Re: Cows and GW

In article <1184237302.246028.206570@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Weatherlawyer <Weatherlawyer@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
On Jul 12, 10:48 am, "Philip Eden" <philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom>
wrote:
"Graham Jones" <gjo...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

Stories about cows and GW always annoy me. They never seem to mention that
the only reason we have so many cows in the first place is to feed us. The
amount of land being cleared around the world for cattle grazing is truly
a crime against nature.
As is the amount of land being cleared for growing crops to produce cattle
feed.

So how can people blame cows? Yet again we are to blame.

Also, it's the *change* in output of greenhouse gases that's important.
The rate of increase in the livestock population of the planet is, as far
as I can glean from published statistics, appreciably slower than the
rate of increase of the human population. At the last count (in 2004)
there were 807 million cattle (actually slightly less than the average
for the previous four years).

How does that compare to the the number of ungulates that once roamed
the prairies, pampas and whatever the grasslands of Africa and Eastern
Europe are/were called?

That's an interesting question. There were apparently enormous numbers
of bison roaming the plains of North America up until the mid 19th
century, before most of them were slaughtered.

Perhaps the modern movement is just redressing the disasters that were
instituted in a couple of other centuries. (Only in a very unhealthy
and badly run manner.)


Could be.
--
John Hall

"I am not young enough to know everything."
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
.

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