Frankenstorm Sandy is one more dramatic demonstration that climate change and its extreme weather patterns are now part of our future.
Although we’re unlikely to reverse climate change, we can still mitigate its effects by reducing our driving, our energy use, and our meat consumption.
Yes, meat consumption. A 2006 U.N. report estimated that meat cosumption accounts for 18 percent of man-made greenhouse gases. A 2009 article in the respected World Watch magazine suggested that it may be closer to 50 percent.
Carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, is emitted by burning forests to create animal pastures and by combustion of fossil fuels to confine, feed, transport, and slaughter animals and to refrigerate their carcasses. The much more damaging methane and nitrous oxide are discharged from digestive tracts of cattle and from animal waste cesspools, respectively.
We have the power of reducing the devastating effects of climate change every time we eat. Our local supermarket offers a rich variety of soy-based lunch “meats,” hotdogs, veggie burgers, soy and nut-based dairy products (including cheese and ice cream), and an ample selection of traditional vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts. Product lists, easy recipes, and transition tips are available at www.livevegan.org.
Brad Benedict
Brainerd
Comments (38)
Add commentI would give up my car before
I would give up my car before i would red meat and dairy. Sorry.
Oh No
Another neil. Uff I smell a little p-e-t-a here.
tough
Tough sh**. Give me a nice juicy steak, real Ambassador hot dogs and a cold beer. You couldn't pay me enough to eat a veggie burger.
I'm not vegan and I'm not your kind of peta. But I am a
person
eating
tasty
animals.
Good luck deer hunters! Please be safe!!
Nan
GOLD STAR!!!
I would have thought of a more compelling arguement
like "It's George Bush's fault"!
random thoughts
I think that extreme weather has also been a part of our past.
We have reduced our driving due to the price of gas.
Tell all this to China and check on their consumption of gas and meat.
We will take your advise into consideration,
Rolf
Is the Dispatch mad at you?? Your letter is not on-line.
Rolf
Is it in the print edition? It's the headline letter in Tuesday's New York Times.
Yes Rolf
It is.
Anything Goes during election season at the new dispatch
Letters are chosen to reflect the partisan nature of the new dispatch lately, that ought to be evident by now.
Here's Rolf's letter:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/opinion/as-hurricane-sandy-batters-the...
Re: the above letter--is Stephen Sundquist at it again?
Was that ROLF and his significant other
Hey Rolf,was that you and your significant other raising cane in the parking lot at the arboretem last week? Just wondering. If so, it was nice to meet you.
Good One Rolf ! The article GOP protests nonpartisan tax report
That is shown on the same page as identified by Proud Rino is very interesting as well.
Really makes you wonder about Mitch Ms credibility , or what was left of it !
Congrats, Rolf! Here's another good, topical op/ed piece from
NYT: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nature-votes-last/?nl=op... ) A sample:
"When the seas rose earlier this week, swamping the world’s greatest city and battering a helpless state, the turbulence of the elements washed away the sand castles of politics.
Climate change is to the Republican base what leprosy once was to healthy humans — untouchable and unmentionable. Their party is financed by people whose fortunes are dependent upon denying that humans have caused the earth’s weather patterns to change for the worse.
At the same time, Republicans have spent the last year trying to win an argument about the role of government as a helping hand. By now, most people know that Mitt Romney, in his base-pandering mode during the primaries, made the federal disaster agency FEMA sound like a costly nuisance, better off orphaned to the states or the private sector."
This piece is none-to-kind to Obama's recent silence on climate change, either.
I like to think
that this was God reminding the libs that their tower of babble doesn't rule the united States.
Such intelligence
Such intelligence
Charlie
Not me in the parking lot. In St Paul then.
The point of my article, for those who haven'y looked at it, is that one storm doesn't prove anything. But the trend is there.
The earth's atmosphere is very slowly warming and the sea is SLOWLY rising - about one inch every eight years. Not 2 feet by 2050 like a lot of the people on TV are saying.
Warm air holds more moisture and more energy, as motion and heat are essentially one and the same. so storms will get bigger - maybe not for years - but threat is there. We may be able to adapt to the change. Russia isn't worried - a warmer earth is great for them.
I knew it!
It's all a Russian plot.
It's interesting
to watch the news reports coming from the New York area. In fact it sounds exactly like the folks from Katrina except with a New York accent. I think that future administrations could learn from the Obama and Bush administrations that in a natural disaster no administration can move fast enough.
Lots of respect there
Ms. Deerwood. He was your President.
Because hypocrites
won't acknowledge their own faults and you are a perfect example. Get down off your pedistal little man (not in mass) and quit with the upity behavior.
Nah flubber,
I'd hate to see grease all over.
Q: How can you tell if
Q: How can you tell if someone is Vegan?
A: They let you know within the first minute or so of meeting them.
Boy, I sure hope those
Boy, I sure hope those hunters take out a ton of those pesky deer that are causing climate change. I was getting nervous there for a second.
Your
You don't think the deer population needs thinning out?
Meat
Well if I think about it I am already a vegan. Yes you heard me right. The animals I eat, eat lots and lots of vegetables. So by me eating vegetable eating animals, I am a vegan.
Meat
Well if I think about it I am already a vegan. Yes you heard me right. The animals I eat, eat lots and lots of vegetables. So by me eating vegetable eating animals, I am a vegan.
NanLee60 Yes, of course I do!
NanLee60
Yes, of course I do! It was a joke. And I already got me one! =)
Tbonar
The vegans never mention anything about all the GAS/HOT AIR they produce from eating the same thing a cow does do they??
Farm Boy,
Cows, having four 'stomachs', produce methane in abundance. You might want to bone up on your science a bit. I don't think it's in the bible.
Science challenges too many
Science challenges too many of FB's core beliefs for him to take it seriously.