# For Those Who are Seriously Concerned About AGW \[eating meat\]
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [August 6, 2008, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083 "2008-08-06T21:09:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2008, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/1 "2008-08-06T21:09:08Z")
Stop eating meat ! It isn’t that hard you know. Many of us can’t afford it anyway and have to rely on grains fruits and vegetables for our nutrition. Not a big deal really, even for a meat lover like me.
Look, sure go buy your compact flourescents and your smaller vehicles if it makes you feel good, but did you know that the meat and dairy products you consume each and every day do more to contribute to AGW than all the fuel you burn to drive your car, as well as all the fuel burned on your behalf to transport the goods and services you need to support your lifestyle?
Don’t believe me? Its in a [United Nations Report](http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html) back in November 2006. Don’t know why I haven’t come across it till recently.
> [@](#):
>
> 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.
>
> Says Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior author of the report: “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”
Now I have compact flourescents and the wife and I drive 4 cylinder vehicles because I like to save money on the monthly bills. I just can’t get around to patting myself on the back though since I think that contribution towards lowering my carbon imprint is near meaningless but it seems to me that the surest quickest least disruptive way to make a real positive difference is to seriously cut back on my meat consumption. Since I’m 20 pounds overweight anyway…
Anyone else want to get on this wagon?
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2008, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/2 "2008-08-06T21:38:56Z")
That’s not all cow fart (methane). When they came up with that figure, it took into account land use changes, i.e. clearcutting a forest and eliminating a carbon sink.
The EPA and Purdue University [are currently working on a study](http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/2005/050302.Heber.epa.html) to quantify livestock air pollution.
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### Author:  [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/3 "2008-08-07T00:41:37Z")
I am going on vaction next weekend. Can I join you when I get back?
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### Author:  [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/4 "2008-08-07T00:49:29Z")
I would let the world shrink until I had to stand on my toes to stay dry before I gave up meat.
Is this PETA’s new angle or something?
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### Author:  [@The\_Batman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Batman)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/5 "2008-08-07T01:03:27Z")
Meat? Seriously? Not the factories and power plants belching smoke, or the millions of cars, or the loss of rain forest. It’s the meat.
I just don’t buy it.
I know you and the article aren’t saying it’s just the meat. But how about instead of a thinly veiled attempt at promoting vegetarianism we eliminate the belching buildings and heap of cars and keep the meat?
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### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/6 "2008-08-07T01:06:07Z")
Hey, I’m doing my part by eating the durned things.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/7 "2008-08-07T01:07:01Z")
Those studies have been seriously challenged to the extent of how big an impact the meat industry has. Reports I have seen suggest the report you linked is overstated. Especially as chicken has a much lower impact than beef. So it might no be a matter of giving up meat but certain ways of raising meat animals.
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### Author:  [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/8 "2008-08-07T01:13:57Z")
If you expand the discussion beyond AGW to sustainability in general, the OP’s sentiment is right on.
The “water footprint” of beef is pretty staggering. [link](http://www.alternet.org/water/90131/?ses=3355e481a96b33a2d379dfd9efdb1c84)
(There’s a graphic in the current **Lapham’s Quarterly** that makes the point even better.)
Water is going to be a bigger issue than oil or AGW, IMO.
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### Author:  [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/9 "2008-08-07T01:37:03Z")
This is what I do for a living, look at different plans that help cut green house gases, individual carbon foot prints, sustainable work/living.
I’ll offer this little tidbit - check out the carbon footprint of a [Cheeseburger](http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/video_jamais_ca.php). The main point is look at what the costs are of getting the beef [meat] we eat from grazing cattle to the [insert favorite burger place name here]
As a contributor to Treehugger and an active member of my own community’s sustainable living initiative, I take this topic very seriously.
One of the single best things you can do for the planet right now is support local initiatives for green energies and sustainable lifestyles.
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### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/10 "2008-08-07T02:48:53Z")
If Humans stop eating meat, Cattle, Chickens and Pigs will have no further purpose. They do not exist in the Wild and are cannot survive there. Supporting veganism is supporting species extinction.
Therefore I will continue to eat meat so that these species will continue to exist.
😉
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/11 "2008-08-07T04:05:26Z")
When evolution changes our teeth to only chew non-meat food, I will stop.
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### Author:  [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/12 "2008-08-07T05:19:45Z")
It’s not really an all-or-nothing proposition.
You don’t need to go all vegetarian to make an impact. For example, if you and another person both decided to go for 9 to 12 vegetarian meals a week, that would be the about the same as one person going completely vegetarian - and who eats meat in every meal anyway? [sub]Now I’m going to regret asking that rhetorical question…[/sub] 😉
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/13 "2008-08-07T10:14:50Z")
It’s the kind of meat farming practiced, not just the existence of the meat animals. I do my bit by buying meat I know was raised in a responsible manner.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/14 "2008-08-07T12:55:38Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble]
It’s the kind of meat farming practiced, not just the existence of the meat animals. I do my bit by buying meat I know was raised in a responsible manner.
[/QUOTE]
It is also transport though. I can get local eggs but I cannot get local meats without paying a too high premium. However, off season fruits and veggies also have a transport & petroleum based fertilizer cost that Vegans seem to conveniently overlook in their comparisons. Also, that clear-cutting of the Amazon isn’t just to raise cattle last I checked.
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### Author:  [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/15 "2008-08-07T13:03:39Z")
O.K., I must be out of the loop. What does AGW stand for?
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/16 "2008-08-07T13:09:58Z")
[QUOTE=Ronald C. Semone]
O.K., I must be out of the loop. What does AGW stand for?
[/QUOTE]
In this case it is Anthropogenic Global Warming.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/17 "2008-08-07T13:11:36Z")
Instead of targeting cattle, I suggest we stop breeding humans. There are plenty to go around.
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### Author:  [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/18 "2008-08-07T13:21:08Z")
[QUOTE=wevets]
It’s not really an all-or-nothing proposition.
[/quote]
Clearly you don’t understand the thinking of the anti-AGW crowd. If one of the spokesman supporting AGW rides a jet… AGW isn’t real. Or, unless you refuse to drive any vehicle and go to live in a thatch hut in the mountains, you can’t try to stop AGW. It’s not a matter of actual debating the issue, or even taking some steps to stop GW, it’s about being able to demonize those who give credence to AGW.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/19 "2008-08-07T13:27:32Z")
[QUOTE=Hamlet]
Clearly you don’t understand the thinking of the anti-AGW crowd. If one of the spokesman supporting AGW rides a jet… AGW isn’t real. Or, unless you refuse to drive any vehicle and go to live in a thatch hut in the mountains, you can’t try to stop AGW. It’s not a matter of actual debating the issue, or even taking some steps to stop GW, it’s about being able to demonize those who give credence to AGW.
[/QUOTE]
This is often true, but how does it specifically relate to what posters have said in this thread?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-who-are-seriously-concerned-about-agw-eating-meat/459083/20 "2008-08-07T13:40:04Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera]
If Humans stop eating meat, Cattle, Chickens and Pigs will have no further purpose. They do not exist in the Wild…
[/quote]
Sure they do.
> **[Red junglefowl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Junglefowl)**
>
> Phasianus gallus Linnaeus, 1758
> The red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), also known as the Indian red junglefowl (and formerly the bankiva or bankiva-fowl), is a species of tropical, galliform bird in the phasianid family, found across much of Southeast and parts of South Asia.
> The red junglefowl was the primary species to give rise to today's many breeds of domesticated chicken (G. g. domesticus). Lesser contributions came from the grey junglefowl (G. sonneratii), Sri Lankan junglefowl (G. lafa...
> [@](#):
>
> …and are cannot survive there.
No?
> **[Pig](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig#Environmental_impacts)**
>
> The pig (Sus domesticus), also called swine (pl.: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus Sus. Some authorities consider it a subspecies of Sus scrofa (the wild boar or Eurasian boar); other authorities consider it a distinct species. Pigs were domesticated independently twice during the Neolithic, in the Near East around the Tigris Basin, and in China. When domesticated pigs ...
[http://www.huntaust.com.au/game/feralcattle.html](http://www.huntaust.com.au/game/feralcattle.html)
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