It looks like livestock production is contributing to climate change and we need to hit “peak meat” by 2030 to avoid an “ecological disaster.” At least, that’s the idea CBS News is touting from “scientists.”
In a bizarre Dec. 12 article headlined “World must hit ‘peak meat’ by 2030 to avoid climate crisis, scientists say,” CBS News reported that “in a letter published in the Lancet Planetary Health, more than 50 scientists recommend setting 2030 as the peak year for meat consumption, after which it needs to drop dramatically.”
Stranger still, CBS summarized the letter’s claims in the beginning paragraph, suggesting, “With livestock production contributing to climate change, people need to drastically reduce how much meat they eat to help stave off ecological disaster, a group of scientists warn.”
So, does this mean we all need to become vegans now?
CBS noted the letter was aimed at “richer countries” that consume more meat because of climate change and used that to take a shot at American consumption habits, in comparison with less-developed states:
“Americans eat 42% more meat, eggs and nuts than nutritionists recommend, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, while eating just three-quarters of the recommended amount of vegetables and less than half the recommended amount of fruit.”
Sure.
CBS News continued to trumpet the “scientists’” reasons for why we need to reach “peak meat.” The first reason had “to do with the carbon footprint of animal husbandry itself.”
CBS cited a UN report claiming that “raising animals for slaughter” accounts for almost 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally.
Secondly, CBS suggested that “much of the land that could accommodate trees is today used for livestock, the Lancet letter says. If that doesn’t get re-forested, the ‘best option’ for large-scale C02 removal disappears.”
Since CBS is concerned with livestock, it’s a wonder how the “scientists” they tout would rank the elimination of cow farts as an “option” for large-scale CO2 removal, per Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) proposed Green New Deal.
After all, “‘If the livestock sector were to continue with business as usual, this sector alone would account for 49% of the emissions budget for 1.5°C by 2030, requiring other sectors to reduce emissions beyond a realistic or planned level,’ the scientists write,’” noted CBS.
CBS does admit that a “climate-conscious diet” would not mean “cutting out animal products altogether, Heller said. Not all land is suitable for farming, and ruminants — cattle, goats, camels or sheep — could be put to graze on lower-quality acreage that can’t support crops for human consumption.”
CBS did not report, however, that “[t]otal U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2017 reached their lowest levels since 1992, according to the final Environmental Protection Agency Greenhouse Gas Inventory,” which Energy In Depth, a research program of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, reported on April 16, 2019.
Read more at NewsBusters
I have dutifully doubled my meat intake ever since this anti-meat promotion started. I always liked to eat meat, but now it tastes even better. The rule of thumb should be that every time the media discuss a subject using a phrase such as “experts say” or “scientists found”, followed by recommendations regarding your solemn duty to completely upend your way of life, do the exact opposite of what they tell you to do if you want to stay hale and hearty. The recent revelations about cholesterol (and other examples from the nutrition sphere) show why.
Histories most infamous Vegans Genghis Khan,Adolph Hitler,Pol Pot,Charles Manson and former Beatle Paul McCartney forces his stagehands to go Vegan
An old cowpuncher told me he was a second hand Vegan.
Cows eat grass and he eats cows………….
3 servings of vegans per day.
One thing I learned in college is that liberals, at least some of them, believe that humans are infinitely changeable. As such, a self appointed elite can determine among themselves what it best, and society can then be made to conform to that model. The reality is people have culture and that culture is not easily changed. Meat consumption is going to continue.
I’m sure that vegetarians exhale just as much CO2 as I do. Emit methane, too. Difference is I’m not self – righteous. Once they’re done banning livestock, will they go after wildlife? The Sierra Club and their ilk have been blamed for the lack of forest management that would prevent wildfires. How many billions of wild animals die a horrible death in those CO2 spewing disasters? What a waste in a useless cause.
If you took the C out of CBS News you would get BS News which is what it mostly is
While they’re at it – ban rice production as well – it produces more methane than cows.
Ah WTF let’s bring modern agriculture to an end as well.
“The extinction of the human species may not only be inevitable but a good thing.”
Christopher Manes, Earth First!
This is the mentality of the fruit loop brigade we are dealing with.
A like Cheese Burgers,steaks,Hot Dogs on the grill and Pork chops as well as Poultry and Fish go tel B.S. News to go such on a cucumber.Just a few years go that liberal rag Time had front page article on going Vegan well Screw Time Magazine and its publishers why should anyone take this liberal rag seriously in the first place?
All this talk makes me hungry. I think a grilled burger would do the trick.
The M.S, Media idea of a Climate Scientists is someone who predicts the weather by the amount of pain in their Left Big Toe DiCaprio,Nye,Gore and Suzuki are Not Real Scientists they just pretend to be scientists
Funny how they always quote a group of “scientists” but never tell us who these people are nor what their expertise is in climate science and animal husbandry.
“Appeal to authority” would lose a junior high debate but it doesn’t seem to bother these dolts.
One thing I learned in college is for the social sciences “who” wrote a paper was very important. In the physical sciences this didn’t matter as much as “what” the paper said. This is continuing in the climate change issue as deferring to authority by the alarmists.
It is safe bet that the “scientists” who wrote these articles are using the UN climate model RCP8.1. This is the most extreme of the climate models that not even the environmentalists believe will come true. Yet, those writing alarmist papers use it because it gives them the results they are after.
The Crappy Broadcasting System so now they want us all to go vegan 2030 over this Global Warming/Climate Change scam well screw CBS AND JACKASS THEY RODE IN ON tell those stupid idiots to shove it
How about you suckers just go ahead and kill yourselves in order to reduce your personal carbon print.
Exactly. Let them set the example and go full veggie.
But do not tell ME what to eat, you green lunatics