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Can you explain why you should eat less meat without going all evangelical environmentalist
on me?
So you want reasons that don’t rely on the sanctity of life.
Why is it that so many environmentalists talk about how precious all life is like saving
baby animals, but then hate on humans?
OK. Here’s a reason you’ll like: your budget.
What about my budget?
Meat prices have been rising faster than the cost of inflation, partially due to growing
demand as the developing world gets richer.
And partially because we’ve put so much corn into our gas tanks as ethanol that animal
feed is skyrocketing. Increase the cost of feed, and the cost of meat goes up.
Cattle are also a major source of the greenhouse gas methane.
When North America was covered by buffalo, they were farting huge clouds of methane.
It was warmer in the 1200s than today and colder in the 1600s than today, so you can’t
blame big temperature swings on big grazers.
Cattle feed lots and pig farms create massive environmental problems by concentrating waste
in ponds that can spill over, while ruining the local water supply.
And California has a drought because they pour billions of gallons into the ocean for
the benefit of smelt instead of letting people irrigate fruits and vegetables. And I thought
the feds wanted us to eat more greens.
You’ll decrease your fat and cholesterol intake, which is good for your heart.
And eating more beans to replace the protein leads to more greenhouse gas emissions.
Then you need more gas medicine. Or the Mediterranean diet, which replaces red meat with fish.
And fisheries are collapsing due to overfishing.
Will you at least buy the economic argument?
Maybe, if you’ll cut back on the environmentalist gloom and doom. If we survived asteroid strikes
that wiped out the dinosaurs, we’ll survive industrial civilization.
What about saving the Earth?
You need to watch George Carlin’s spiel on that on Youtube. It’s hilarious.