UN Climate Change chair Dr. Rajendra Pachauri says no more meat for you!
It was mildly amusing last year when I blogged about Dr. Dean Ornish’s PETA-based front group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) pointing the finger at meat eating as a reason for global warming. In fact, several op-ed pieces have been written by PCRM members in various publications putting forth this ridiculous notion that the reason the planet is supposedly getting hotter (the jury is still WAY out on that one!) is because people are eating meat.
Here’s just a little of what has been said by a couple of PCRM minions over the past year:
“Temperatures are rising around the world, ice caps are melting, and storms are becoming more severe. Even the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding island communities are at risk. Death tolls from the increasing heat are also rising, according to a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health’s department of environmental health. Most people are neglecting one of the most important steps toward stopping global warming: adopting a vegetarian diet.”
–Dr. Patrice Green wrote in the Baltimore Sun on July 19, 2007
“This increased meat consumption is also environmentally unsustainable. According to a recent United Nations report, livestock production is a key contributor to deforestation and a major source of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. And given the disturbing rate at which the South American rainforest is being destroyed to create grazing land for cattle, reducing our meat consumption might be the single most important step we can take to improve the health of our planet.”
–Susan Levin wrote in a letter to the editor to the Times-News
And there was even a study published in the journal The Lancet in September 2007 pushing for a 10 percent reduction in meat consumption because it MAY (that’s the key word in the sentence!) reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It MAY do it, but maybe not. Who really knows?!
Like I said previously, the science behind global warming itself is so suspect right now that any recommendations to resolve it are like throwing darts at a moving target in the dark. It’s like these vegetarians think this is their “in” to get their radical message out there since this is a hot political topic in a key U.S. presidential election year. They will stop at nothing to get people to stop eating meat…even if it means making up whatever reasons they can think of to get people to do it!
But as wacky and off-the-wall as all these proclamations about meat-eating leading to global warming have been from those cut from the Ornish ilk, so far this radical agenda has been limited primarily to the op-ed pages of newspapers and that one study. However, now the “meat is bad for the climate” talking point has spread into a mainstream group that can have an impact on global public policy–the United Nations! Dum dum dummmmmmm!
According to this UK-based The Observer column, the head of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is recommending people around the world give up meat for one day or even more each week if they truly care about making a “personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change.” Oh really?! Giving up my favorite low-carb meats for one day a week is supposed to have such a dramatic impact, eh?
He is recently-reelected UN Climate Change chair and Indian economist Dr. Rajendra Pachauri (somebody give this guy a toupee or something for that comb over!) and it should come as no surprise that he is a vegetarian. His group at the UN shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year with the equally kooky Al Gore who has made it his life’s mission to spread this global warming farce for the rest of his life no matter what kind of shaky evidence there is for it. We’ll leave the discussion of the validity of global warming to the political blogs, but let’s dig deeper into this business that meat is a contributing factor in climate change.
Dr. Pachauri believes a diet change away from eating meat is vital to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, preserving natural wildlife habitats, and humanely treating the animals that go on to be slaughtered for food. He states that it’s easier to get people to change their diet than their driving habits. Blamed for about one-fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases, meat production produces the ever-popular methane gas from the flatulence of cattle–something these vegetarians like to say is much worse for the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (and they’d get everyone to hold their breath for a day, too, if they could get away with it!).
I have to ask Dr. Pachauri and anyone else at PCRM or other vegetarian-led groups some rather important questions: Where is your proof that any of this process of creating meat for food is actually having a negative impact on the weather? Aren’t you merely speculating at best putting forth such bold statements about meat and global warming without any real evidence that makes your point? How can a group like the United Nations stand behind such an extreme position when the foundation for it is so incredibly suspect? You gotta ask yourself these questions if you’re affiliated with the UN today.
Interestingly, the story goes on to explain that meat consumption is set to double by the middle of the century. OH REALLY? Hmmmm, could it be that livin’ la vida low-carb is making such a major comeback now that even the vegetarians are admitting that people are rejecting their nonsensical propaganda about meat being unhealthy for them? Don’t you know there will be a lot of people who will be consuming even MORE to rebel against the likes of PETA, PCRM, and other out-of-the-mainstream vegan groups.
Dr. Pachauri describes this weekly meat-out (I have my own special way of celebrating these “meat-free” days) as “the most attractive opportunity” for creating a measurable reduction in greenhouse gases. Again, I have to ask the question–HOW DO YOU KNOW IT’S GONNA MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?
Don’t expect Dr. Pachauri to let up on his new message about global warming anytime soon. He also spoke at an event held by an animal rights group called Compassion in World Farming which has called on the people of Great Britain to cut their meat consumption in half to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by even more than if they cut their driving in half. In fact, they are pushing for governments around the world to mandate a reduction of meat consumption by upwards of 60 percent by the year 2020. Well, yippee freakin’ skippy! When you’re out on a limb with such a crazy idea like Dr. Pachauri, I suppose you have to hang around people even more “out there” than you are!
You know, all this talk of cutting down on our consumption of meat has got me hungry now–I think I’ll go cook up a big, fatty, juicy porterhouse steak and eat DOUBLE the portion size I normally would in celebration and in honor of Dr. Rajendra Pachauri and the UN’s position today. Won’t you join me? I’ll have my steak medium please.
