Eating beef contributes to global warming

Very good presentation in the Scientific American in 5 color slides of how beef contributes  to global warming.

http://www.sciam.com/slideshow.cfm?id=the-greenhouse-hamburger&SID=mail&sc=emailfriend

The only issue I have with this article, is that it is strictly from a CO2 generation point of view. And the thing with the environment and eating meat, is that you have also to take into account the water consumption of cattle. You need water to grow cereals to feed to the cattle, who also drink water. So besides the amount of CO2 that the cattle produce, you also need to take into account the water consumption. At the end of the day there is a factor of 50 between the water needed to "produce" one kilo of meat and one kilo of bread. This is a complex problem, and we need a systems dynamics approach to it, not just looking at one parameter. And yeah, we should all eat less meat - it is also healthier

Comments

[George Scheller]

morning Beth

Did I miss something? The problem lies in an ever increasing population producing methane etc. on it's own - see digestive tract and ! eating ever more meat. All this was described or insinuated in a book "the biological time bomb" sometime in the 70's. We have a 50 - 100 year lag in the CO2 case.

regards George

[what are the effects of global warming]

Hi there! thank you for the post. I never thought that eating beef has so much influence on global warming, but I don't think that there is much to do about it. I had a huge argument with a friend, (a very narrow minded friend I must say)about this subject - It is so hard to convince people about how serious the situation is.

[2012 Timberland]

Excellent post. It makes me realize the energy of words and pictures. I learn a lot, thank you! Wish you make a further progress in the future.