One of the worst contributors to global warming is an issue that is rarely discussed, even among champions of the global warming cause: meat. In a New York Times article from August 29th, 2007 titled “Trying to Connect the Dinner Plate to Climate Change,” author Claudia H. Deutsch notes “raising animals for meat contributes more to global warming than all the sport utility vehicles combined.” The evidence for this claim can be found in a report issued last November by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, not exactly a group that would be considered “radical” or “extreme.”

Why is the meat issue so often absent from the list of global warming perpetrators? I think that people who promote global warming awareness and education worry that bringing the meat issue to the forefront of the discussion will reduce concern and lessen involvement, for several reasons.
As of 2004, vegetarians comprised only 2.8% of the American population – although this number is slowly increasing. The majority of Americans eat meat. Vegetarians may be viewed by many members the population as a fringe group championing the PETA agenda (some of them do but not all) who would use global warming to further the case for animal rights. I think global warming activists may not be ready to bring the connection between eating meat and global warming to the forefront of the discussion until global warming as a concept becomes as mainstream as racial equality or women’s rights. Activists worry that pairing global warming and vegetarianism will make global warming seem like a leftist, radical cause.

The manner in which the meat issue enters into the global warming discussion is delicate. I think a public awareness campaign in the form of statements of fact would be much more effective than a campaign insisting that people to stop eating meat. Present the argument and let individuals make their own conclusions. This approach might reduce the number of people who recoil from the meat – global warming connection. It is too risky to wait until global warming becomes solidly mainstream before discussing the delicate issues.–AMD