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« More on intelligent design | Main | The classic made new » Monday, December 11, 2006The battle with cattleThis from the (London) Independent, about a new report by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation: "Meet the world's top destroyer of the environment. It is not the car, or the plane, or even George Bush: it is the cow." According to the 400-page report, "Livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together." I'd heard about the impact of methane emissions from cow manure and flatulence [chuckle], but I had no idea about the carbon output, nor the scale we are talking about. (Also, I hadn't known that methane is far more dangerous than carbon. Al Gore didn't mention that one in "An Inconvenient Truth.") What is more, the harm done by livestock will more than double by 2050, as meat demand increases. Here we are devoting vast amounts of energy and ink and political debate to alternate sources of fuel to drive our automobiles and planes, while I haven't heard a word about What To Do About the Cows -- a bigger worry, it would appear. Are there any ideas even on the table, aside from a vast sea change toward vegetarianism? Posted by Evan Hughes at 11:49 AM
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