In December, approximately 20,000 delegates from 192 countries will attend the United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark. If one British official has his way, meat will not be on the menu.
Lord Stern of Brentford told the Times of London, "Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better." Mind you, in the same article Lord Stern admitted that he was not a strict vegetarian himself, but that shouldn’t stop the rest of the world from doing as he says, not as he does.
In view of such a radical proposal, it should come as no surprise that Lord Stern is a dedicated globalist with unquestionable bona fides. He was the chief economist at the World Bank and wrote an influential review of the global climate crisis in 2006. He has outlined for us a few of the most destructive aspects of the carnivoral lifestyle. First, cows and pigs produce methane which is "23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas." Second, the production of meat is, according to Lord Stern and the United Nations, "responsible for about 18 percent of global carbon emissions." Beyond that, the forests of the world are being cleared to make room for cattle ranches and for the cultivation of crops used to make feed for the animals. In truth, if one follows Lord Stern’s "solutions" to their logical conclusions, then the earth would be saved if only we would get rid of all the animals and all the people. The question is, who gets to decide who is first in line to be sacrificed on the altar of climate change?
Of course, Lord Stern is not alone in calling for the eradication of meat. Su Taylor, a spoke-vegan for the Vegetarian Society, declared in support of Lord Stern’s statement, "What we choose to eat is one of the biggest factors in our personal impact on the environment. Meat uses up a lot of resources and a vegetarian diet consumes a lot less land and water. One of the best things you can do about climate change is reduce the amount of meat in your diet." Well, there you have it. Thanks to socialist aristocrats and meatless talking heads, the solution to the world’s warming problem is illuminated. Mind you, it must be illuminated by candlelight, for incandescent bulbs are almost as bad as gas-emitting cows when it comes to wholesale, premeditated planeticide.
Lord Stern has issued a personal appeal to President Barack Obama imploring him to attend the Copenhagen conference because an effective agreement would never be reached without the United States. For his part, President Obama has not replied to Lord Stern’s plea. As a matter of fact, as of the date of writing of this article, President Obama is undecided whether he will put the meeting on his agenda. Perhaps President Obama is familiar with Lord Stern’s lamentably poor prognosticating prowess.
In 2006, Lord Stern, on behalf of the government of the United Kingdom, published a review of the global warming situation and predicted how unchecked human activity might impact the future of our planet. One of his warnings was that the price of oil would plummet, causing the world to burn more and more of the fossil fuel. Well, not exactly. At the time Lord Stern wrote his report, oil was priced at about $50 a barrel, but as anyone pulling into a gas station can tell you, the price is continually rising and at present a barrel of crude sells for about $100. It seems that despite Lord Stern’s (occasionally) healthy diet void of offense to the ozone, his ability to predict the future is no better than the rest of us carbon chomping carnivores.
Not that it matters exactly, but there are other considerations to be made. For example, it is much more expensive to transport meat than to transport alternative foods that would provide the same level of protein. Also, what of the fields the world over that are unsuitable for crops, but are ideal for grazing? Would these enviro-mentalists be happy to see cattle, sheep, goats, etc. turned out of their pastures and slaughtered for the sake of eliminating flatulence? Would vege-scarians be willing to support a switch from traditional meat sources to fish? It is doubtful given the hue and cry they raise daily regarding the overfishing of the world’s oceans.
So, while these hypocritical millennial chicken-littles and their jet-setting globalist allies converge on Copenhagen to hash out solutions to the world’s most threatening imaginary problem, the rest of us should bundle up (high temperatures around the country are about 10 degrees below average this year), fry up a hamburger or pork chop, and rely on science to save us from the impending meltdown through the breeding of gasless hogs and cows. While they’re at it, perhaps they can develop a snore-less spouse, a cryless baby, dirtless dishes, and growless grass.
