Eat greens to go Green? Not so fast my friends

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With the climate summit in Denmark getting underway this week, I wanted to address somethings that I have heard a few times. One concerns our diet, and the other concerns businesses and economy.

I have heard that argument made (mostly from Bill Maher) that we can help fight global warming by simply becoming a vegetarian. This is true and yet false. Yes by eating only greens we would no longer have herds of cows, pigs, etc which means no grazing land is needed and no methane expulsions. But that is as far as the argument goes as far as I am concerned because eating all greens can be just as damaging to the environment**. Sure you no longer need grazing lands but if EVERYONE became a vegetarian then you would have to drastically increase the amount of farm land. Forests are destroyed not only for grazing but also to expand farmland. Now I admit that farms full of growing plants would help reduce CO2 through photosynthesis, however, that is only while those plants are growing. Dirt during the winter does nothing for the level of CO2. A forest full of trees and shrubs is far more beneficial to the environment even during the winter months. Another problem with this idea is that of water. Farms consume a huge amount of water, and in places such as the Western U.S. water is just as valuable as gold. Some animals are much better at living with less water than crops. I don’t think it is our diet that is the problem as much as it is the sheer numbers of us. We are very rapidly approaching (if not over) the carrying capacity of our environment and I think that is as much of a cause to climate change as anything else. If you doubt this, simply look at the few native people in the world who still live as foragers (hunting and gathering plants). They eat meat and greens and yet have an equilibrium with their environment. They don’t reproduce like rabbits and as a result their environment can easily sustain their way of life.

The other argument I have heard is that going green will hurt business and the economy. This argument is simply asinine because the only businesses that going green hurts are the oil companies. That’s it. If going green was so bad to businesses and the economy then how could Denmark drop their carbon footprint by 13% and yet grow their economy by 45% in the same time period? The simple fact is that with energy costs rising due to dwindling sources. It is greatly beneficial to spend more money to switch to green energy NOW because the longer we stay on conventional power sources, the higher the prices will rise. It is simple economic theory, as demand goes up and/or supply drops the cost goes up. The sooner we realize this and the sooner we bite the initial bullet of cost, the better of we all will be.

** I am not anti vegetarian and am impressed with people who can only eat greens I just don’t think its an end all save all diet.