[Vision2020] Global Warming, etc.

[Megan Prusynski]

Doug,
I'm happy to hear that you are making an effort to eat less meat.  
Your health will thank you, as well as the planet.

As for your questions, is that the best you could come up with? LOL!  
What will we do with all the cattle? Well, I'm not sure the entire  
planet will be giving up their meat addition just yet (although one  
would hope that in light of the overwhelming evidence that it's  
slowly killing us, everyone would switch to a plant-based diet). I  
think we can adjust over time and as the demand for meat goes down,  
the number of livestock bred and raised in factory farms will go down  
accordingly. In the meantime, I believe that livestock species can be  
protected and saved in sanctuaries such as the Farm Sanctuary. I  
doubt that we will completely eradicate our use of livestock, but  
reducing their number over time by, perhaps, not artificially  
inseminating milk cows to keep them pregnant and producing milk all  
the time and raising their babies for veal... and of course, just  
breeding animals less, will help reduce the greenhouse gases they  
produce. We can then use more farmland for growing plants that will  
feed humans directly, instead of the majority of our farmland (and  
our imports) going to feed cattle at a huge expense of land, water,  
and resources.

I'm not trying to say that eradicating meat production is our only  
choice, nor is it really possible at this point, but we could start  
by reducing our intake of meat so that the demand goes down. It's the  
intensive industrial farming methods that we use that are hazardous  
to the environment, much more so than farmers in Asia using oxen  
instead of tractors. Maybe we could go back to organic farming (and  
more plants grown for food, less for livestock feed) on a large scale  
and rid ourselves of factory farms, which are one of the largest  
polluters in this country.

As for the cabbage, I'm not aware of the greenhouse gases produced by  
cabbage. And I don't see how cabbage production would increase, there  
are many many many more edible plants out there.

Ants... well, I don't think they produce many greenhouse gases  
compared to livestock or humans. And they've been around for quite  
some time with little detrimental effect on the planet. They tend to  
live in harmony with their ecosystems, maybe we could learn something  
from them (well, maybe not all species).

If you have scientific information on the impacts of cabbage and ants  
on the atmosphere, please, do share. :)

peace & veggies!
~megan

On Mar 12, 2007, at 12:00 PM, vision2020-request at moscow.com wrote:

> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:50:36 -0400
> From: heirdoug at netscape.net
> Subject: [Vision2020]  Ed the Viking, Greenland, and Global Warming
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com, megan at meganpru.com
> Message-ID: <8C932D54FAFF4B1-AE4-143A at webmail-de02.sysops.aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
> Megan,
>
> I'm with you too much meat is not a good thing. I only eat 15 to 20%
> meat now. What do we do with all of the cattle and monkeys that are
> worshiped in India? What do we do with all of oxen that are used to
> farm the land in Asia? Should we replace them with tractors?
>
> Let's say that we all turn to eating plants. What would be the  
> increase
> in our production of green house gas from all of the cabbage?
>
> What about the ant population? Don't those little critters produce a
> lot a methane?
>
> Please feel free to answer these questions.
>
> Doug!
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> ---
> -------
>
> This is just a guess (since I'm not Nick), but perhaps the statistics
> on livestock contributing more to global warming than all
> transportation combined came from this UN's Food and Agriculture
> Organization report: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/
> index.html
>
> Here's a quote from the above article:
> "Which causes more greenhouse gas emissions, rearing cattle or
> driving cars?
>
> Surprise!
>
> According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and
> Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more
> greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent - 18 percent -
> than transport. It is also a major source of land and water
> degradation."
>
> Looks like going vegetarian has more positive impact on global
> warming than getting a hybrid. :) PETA has written a letter to Al
> Gore asking if he'd consider going veg (and offering to make him some
> fine vegan cookin') in order to reduce his impact on global warming
> and set an example. We'll see if he responds. Here's the article on
> that from PETA's blog: http://blog.peta.org/archives/2007/03/
> clearing_a_few.php
>
> If anyone needs vegetarian recipes or tips, I have plenty to share. ;)
>
> peace,
> ~Megan

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