Posted on 09/06/2008 5:58:34 PM PDT by markomalley
People should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change, the world's leading authority on global warming has told The Observer
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further.
His comments are the most controversial advice yet provided by the panel on how individuals can help tackle global warning.
Pachauri, who was re-elected the panel's chairman for a second six-year term last week, said diet change was important because of the huge greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems - including habitat destruction - associated with rearing cattle and other animals. It was relatively easy to change eating habits compared to changing means of transport, he said.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation has estimated that meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. These are generated during the production of animal feeds, for example, while ruminants, particularly cows, emit methane, which is 23 times more effective as a global warming agent than carbon dioxide. The agency has also warned that meat consumption is set to double by the middle of the century.
'In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity,' said Pachauri. 'Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there,' said the Indian economist, who is a vegetarian.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Wow, and here I thought tire guages have already solved all our energy and global warming problems.
What? UN still exists ?? MAybe we should turn off electricity to UN headquarters to reduce global warming.
I grilled steak and chicken last weekend and grilled again tonight. Man it was so good. I’ll do it every time I can.
I don't want to make any MORE sacrifices for the UN.
UN out of the US
US out of the UN
Wasn’t there a report somewhere out that said cow dung produces methane gas. If there’s global warming, wouldn’t one need to eat meat to end methane gas. Just pondering. :)
C'mon, lets do it for the chidrun...
I’m sorry, but I’m a meatatarian;
it’s a commitment I’ve made...
No way. I am from Texas and I eat my beef.
It seems to me that if we replace the beef with the protien equivalent in beans, we will not have mitigated the methane problem at all but just shifted the blame from cow flatulence to vegan flatualance. Pretty soon, every family dinner will look like the campfire scene from Blazing Saddles.
The UN — definitely not mooseburger-friendly.
Hey are you one of my neighbors?????
I had a fillet of moose that Palin killed by winking at it cooked over a fire with the wood from the trees that Berkeley just cut down.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We already know. Your boy Zerobama already told us. And we're supposed to contact you guys when we want to drive our SUV. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They are not going to be happy until we’re vegetarians wearing togas and sandals ... and living in tee pees.
The UN has been chewing cud for years. Now they want us to. Sorry but veggies is what food eats.
Save The World...Eat Nobel Prize Winners.
What a bunch of fruitcakes.
They can have my meat when they take it from my cold dead hands.......
Why, do you need your mower back?
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