Beat the Heat - Eat Less Meat?
The Observer newspaper reports that the chief honcho at the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that one of the best ways to reduce personal carbon footprints is to eat less meat. “Why is that?” you might ask (or you might not of course), well for a start it take seven pounds of corn to produce one pound of beef – and growing and harvesting corn and other animal feeds has its own carbon footprint (as well as side effects from modern fertilisers on the environment). What’s more, cows produce a heck of a lot of methane – a greenhouse gas about 23 times more harmful than carbon dioxide. In fact farming livestock takes up a lot of land, resources and, the IPCC say, isn’t very good for the fight against climate change. Its an interesting article and makes a good case for a move towards a more vegetarian diet. Dr Rajendra Pachauri (a vegetarian it must be said) said 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 and 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. The agency has also warned that meat consumption is set to double by the middle of the century and Pachauri said ‘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 adding ‘give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there’ .However, he also stressed other changes in lifestyle would help to combat climate change. ‘That’s what I want to emphasise: we really have to bring about reductions in every sector of the economy’.