Planet Earth: "Waiting To Exhale"
Published May 13, 2007
If Al Gore and family and every family in America, over the past 20 years, had said: “hold the beef” each and every time that they walked or biked to their favorite diner, then they would have reduced, by tons. their carbon footprint on planet earth.
But that’s as unlikely a scenario as Gore giving back his Oscar for hypocrisy.
My science classes are wrapping up the school year with a lesson in critical thinking. We accomplished this by studying ecology in general and global warming in particular. We are doing it with the help of technology and a couple of DVDs. The first one Diet For A New America (1991), and the second An Inconvenient Truth. To broaden their horizons globally, I first held a discussion of fossil fuel (coal, oil, natural gas) versus solar (photovoltaic cells) and wind power. We compared and contrasted the two and watched Nova's Saved by the Sun as background to this issue.
I found Diet For A New America (VHS) the visual companion to Frances Moore Lapp’s landmark book: Diet for a Small Planet. Both promoted a meatless diet and lowered protein intake, but for very different reasons. The video made it clear that in addition to the global warm-mongers chasing carbon-coughing cars that they should also be chasing carbon-coughing cows.
It argued that the cattle, poultry, and pig industry (vast corporate farms), was so unregulated that it was directly dumping huge amounts of waste into rivers, lakes and nearby streams. This two-punch dumping of tons of carbon into the atmosphere was in the form of methane (gas), and its solid companion: fecal waste. This does not even include the damage done by the necessary deforestation. Eventually the animal farm waste does reach ground-water aquifers: increasing drought, decreasing vegetation and oxygen. I thought, “This is what they won’t talk about.”
Diet For A New America compared; reminiscent of Gore’s power point--the Great Plains basin aquifer as it was then (huge) and as it is now (small and shrinking). This basin, which sits in the heart of America, is nearly drained dry, having been all-but-sacrificed to the cash-cow gods. It has shrunk for one good reason: mega-water use for grains (wheat and corn) that must in turn be fed to cows and pigs. Cows and pigs are primary consumers. Meat eaters are secondary consumers.
Naturally, the parts are unequal that form the energy pyramid. Producers form the bottom of this ecological pyramid, primary consumers above, secondary consumers above them. Producers are the most abundant organism on earth: The energy source all living organisms depend on.
- Planet Earth: "Waiting To Exhale"
- Published: May 13, 2007
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Culture: Business and Economics, Sci/Tech: Energy/Environment, Sci/Tech: Health/Fitness
- Writer: Heloise
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Comments on this articleComments
Heloise,
I saw your post on Huffington:
Regarding point 3 in this article, on ethanol:
Pimentel's study is somewhat out of date, and subsequent research, along with new plants, now indicate a net positive energy balance from ethanol.
and look at the "The 2001 Net Energy Balance of Corn Ethanol" and "USDA's 2002 Ethanol Cost-of-Production Survey" reports.
However, I do agree in the more abstract case that, if one is going to use corn for energy, then there are better ways to get that energy, and that if one were to use the land the corn was grown on for energy use, there are better ways to do that as well.
There is an interesting way to hit several problems at once. On the east coast, many houses burn fuel oil for heating. This is the same as burning diesel, which comes from oil, which is imported.
Meanwhile, a lot of corn goes into making ethanol, which is burned in cars, which displaces a rather small amount of oil.
If, instead, those houses burned corn, the displacement of fuel oil would be very high, because there would not be the energy loss associated with the fermentation process. This would free up diesel fuel, which if used in cars instead of the ethanol / gasoline mixture, would yeild an instant 30% energy gain right there.
Therefore, my points are:
1) Ethanol, even at a 67% energy gain, is only marginal as a fuel source.
2) If you want energy from corn, burn corn.
3) If you want energy from fields, grow something other than corn.
4) Displace fuel oil with biomass when used for heating.
"Why not banish cow and pig farms and/or put an extreme tariff on them? "
Freedom or liberty perhaps. Enviro-nazis can't seem to understand why it's not OK to tell everyone else how to live based on their half cocked theories. Please continue on with your holier than thou, i-was-a-vegetarian-before-you-were, stuck up crusade and leave legislating to those with more sense.
On Youtube:Al Gore ignores meat global warming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwkbDubF2qM&mode=related&search=
Also: Goveg.com
I just happened to find this video. It is exactly what I was talking about. Why not be a vegan? Put your money where you meat is. Why isn't Gore a vegan if he is so passionate about the environment. This is the greatest source of carbon footprint in the world. Mostly: use of water to grow plants to make meat.
Heloise
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You forgot to include dairy in the list of excluded foods at the end. Those cows produce methane, too!