Sen. Thune Says Horse Feathers to Global Warming Veganism

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One day, unless human population is brought under control, all food production will have to be non-meat. Meat production is wastful and not space efficiant. With a population spiralling out of control space is rapidly being taken up for people to live, reducing space for agriculture. Also with a higher population to feed farmers will have to switch to the more efficient plant based foods to feed the world. Thankfully though this is not going to happen any time soon, don't think I could survive without bacon.....

George 3:33PM October 30, 2009

BG of KS needs to do more research so that he/she can get it right. First study your 5th grade science books. Look up the law of "Conservation of Matter". What you will learn here is that carbon "is neither created nor destroyed" The carbon that cattle, pigs, people, fish (any thing that breathes) emit in to the atmosphere must come from the food that animal eats. In the case of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs etc they get it from the plants that they eat. The plants get their carbon from guess where? The atmosphere. So any carbon regardless of form emitted from live stock into the atmosphere had to come from the atmosphere in the first place. Let that sink in for just a moment... OK so animal production by the laws of nature, and physics is at worst carbon neutral.
Carbon is taken out of the atmosphere by increased plant growth. Cattle, sheep, goats and other foraging animals eat grass which causes the grass to grow even more, thus taking more carbon from the atmosphere. Is there a light coming on yet? So what happens to the grass if the animals don't eat it? It stops growing, dies, and then rots, returning carbon back into the atmosphere as guess what? Methane gas. Swamps, Termites and decomposing plants are the single largest source of global carbon emissions.
But they produce NO FOOD for people.
Now lets take this analysis just a little further. Not all of the carbon that animals get from eating plants goes into the atmosphere. Obviously much of it goes into the growth of the animal itself and thus acts as a carbon sink. Furthermore some of what goes in the front end of an animal comes out of the back end in the form of manure. This carbon then goes into the soil to build yet another carbon sink by building the organic matter of the soil. So cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens actually have a NEGATIVE carbon footprint. If you eliminate them, carbon in the atmosphere will actually INCREASE, and Global warming increases. What will happen, as what usually happens with kooky liberal ideas, will be exactly the opposite of intended.
So to save the world, eat a liberal.

FHJ of NE 9:34PM October 29, 2009

Why don't we cut to the chase. The problem isn't meat its humans. Solution introduce cannibalism. Anyone for Stern Soup?

Limey 1:45PM October 29, 2009

Whatever happened to freedom of choice? If people want to be vegans and abstain from meat eating that's okay with me, but don't target meat eaters with punitive laws or restrictions. I eat meat because I like it. No one should have the right to tell me I can't have it because they are offended by it or believe that they can save the world by denying me my freedom of choice.
The same goes for my choice of transportation. If I want to drive a musclecar or an suv, that's my choice and no one should tell me otherwise. How's it go? First they came for my car, then they came for my meat? What's next? Note to the environmental crusaders - Go hug trees if that's your thing, but leave me alone. I'll make my own choices thank you and as far as being "nudged" in the "correct direction" with fees or taxes to discourage me, I don't think so. I choose my own path. Stay out of my way. You want to help out? Make fewer babies that consume precious resources.
Some would call me selfish, but I make sacrifices every day, and in my profession I help those most in need on a daily basis. Don't you dare try to deny me my simple pleasures. A nice thick steak on Friday night after a long week of helping people, or a blast through the gears on a highway onramp in my musclecar are little enough to ask for, and I'm the one paying for it. I'm an American, I do what I like and I like what I do. The more of my freedoms you try to restrict, the more politically active I become. And it's not just me, it's millions more like me. See you at the polls.

K.A. of FL 9:30AM October 29, 2009

BG of KS wrote: "How will us eating no meat reduce greenhouse gas emission?"
This is how. Methane is a greenhouse gas, 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. It's produced by most animals (but because of the livestock industry, cows are major contributors). As meat-eating declines, the number of cows being bred, fed and slaughtered would decline. It's a simple case of supply and demand. We're not going to be overrun by cows because the demand for beef wouldn't be what it is today.
With all due respect, you're wrong about the food livestock eats. It's the same as we eat. Over 80% of the soybeans and corn, and 95% of the oats grown in the U.S. go to feed livestock. WE should be eating those soybeans, corn and oats.
And it doesn't take more land to grow vegetables. For example, one acre of land can produce 165 pounds of beef, or 20,000 pounds of potatoes.
These are facts, supported by the United Nations FAO, Worldwatch Institute and the World Health Organization, to name a few. It has nothing to do with PETA or any other animal welfare groups. It's simple math.

Daniel 7:36AM October 29, 2009

A U.S. Senator was quoted defending meat eating.
Why would anyone ask a cannibal to give up meat? That's like asking a Senator if he cares about the nation.s health. He is more inclined to express his religious convictions about the cattle he represents than the people he serves.

Morton Kurzweil of FL 2:54PM October 28, 2009

I have read enough on the subject of Global Warming to fill a library but I haven't read a single reference to the obvious. Dare I write it? Yes I must. Here goes: There are too many freaking people on Earth competing for limited resources. We all eat, breath and yes, create waste including copious amounts of carbon dioxide.I don't care where you live or how rich or poor you are whether you drive a Hummer or cook your food by burning cow dung you create Carbon dioxide and methane. Tthe two main greehouse gasses responsible for global warming.
For thousands of years the human population was kept under control by awful things like the Bubonic plaque, malnutrition, starvation and in the twentieth century wars that killed tens of millions.
Sorry, I don't have a solution but I think it is time the obvious be brought into the discussion. There are too many people.

JRM of PA 1:40PM October 28, 2009

We will tolerate no limitations on our reproductive or consumptive behavior. We are already consuming the earth at an unsustainable rate with our demands. India and China are experiencing double digit economic growth which means that the demands of their huge populations are being multiplied by more consumption even as the populations themselves grow.
It does not really matter what a Senator or a Lord says, we are headed directly toward a cliff. The whole model of prosperity through perpetual economic growth through ever increasing consumption is reaching its inevitable conclusion at a geometrically increasing rate. Lord Stern just realizes it and wants us to detour so we can keep driving a bit longer. Senator Thune wants to make sure he is still a Senator and we all have a double cheese burger stuffed in our mouths as we fly over the edge.

John Holland of VA 1:06PM October 28, 2009

Vegetarianism is not the answer. How will us eating no meat reduce greenhouse gas emission? Will those cattle that are still alive not eat and burp and fart? Here's another problem, how many of you think deer are over populated? If we stop eating beef the cattle population will just go up which in turn creates more animals that burp and fart. Oh ya, the grain we feed to livestock is not the same as the grain people consume. I know what you're thinking "well then we can convert the farmland that produces grain fed to livestock to land producing grain for people." WRONG, if we don't feed grain to livestock we need A LOT more land converted to pasture to feed the cattle, way more land than it takes to produce the grain that livestock eat right now, which means less grain for humans. In theory, stopping the consumption of meat "sounds good" but maybe you all should open your eyes to the measures that would need to be taken for our society to convert to a vegan diet. Many of these thoughts are manufactured by animal activist groups that want all animals to roam free (imagine all of these cattle we are not eating running wild, you think hitting a deer in your car is bad!). All I ask is that after you read a report from one person in Europe (that has no clue on how the U.S. livestock industry operates) maybe take an in depth look at what is actually going in the vast majority of food production systems in the U.S. Yes, PETA has some video of horrible things going on in factory farms, TRUST ME that this is not how the vast majority of livestock operations function. There are "bad eggs" in every industry no matter how much regulation is there, just think of all of the crooked CEO's in the U.S.

BG of KS 10:02AM October 28, 2009

Stern has a valid point regarding the energy intensity of raising livestock. However, the phrasing he chose in that quote is poor. It does make him sound like an elitist making an edict from on high. He is a very smart guy who wrote a great economic analysis of climate change (if anyone read it, they would understand why he is an authority on the subject), but he should pick his words more carefully.
As far as the vegetarian diet: cows convert less than 10% of the energy in the grain they eat to stored energy in their meat. That is >90% loss of energy that could be consumed by humans. Not to mention methane, ammonia and other waste products.
Sorry I don't have specific sources, but ask your favorite biologist for corroboration.

BenPGH of PA 9:24AM October 28, 2009