hamburgers cause global warming

[jjones]

Someone frag a cow, I'm hungry for giblets.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Mark R

Originally posted by: GrantMeThePower

Originally posted by: leftyman
but then we would eat all the grains to replace the steak in our diets..and end up with emission problems.

huh?

The downside, enviornmentally, about switching to a less meat intensive diet, is two fold.

1. The pesticides and chemicals used in most production of grains and beans is very harmful
2. The land can not support the same crops year in and year out.

The "clear cutting" issue is moot, however, as it is done for either livestock or plants.

Over half of all grain production is used for feeding animals for meat. Meat that provides only a relatively small fraction of human nutrition. Estimates vary, but middle-of-the-road estimates are that feeding a human with meat requires 5 times as much grain as feeding a human with grain.

If meat consumption was reduced, there would be a massive drop in demand for grains, allowing land to be used for other crops, with concomitant reduction in the need for pesticides and/or fertilizers. Indeed, it is the very growing of crops to feed animals that encourages the monoculture that you criticize.

The problem with raising animals for red meat, is that predominantly, the choice is ruminants (cows, sheep, goats, etc.). Due to their biology, ruminants produce very large quantities of methane from their gut - e.g. a typical cow produces about 600 litres (400 g) of methane per day. This has the same greenhouse gas potential as about 25 kg of CO2, or the emissions of a 20 mile commute in a hummer.

In fact, livestock are the single biggest human-caused methane polluter - larger than the natural gas and energy industry.

so stick a vinyl tube up the cow's ass and collect the methane to use as biofuel.

 

[five40]

Actually it's corn that's the problem. All that nitrogen in the fertilizer causes some problems.

 

[BigJ]

This thread is going places.

 

[Cuda1447]

eating less meat means more cows cause we eat less.... wtf?

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: five40
Actually it's corn that's the problem. All that nitrogen in the fertilizer causes some problems.

Not to mention that corn consumes most of our dihydrogen monoxide.

It's a freaking epidemic of MASSIVE proportion. We are on the cusp of disaster! This is the tipping point, and frighteningly enough it's tipping the wrong way! OH NOES!

 

[eakers]

at my old university they genetically engineered pigs so their methane output was more environmentally friendly.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Mark R
In fact, livestock are the single biggest human-caused methane polluter - larger than the natural gas and energy industry.

Nope. The overwhelmingly majority is caused by wildlife.

OH NOES! Kill all the wildlife!!!

Raeding comphrenasnsion ftl?

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: sdifox
so stick a vinyl tube up the cow's ass and collect the methane to use as biofuel.

Dairy cows already have a screwed up worldview. Bipeds herd them into big buildings where machines suck their nipples. Now those bipeds are going to shove tubes up their butts so they can collect fart gas.

Good god those bipeds are horribly perverted.
:laugh:

Originally posted by: Crucial
Manure is returned to the land as fertilizer thus completing the circle. I don't see the problem here.

Manure disposal/use can be a logistics problem. Either way, there's still a lot of energy used to convert grain into cow and then into human food. It'd be more efficient to convert the grain right into human food, and cut out the middle...bovine.


We really need nuclear fusion. Then we can work on, and power, that technology I've heard about which allows for animal muscle tissue to be grown in a lab. How profitable could that be? Instead of having to provide space for animals to grow, and instead of having to also have them expend calories producing useless byproducts to live (bones, intestines, and various other discarded parts), have essentially a huge warehouse of boxes which grow muscle tissue. No more slaughterhouses, no smelly farms, just clean buildings where pure meat is grown humanely. Hell, I'm sure they could keep it clean enough that it could be eaten raw, should anyone want to do that. I bet there'd be a market for it.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Mark R
In fact, livestock are the single biggest human-caused methane polluter - larger than the natural gas and energy industry.

Nope. The overwhelmingly majority is caused by wildlife.

OH NOES! Kill all the wildlife!!!

Raeding comphrenasnsion ftl?

Perspective ftl?

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Mark R
In fact, livestock are the single biggest human-caused methane polluter - larger than the natural gas and energy industry.

Nope. The overwhelmingly majority is caused by wildlife.

OH NOES! Kill all the wildlife!!!

Raeding comphrenasnsion ftl?

Perspective ftl?

How is wildlife human-caused???

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Breaking news!!!

Global warming causes....global warming!!!

Everyone PANIC!!!

:thumbsup: :laugh:

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Howard
How is wildlife human-caused???

It's not, just putting things into perspective and stop the fear propoganda.

 

[ultimatebob]

Hey now... I switched to CFL bulbs, I got a fuel-efficient car, but I'll be damned if I'm giving up my burgers and steak!

90 grams a day... Even a pack of White Castle slyders has more beef than that!

I'm sure that Burger King and Outback will be more than willing to crank up the AC if things get warmer

 

[evolvedbullet]

Your gas is the problem! lol.

 

[Syringer]

Originally posted by: Cuda1447
eating less meat means more cows cause we eat less.... wtf?

Probably the most idiotic comment in this thread so far.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: GrantMeThePower

Originally posted by: leftyman
but then we would eat all the grains to replace the steak in our diets..and end up with emission problems.

huh?

The downside, enviornmentally, about switching to a less meat intensive diet, is two fold.

1. The pesticides and chemicals used in most production of grains and beans is very harmful
2. The land can not support the same crops year in and year out.

The "clear cutting" issue is moot, however, as it is done for either livestock or plants.

WTF do you think cows eat?? My mind is BLOWN. There are way too many posts like this one in this thread.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I don't eat a lot of red meat but this just sounds ludicrous.

Cows are pretty gassy, and it really is an inefficient use of land to first grow grains, which are then fed to cattle. A large portion of this food is converted into manure, for relatively little meat production.

It's similar to the reason why electric heat is so inefficient - first you burn fossil fuel at a power plant, electricity is produced, then it's sent great distances, and finally converted into heat. This incurs efficiency losses at every step. It's more efficient to burn fuel in your own home, that way the heat is immediately delivered to where it is needed.

Similarly, eating meat requires that grain be grown, fed to an animal, where a majority of it is simply turned into manure - not much is left behind in the animal, in the form of edible meat. Then the meat is delivered to a person, who converts it in to, well, manure as well.
The alternative is to grow grain, and deliver it to people. Then you have only one food -> manure process.
Overall, a vegetarian diet does make for more efficient use of farmland, in terms of calories delivered to people per square foot of land. Problem is, eating meat in times long past was a lifesaver, a quick way of getting lots of calories and protein. Now we tend to get too many calories, but the taste for meat remains, a vestige of evolution.

QFT. Too bad I like meat so much.

 

[cherrytwist]

Originally posted by: Syringer

Originally posted by: Cuda1447
eating less meat means more cows cause we eat less.... wtf?

Probably the most idiotic comment in this thread so far.

Do spiders fart?

 

[Ruptga]

Originally posted by: Random Variable

Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on Thursday.

In a special energy and health series of the medical journal The Lancet, experts said people should eat fewer steaks and hamburgers. Reducing global red meat consumption by 10 percent, they said, would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming.

"We are at a significant tipping point," said Geri Brewster, a nutritionist at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York, who was not connected to the study.

"If people knew that they were threatening the environment by eating more meat, they might think twice before ordering a burger," Brewster said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296646,00.html

This made me laugh, cow tipping anyone?

 

[Vic]

What they need to do is harvest all that cow methane for fuel. Seriously, I've been reading about the cow fart problem for years, and yet no one has done the obvious. Waste Management has turned landfill methane into fat coin, why can't the farmers and ranchers do the same with cow farts?

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Mark R
In fact, livestock are the single biggest human-caused methane polluter - larger than the natural gas and energy industry.

Nope. The overwhelmingly majority is caused by wildlife.

OH NOES! Kill all the wildlife!!!

Are you saying that you can't tell the difference between animals that are part of a natural cycle, and unnaturally large concentrations of livestock animals? You are acting like when you replace 10 acres of forest and prairie, you are replacing it with an equivalent amount of livestock. What makes you so sure that wildlife puts out more methane than livestock anyway?

The "OH NOES" thing is getting old and it's just not funny anymore. What is kind of funny is that your sarcasm is stuck at a 4rd grade skill level. Stop trolling.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

we should ban beans while we're trying to reduce flatulence

 

[silverpig]

I love how a nutritionist is telling us about the dangers of global warming.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Howard
How is wildlife human-caused???

It's not, just putting things into perspective and stop the fear propoganda.

I get it

failure to admit that you misundederstood the point: check
quickly changing the subject so as not to sound like a douche: check

nice strategy
:beer: