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report, "Livestock's Long Shadow," called raising animals for food "one of the top two or three most significant I bet the coal guys are glad to hear that! More conservative estimates say that meat accounts for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions. If the United Nations and all the national delegations and activist groups at Rio+20 were to insist on eliminating meat at all the buffets, private dinners, embassy receptions, luncheons and breakfast briefings, people might start to think that the United Nations takes seriously the damage that human activity is causing to the planet. What about videoconferencing, you hypocrites? At a recent U.N. meeting that one of us attended, one speaker, who was from a top environmental organization, spoke fervently about the need to reduce population growth. Then, at the meal that followed his speech, he enjoyed several helpings of osso bucco. Asked about the unsustainable aspects of a high-meat diet, he unabashedly said that he "could never give up" his meat. There is clear evidence that reducing meat production and consumption would limit greenhouse gas emissions and possibly stave off these tragedies. However, after multiple revisions and weeks of negotiating, the word "meat" does not appear in the draft conference document for the Rio meeting. Instead, the paper discusses the need to reduce production and consumption of other products that cause global warming, without singling out that key culprit. Global climate leaders will have a lot of pressing challenges on the table at the Rio+20 conference. It's time to take the meat off their plates. Amen! Let's start with their plates. I'll be somewhere in the second half of those who give it up. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #6 Would it be tough to see the grill marks if grilling Zebra? Red or White? Also, will the committee write up a declaration that the slaughter of the American Bison is a good thing, reducing the amount of Buffalo farts? mmmmm...Bison. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2012-06-17 21:31 |
| #5 FYI RENSE > [Gizmodo] MYSTERIOUS BLUE ELECTRIC CLOUDS APPEAR AGAIN OVER [North-South] POLES. SPACEWEATHER says Earth's Magnetosphere is being compressed by new CMES, which I also agree with as per observed local phenomenae. Over GUAM-WESTPAC, it wasn't somuch "clouds" but more akin to BLUE "ROCKET/CHEMICAL" TRAILS. IMO either some Spacecraft flew mightily off-course like a DPRK Space Rocket Launch; or else somebody's Spacecraft dumped its loos = wastes, excess fuel(s)? into the high atmosphere while passing over the Guam-WESTPAC Region. I WOULD LIKE NASA TO VERIFY IFF CHINA'S ROCKET CARRYING ITS FIRST FEMME TAIKONAUT INTO ORBIT SURVIVED ITS LAUNCH + FLIGHT, + DIDN'T EITHER BLOW UP OR DUMP ITS WASTES, ETC. OER GUAM-WESTPAC. The above "trails" were very similar to a Missle or Rocket flight gone horribly wrong during or shortly after launch. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-06-17 21:21 |
| #4 They must really love dat Solyent Green. [RETURN OF SOLYENT GREEN, starring Burt Reynolds??? + lots of Human-scooping Front-Enders here]. All of these Wildebeests, Mooseys, + assorted Giant Birds, etc. tasty critters runing or flying around, yet no one in this Rio Confab seems to be proposing using our highly-educated, highly-skilled/trained Genetic Scientists to make these critters bigger + tastier for human consumption - DITTO AS PER TASTY FLORA = CROPS??? * FUTURAMA > THE PROFESSOR [paraph] = D *** NG IT, WHATS THE USE OF BEING A MAD SCIENTIST IFF YOU CAN'T SHAKE THINGS UP. Might as well wait to be purged by some Strongman, e.g. Stalin or Mao, GULAGGED ANDOR SHOT AFTER FINISHING POST-GRADUATE SCHOOL??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-06-17 20:25 |
| #3 He was not talking about giving up his plate, he was talking about taking away your plate. And if he is serious tru believer, then he must also support culling 2/3 of all the wilderbeast and zebras, plus lions, hyena, cheetah, jaguars etc. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2012-06-17 18:53 |
| #2 Just think how many cows we could have for the carbon offset of 50,000 plane tickets to Rio! |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2012-06-17 18:14 |
| #1 Why is it that hypocrites always think everyone else should be doing what they are doing? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2012-06-17 16:44 |