“7/29/2009, 2:54pm EST”
Gut Check: The Meat of the Problem →
That’s the title of Ezra Klein’s essay in the Washington Post today, which explains the huge environmental benefits of going meatless.
The debate over climate change has reached a rarefied level of policy abstraction in recent months… But at base, these policies aim to do a simple thing, in a simple way: persuade us to undertake fewer activities that are bad for the atmosphere by making those activities more expensive. Driving an SUV would become pricier. So would heating a giant house with coal and buying electricity from an inefficient power plant. But there’s one activity that’s not on the list and should be: eating a hamburger.
If it’s any consolation, I didn’t like writing that sentence any more than you liked reading it. But the evidence is strong. It’s not simply that meat is a contributor to global warming; it’s that it is a huge contributor. Larger, by a significant margin, than the global transportation sector.
Go on over and read the whole thing. It’s short and witty, I promise. (H/t to vegansaurus.)
Never leave home without it.
