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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
In my opinion, Elizabeth Kolbert’s Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change (2006) could not be a better and more timely choice for MHC’s Common Read this year. I mean, is there a hotter topic than global warming and climate change just now? (Pardon the pun.) But seriously, is there? Everyone, just everyone suddenly seems interested.
Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth (2006) appears to have been a tipping point, pushing the topic into the mainstream media’s and everyperson’s consciousness. The “truth” needed a bit of time to digest, but then suddenly, beginning in April/May of this year–just around the time Mount Holyoke College announced its Common Read 2007 pick–global warming and climate change as topics and buzzwords were ubiquitous (and I had to overcome myself to use that word): On 1 May, NPR launched its yearlong news series “Climate Connections,” advertising and marketing for the 7-continent, 24-hour music extravaganza Live Earth (7.7.07) seemed to go into full gear, Vanity Fair’s May Issue was a special green issue, on and on. And it is not just the usual suspects who are talking and interested anymore, i.e., liberals, democrats, lefties, greens, etc etc. Even President Bush went on topic in May, and the National Review, a conservative magazine, featured a piece by Jim Manzi, titled “Game Plan: What conservatives should do about global warming,” as its cover story 25 June. And groups considered ‘conservative’ but concerned about global warming/climate change and its (broader) effects are advertising in the National Review. Two I thought rather interesting were: Balanced Food and Fuel, an alliance of agricultural groups concerned about ethanol policy, and the Evangelical Climate Initiative.
Global warming and climate change seem truly to be on everyone’s mind now. And I am hoping this blog will be a forum for all to come to and talk and learn about this very hot topic.
