Eating less meat won't reduce global warming: study

AFP on Yahoo ^ | 3/22/10 | AFP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Eating less meat will not reduce global warming, and claims that it will distract from efforts to find real solutions to climate change, a leading air quality expert said Monday.

"We certainly can reduce our greenhouse gas production, but not by consuming less meat and milk," Frank Mitloehner, an air quality expert at the University of California-Davis, said as he presented a report on meat-eating and climate change at a conference of the American Chemical Society in California.

Blaming cows and pigs for climate change is scientifically inaccurate, said Mitloehner, dismissing several reports, including one issued in 2006 by the United Nations, which he said overstate the role that livestock play in global warming.

The UN report "Livestock's Long Shadow," which said livestock cause more greenhouse gases than all global transportation combined, distracts from the real issues involved in looking for a solution to global warming, said Mitloehner.

The notion that eating less meat will help to combat climate change has spawned campaigns for "meatless Mondays" and a European campaign launched late last year called "Less Meat = Less Heat," backed by former Beatle Paul McCartney, one of the world's best-known vegetarians.

"McCartney and others seem to be well-intentioned but not well-schooled in the complex relationships among human activities, animal digestion, food production and atmospheric chemistry," said Mitloehner.

[PGalt]

Eating less meat won't reduce global warming: study

But spending less money will cripple the socialist's economy.

[Colonel Blimp]

Well, some good news for once in this story. And your comments are 100 percent on target.

The only worse thing than a liberal is a vegetarian liberal. Nasty, self-righteous, and inconsiderate beyond belief. And I really pity the hostess who has to deal with one or more in her circle.

“Oh we have to cook something different for So-and-So because s(he) is a vegetarian.”

I was taught that when you’re a guest in someone’s house, you eat whatever’s put in front of you, say “mmm mmm good,” take seconds if offered, and wrap it all up with complements to the cook.

[depressed in 06]

The antarctic ice core data seems to show warm period lasting 20,000 years and cold periods of 100,000 years. We are about 15,000 years into the latest warm period, so, manmade global warming is a good thing or immaterial at worst.

[ETL]

Here's a chart showing the various peaks and dips in the 11-year sunspot cycle throughout the past centuries. Note the "Medieval Max". It corresponds to the "Medieval Warm Period". The "Maunder Minimum" corresponds to the "Little Ice Age", and the "Modern Max" to the recent warming trend we had been experiencing, at least until the past 15 years or so.

"Changes in carbon-14 concentration in the Earth's atmosphere, which serves as a long term proxy of solar activity. Note the present day is on the left-hand side of this figure."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_activity

[steelyourfaith]

Thanx !

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !