The OP said “Stop eating meat !”, We are debating that OP, that is if we all stop eating meat. Yes, a few vegans here and there have not really cut back on how much leather is available, but if we stop althogther, it will be a problem.
Huh? We are doomed without leather and wool? More serious than inundating the coasts and drowning all the polar bears(to name a few of the consequences of our unabated meat consumtion). Don’t you think we need to get our priorities right?
By the way, I don’t think I own anything made of leather or wool, so I think we could all get by just fine.
Do you have a belt? Shoes? Jumpers? Pullovers? Carpets? Socks? Leather-covered chair? Car seats? Suit? Blankets? Felt-tip pen? Lots and lots of stuff is made from leather and wool.
You do realise that the main alternatives are made from or with fossil fuels?
True, but maybe starting by substituting one turkey burger for one hamburger each week is, in fact, a sensible solution.
Well, then we might as well be debating what would happen if Eleanor Roosevelt could fly (a la Saturday Night Live). People across the world are not going to all completely stop eating meat. I am trying to turn the argument away from all-or-nothing thinking because such thinking is silly and ignores the fact that things are bad for the environment based on the quantity in which they are done and also what energy sources are used in doing them.
The good thing about meat consumption as an environmental issue rather than a moral one is that it is not an all-or-nothing thing. I.e., if you really think eating meat is unconscionably cruel to animals, it seems to dictate pure vegetarianism but if you simply want to do better by the environment then cutting down your meat consumption (and/or buying meat produced in more sustainable ways) is a good thing even if you don’t go entirely to vegetarianism.
Ever heard of hyperbole ? The same OP reports that the OP considers** “seriously cutting back”** on meat consumption in response to the threat of global warming.
Look, the simple fact is that there are people who don’t eat meat for other reasons and get along just fine. You don’t need to eat meat. Its easier to give up our meat than it is to give up our motor vehicles and the former is reported to be more effective wrt greenhouse gases… So while we attempt to stigmatize SUV owners for glutinous fuel consumption perhaps we should do the same for frequent meat eaters unless they eat a lot of meat for medicinal purposes.
Confession: I was at a barbecue two nights ago and the host supplied Porterhouse steaks. It just didn’t seem right to refuse the hospitality. When the host begged for takers on the left over steaks I had lost all my moral fortitude.