The American Spectator

home
ADVERTISEMENT
Print Email
Text Size

Loose Canons

A Modest Proposal to Fix Global Warming

By on 3.8.11 @ 6:09AM

Significant cooling is just an eruption — or a Dr. Stangelove moment — just around the corner.

As surely as the cherry blossoms will emerge after another cold, bleak Washington winter, so will the global warming muezzins resume calling us to prayer at their green altar. But now, thanks to National Geographic’s Charles Choi, we are reminded that if global warming actually occurred, any American president can not only end it but reverse it with the push of a button.

In a brilliant but little-noticed article, Mr. Choi reports that a small nuclear war — one that employed only 0.03 percent of the world’s nuclear arsenal — would result in reversing earth’s long-term warming trend and result in global cooling by 2.25 degrees, according to NASA computer models. It’s a wonder that Al Gore didn’t think of this a decade ago.

The NASA modelers apparently found that explosions of 100 Hiroshima-sized warheads would produce the desired effect by blasting so much dirt and dust into the atmosphere as to reduce the effect of the sun’s rays.

The model is based upon historical fact. The eruption of volcanoes, such as the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines, actually caused this effect but more briefly. And we don’t want to overdo it. The eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora in 1815 caused widespread famine and unrest. In the NASA model, the one hundred warheads being set off would cool the tropics, Europe, Asia, and Alaska by about 5-7 degrees and parts of the polar regions would actually warm a little. The globe’s temperature would be cooled by about one degree Fahrenheit for a decade.

Agriculture would be affected, and the earth would, for a while, be “…a colder, hungrier planet.” But how much colder and hungrier will the world be after the nuclear explosions than it would be if, say, a carbon tax scheme such as the one Henry Waxman and Nancy Pelosi wanted were made law? Or if the Kyoto Treaty were revived to impose cap-and-trade on the world’s productive economies while those such as China and India were exempted? Or if we allowed the Arab world rebellions to starve us of oil because we are crippled by liberal group-think that prohibits offshore drilling and the construction of new nuclear power plants?

Mr. Choi doesn’t report any NASA modeling on those prospects, but from the economic studies of cap-and-tax and such, we know that food will be more expensive and scarce, people will earn less and subsistence farming may become the new fashion on the Upper East Side.

But there is a better way, and it makes use of the best technology and skills of NASA. We need a Kubrick annex to a new Kyoto Treaty.

Stanley Kubrick, the genius who created Dr. Strangelove based on Peter Bryant’s novel, centered us on the idea of the “Doomsday machine,” a Soviet superbomb designed to destroy all life on earth by creating the “nuclear winter,” a century-long version of the Mount Tambora eruption. It was to be detonated automatically in the event of a nuclear attack on Russia.

Under the Kubrick Annex, all of the signatories to a new Kyoto Treaty would agree that their nation would be the site of one of the hundred Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapons modeled by NASA. No nation could be trusted to detonate one on its own soil, so someone of unimpeachable character and authority — the UN Secretary General — would have to be the keeper of the keys. And, because the SecGen might be someone such as Nancy Pelosi or Ban Ki Moon, the occupant of that office shouldn’t be given more authority than to maintain the nuclear weapons and the computer controls over them that would detonate them all simultaneously and automatically if the temperature of the globe rose more than the agreed amount.

Nations such as China and Russia could easily agree to this, given their geographic expanses. But for smaller countries such as France and Great Britain it would be a far greater burden. So the Kubrick Annex would have to allow them to pay other nations to host the warheads that could otherwise destroy vineyards or sheep moors. The nations would be left to their own to negotiate a fair “nuke and trade” rate of payment.

And, of course, there would have to be a Khamenei Codicil to the Kubrick Annex. Nations (and the Palestinians) that have demonstrated a fondness for suicide bombings would not be eligible to host nuclear weapons or to pay for other nations to host weapons for them unwittingly.

The elegance of this system would be obvious to all concerned, especially the global warmists. They would gain the absolute assurance that global warming will not end life on earth, though they would have to give up their moral superiority to a supervening authority. Unfortunately, this would mean that they would all have to get real jobs, which they can seek in government or academia. The smartest of the lot will seek employment at the UN, where the bureaucracy is so magnificently overpaid that they can only be compared to California public sector union members.

For those of us who believe global warming is a scam, the benefits will be immediate and personal. No longer will we have to endure cocktail party lectures about our duty to trade our 500-horsepower Mustangs for Toyota Priuses and Chevy Volts. No more will our college-age children come home for the sole purpose of measuring our carbon footprints and redesigning our lives’ plans to achieve social responsibility. We might even be able to buy incandescent light bulbs again even though they use more electricity than their dimmer mercury-filled counterparts. (We will have to think of another solution to another liberally-manufactured problem to restore our ability to buy toilets that flush rather than stir.)

Think of all the green jobs that would be created. The design and manufacture of hundreds of nuclear warheads and computer controls for them, the transportation, maintenance and all that equipment are sure to require the creation of thousands of jobs in hundreds of countries. President Obama, this is your moment. It is a time for international leadership. And it is all within your grasp. Or not.

About the Author

Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies. You can follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (69) |

Firesign58| 3.8.11 @ 7:32AM

Brilliant. Genius. Have Gore and similar militant proponents/enablers/profiteers of cap and tax observe every blast personally to ensure all bombs go off. Supercilious green worshipers would go the way of the dino.

old white guy| 3.11.11 @ 10:50AM

all the silliness aside the avg global temp will be 1.6 degrees lower by 2030.

Pablo| 3.8.11 @ 7:35AM

Toyota (not Nissan) Prius. The Green Meanies will seize upon that small error to ignore the cogent advice you offer.

JimP| 3.8.11 @ 7:37AM

Great. Now we can nuke the Mideast with a clear conscience. We'll also reduce the population bomb. A twofer!

Mike D.| 3.8.11 @ 7:51AM

I want to see AlGORE ride the first bomb out of a B-52 ala Slim Pickens, Yeeeeeehaaaaaa!

Mike D.| 3.8.11 @ 8:52AM

On second thought, maybe we might not want to scatter Gore's dna and atoms into the atmosphere.
They could find their way into somebodies reproductive system and one self important dufus named Gore is plenty.

Ned the Red| 3.8.11 @ 11:03AM

I can see the headlines: 
The Una-Gore Terrorizes the Heartland.
Gore-zilla Destroys Texas Searching For "W".
Bore-Gore Penetrates Vital Oil Pipelines.
ManBearPig Really Exists.

JimP| 3.8.11 @ 1:54PM

ROTFL! Especially the ManBearPig Gore.

Ned the Red| 3.8.11 @ 10:54AM

You beat me to it, Mike D.

Dennis Bergendorf| 3.8.11 @ 7:52AM

Of course, this is tongue-in-cheek. But it does have some basis in reality.

I've wondered about the fact that since Krakatoa in the late 19th century, there have been no huge volcanic eruptions (Pinatubo was big, but nowhere near the size of Krakatoa, and Mt. St. Helens was hardly a blip on the vulcanism radar).
And yet, the Gore disciples never seem to acknowledge that fact.

USSAlabama| 3.8.11 @ 9:59AM

Of course not. It 'conveniently' does not fit into the agenda.

Toba was a larger blast than Krakatoa.

SpiralArchitect | 3.8.11 @ 1:25PM

A few centuries back was a time now referred to as the Dark Ages.

Most do not know that they were in reality, dark.

Likely from a volcanic onslaught the debris put into the atmosphere was a sort of large tinted window reflecting many of the Suns evil rays

There were many substanciated claims of reduced temprature and the results that would accompany - famine jsut to mention one.

BTW, lib's don't want to actually correct (anything) Global Warming, they simply require the existance pseudo-acknowledgement of GW as to empower them to exert more control over the lowly, unable to take care of themselves populace.

MikeD| 3.8.11 @ 7:19PM

It was called "The Little Ice Age", and it lasted roughly from about 1300 to 1800 AD, depending on the criteria used. It was caused by several factors, including the "Maunder Minimun", a period of extremely low sunspot activity; several huge volcanic eruptions, and some effects from the precession of our planet in it's rotation.

The leftie morons are so arrogant that they really think that human beings can have this huge effect on our climate. We're not that powerful. We can annoy the atmosphere a bit now and then, but we're generally inconsequential in the long run. The whole thing is just one more aspect of the libs/dems evil eagerness to do ANYTHING, tell any lies, and subvert ANYTHING ELSE to gain and hold their illegitimate power. They need to be crushed politically without mercy or the slightest bit of compassion. The republicans actually believe the wails and bleats of the dems when they're down and allow them to come back and illustrate their complete lack of morals and compassion time and time again.

NEVER TRUST A DEMOCRAT. THEY LIE, CHEAT, AND STEAL. THEY'VE EVEN KILLED. What part of that don't you understand GOP?

Renaissance Nerd | 3.9.11 @ 3:43PM

And it goes back to the very beginning. The Alien and Sedition Acts have gone down in history as an evil Federalist plot, but what PROMPTED them? They just out of the blue decided 'aliens' shouldn't vote?
Of course not. The Dem-Reps were paying for votes as people walked off the ships. When they changed to Dems they kept it up. The Dem-Reps/Dems have always ever been nothing but a criminal vote-buying syndicate.

JimH| 3.8.11 @ 8:07AM

I remember Carl Sagan blathering on about the bombs causing nuclear winter. Has any correlation been found between all the bomb tests in the late forties and fifties and any climate cooling? And remember, there is no fighting in the war room.

Paul Kotik| 3.8.11 @ 8:19AM

In one of his early novels Kurt Vonnegut offhandedly tosses off The Committee of Artists and Scientists for Immediate Nuclear War.

And everyone thought he was joking!

Louis Jenkins| 3.8.11 @ 8:19AM

Slim Pickens, "Yeaaaa haaaaa." Don't forget, 100 women for every man down there in the sub-terranian caverns. Nothing to do but breed. But that doesn't include us. A cold, hungier planet indeed.

Michael L. Hauschild| 3.8.11 @ 10:25AM

Louis I can help. Let me sell you some occupancy credits to alleviate your bomb shelter gap.

MikeD| 3.8.11 @ 8:31AM

The first bomb needs to be miniaturized and strapped to barry's back. That might be the only thing that could shut him up long enough to actually listen to reality! Of course, he wouldn't be the only dem with such a 'control mechanism'. I could see a whole "Cottage Industry" making hundreds of 'mini-nukes' to strap to the stupidest among us, including Madame Pelosi, mr. Screid, and a selection of suitable liberals and dems.

we could then install some kind of artificial intelligence device that allows a number of their usual stupid comments until a pre-selected total is reached, and then, a signal alerts a secret branch of the Military that will then retrieve the individual and temporarily disable the device until they can be transported to an island in the middle of the ocean where all the other leftie big mouths will already be spouting off to each other.

Just think! All of them in one place, and none of them knowing which stupid mouthing will set off their particular device. We could call it "HEAVEN"! At least I can dream... (NOTE!!! Dear "Obama Police": This is satire! I am NOT gonna do anything with my personal nuke arsenal!)

sane person| 3.8.11 @ 1:27PM

This statement is sick and disgusting - you should be ashamed of yourself making threats to the President. I hope the FBI tracks you down before you and your type are able to carry out your plans.

Go to jail - without a possibility of parole.

B Diebold| 3.8.11 @ 2:33PM

Dear Mr S. Person,
After reading your thought provoking tome I feel your probably an expert in the sick and disgusting.

Peace on you S Person

Mel Torme| 3.8.11 @ 3:25PM

What's really sick is that MikeD didn't even mention an obvious property of nuclear weapons. With all his brilliant plans (maybe a little bit Rube-Goldburg-like, but still do-able), he didn't take advantage of the effect of "critical mass". Yeah, that term is bandied about in all sorts of subjects, but the expression came from nuclear reactions.

What we need is to get all of these well-thought-out strapped-on-leftwingers weapons together at, oh, let me see, maybe the next big global warming conference? You set aside one conference room specifically for the global warming stars, ManBearPig, that dipshit actor, Gingrich, etc. As soon as this elite group gets together to discuss global warming, the critical mass necessary to combat global warming via "Nukes of Consensus" will be in place, and, viola, problem discussed = problem eliminated. No detonators, no electronics, no fuss. "and ahhh helped!" (voice of cute Southern girl from the old Shake-and-Bake commercial).

So, Mr. Sane Person, if you do go calling on the Federal Government to report MikeD, could you bring a copy of my resume with you? The "Scientists for a Nucular Consensus" could really use a guy like me. I'll put in a good word to the HR dipshit for you, MikeD. I could use a good experimentalist and hands-on guy.

MikeD| 3.8.11 @ 6:26PM

I see that you're so brilliant that you can't even recognize satire. Or, are you so incredibly bright that you REALLY enjoyed the actual movie you leftie sickos made when G.W. Bush was a REAL president and you morons threatened to kill him about every day. You're out of your league here. Go back to Sesame Street on Line; it's closer to your mental level.

SpiralArchitect | 3.8.11 @ 1:38PM

I found a suitable, comparatively overqualified, replacement for Barry -

http://cheezburger.com/View/4533982464

Ken (Old Texican)| 3.8.11 @ 8:50AM

Jed,
sometimes your mind goes into strange places.

Brian Mc| 3.8.11 @ 8:51AM

I found it amusing when reading that another "Global Warming" satellite failed to separate recently, that's two now, and plummeted back to earth in fiery failure. I wonder if anyone is taking notes of how much cooling occurred beneath each respective cloud caused by the explosions. I find the arrogance of the "Mother Earthy's" to be amusing on the one hand and yet, deplorable when witnessing the irresponsible actions of those who are buying what they are selling: i.e. the condition of the mall in front of the Capitol after the alien's inauguration.

SpiralArchitect | 3.8.11 @ 1:39PM

:)

Cpm| 3.8.11 @ 5:59PM

Maybe that climate nut at NASA is afraid the satellites will debunk the GW orthodoxy and has been surreptitiously slipping a spanner in the works.

Ken in Tyler| 3.8.11 @ 9:37AM

Oh goodie! Can I choose which cities will play host to our quota of nukes? Properly placed, this could cleanse us of most of the blue enclaves while leaving red flyover country untouched. Great plan!

Anthony| 3.8.11 @ 9:50AM

It might be more humane to simply tie Algore and Michael Moore to a huge weather balloon to block out the sun.
Occams Razor

Mel Torme| 3.8.11 @ 3:38PM

C'mon, Anthony! How much Helium do you think we have on this earth? It doesn't grow on trees, you know. Mother Gaia does not like her Helium raped from her very womb, otherwise known as deep wells.

Oh wait, the weather balloons use Hydrogen! Still, think of how big a balloon you'd need. It may be a job for Goodyear, rather than the limited capabilities of the NOAA.

Nunya| 3.8.11 @ 4:22PM

Remember Mel, the added benefit is that Hydrogen is flammable, and when the earth cooled off enough all we'd have to do is send up a match.

Oh the humanity! ;-)

Mel Torme| 3.8.11 @ 5:27PM

"Andy, as God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly! /WKRP in Cincinatti

MikeD| 3.8.11 @ 6:49PM

PERPETUAL MOTION AT LAST!!!!!

We feed michael moore and algore a huge meal of hard boiled eggs, beer, sauerkraut, cabbage, and several kinds of beans. Wait one hour, then attach them mouth to anus with a 'hermetic' seal, thus keeping all the gas and goo within the 'system'. Add small entryways for occasional resupply of critical materials, and bore small holes on either side of their anal openings to act as thrusters. Attach directional fins. VOILA!! As soon as the spin starts, attach them to a gymbol apparatus to permit free spin and watch 'em spin...forever!!!!!

Frmo that point, harnessing the rotational energy would be easy...as long as somebody could get close enough to avoid all the dangerous hydrogen sulfide and other nasty gases. Energy problem solved.

The mind boggles with possibilities! Like; pelosi to reid; the two obamas; jane fonda and any barnyard animal, and on and on and on...

Albert| 3.8.11 @ 10:48AM

This sounds like a variation of "Operation Retard" (aptly named) of the 1950's wherein massive rocket engines planted in the ground at an angle would be fired off in the event of a Soviet missile attack. The effect would be to "retard" the rotation of the Earth so that the missiles would miss their target (the USA) and fall in to the sea. Perhaps AlGore has a study elucidating on the potentially positive environmental effects of such a program.

Diamond Driver| 3.8.11 @ 11:03AM

Mr. Babbin: It's a good thing you write for a conservative site. Your humor would be (tragically) wasted on liberal minds.

OldSeabee| 3.8.11 @ 11:59AM

The Yellowstone caldera has begun to bulge in the past decade. Mt. St. Helens is growing another lava dome, as is Krakatoa. The volcanoes in Hawai'i continue to erupt nonstop, and the really big one in Iceland is making the seismomitors jiggle madly. On average, there are 2 to 3 geological events worldwide every day, and the AWG crowd says nothing. And, I have not included all the potential sites.

MikeD| 3.8.11 @ 6:58PM

Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1991, spewing more volatile gases and carbon based particulates into our atmosphere in two weeks than mankind did throughout our industrial history. Mt. Krakatao did the same, only more than twice as much; in 1883. Earlier, Krakatao erupted at least three times that have been discovered, and Mt. Tamboro was more powerful that the total of the others in each of its recorded three eruptions. (This is the correct spelling of "Krakatao, the 'o' and the 'a' are usually transposed.)

This does not even take into account the "Siberian Traps" which were larger than every Yellowston "Supervolcano" eruption so far discovered COMBINED.

All this crap about "Glo-Bull Warming is just that, CRAP! Every bit of propaganda being spewed by the moronic lefties is based on models that have never been validated because climate has so many variables that are interdependent that no model can accurately project any useful conclusions. We just don't know enough about climate and the elements that compose it.

Science has been subverted to the point of uselessness by the left wing wackos who have agendas. They got caught. They're not credible. Game over. Miller Time!

John| 3.8.11 @ 12:15PM

I think they are spraying enough micro particles aready, enough chemtrails over Tucson today to drop the temperature 5 degrees. Ick

Cpm| 3.8.11 @ 12:20PM

I remember when Saddam lighting up the Kuwaiti oilfields was going to induce the equivalent of a "nuclear winter". I can imagine the disappointment when the fires were put out in weeks and not years.

Rick V.| 3.8.11 @ 1:13PM

Sometimes you have to destroy a planet to save it.

SpiralArchitect | 3.8.11 @ 1:41PM

Parralells the Socialist in Chief's mindset about our great nation. >:(

chris haynes| 3.8.11 @ 1:16PM

You dont need atomic bombs.

Here's how the bombs cool the earth: The bombs lift carbon black, from fires, into the troposphere. A few million tons is enough. 5 million tons would make it too cold. That would cause catastrophes "similar to the crop failures and famines experienced in 1815"

You dont need bombs to make carbon black. They use it for filler in tires.
And you dont need bombs to lift it into teh troposphere. You can use airplanes. A dozen 747s would be plenty.

But here's the problem. With global warming put to bed, we got to get a new catastrophe. These scientists, they'll still need Uncle Sam's gravy. And more, they'll still need something to feel important

Brumby| 3.8.11 @ 7:28PM

G'Day Mates!
Back again. I just wanted to throw in my bit. All we've heard is how the warmin of the earth is gonna keep us a desert forever here in Oz. My cousin's house floated down the Brisbane River a few weeks back. Don't ask HIM 'bout global warmin!

It's now totally a joke down here. I don't think anybody here will ever believe it again. Since 2004, we've had the lowest, wettest period in our recorded history. We gotta lake, Lake Eyre, that is more than a thousand square k's and it was dry for years and years! Whatta bunck o'bloody pooks!

Mitch: I got the book. I Am in it. I found it at the site you gave me; www.theozcruise.com . It is called "Circumnavigating Oz", and he wrote me and my missus in! We're bloody famous!

B Diebold| 3.8.11 @ 2:27PM

...I'm astounded of the simplicity and beauty of this concept...to show my apprecation I would like to volunteer my x-wifes's back yard in DC as ground zero. To help defray the costs of the process, I will gladly submit all of her future alimony checks to this cause.
Boomer in AZ

Real American| 3.8.11 @ 4:51PM

the way to combat man-made global warming is simply to imagine that it doesn't exist and isn't a problem. After all, imagination is the cause of it in the first place.

Dacron Mather| 3.8.11 @ 7:15PM

Truly we have come full circle at TAS, whose post-Cold War science advisor is not the living Tom Bethell, but the shade of the late Carl Sagan, now residing in some warm region to atone for the terrible job of climate modeling Jeb Bobbin swallows as Gospel.

Jeb really, really, shouldn't reread the WSJ op-Ed Page from November 5 1985:

http://www.textfiles.com/survival/nkwrmelt.txt

Mel Torme| 3.8.11 @ 8:14PM

Dacron, I just wanted to comment on your excellent choice of handle there "Dacron Mather". OK, it took me 5 sec., but I laughed out loud.

I am sure you know Jed was writing satire (well, at least I think he was, he's not a science guy he mostly writes about national defense topics). I guess you're questioning whether Jed believes there is a working model of the whole earth climate (Ha!).

Anyway, I totally agree about Carl Sagan. He was a real scientist up to one point, but then he became popular as a science "talking head", and it got to his head. He got a big boost from Johnny Carson, with the whole "billions and billions" bit. Then, he started spouting all that crap about the Nucular Winter, which was subsequently proven to be baloney. He became a tool, much in the same way as the many of the global warming/cooling/staying-the-same researchers around today. It's all about the bucks, admiration of the press, and access to the coed graduate students, when it comes down to it.

TMF | 3.8.11 @ 7:42PM

We'll meet again, don't where , don't know when,
but I know we'll meet again some sunny day.....

Take 10, expect 5, get 2

purple | 3.8.11 @ 7:52PM

Very interesting article. I agree with your conclusions

Tony in Central PA| 3.8.11 @ 9:27PM

In case of a miscalculation, a survey of all available mineshafts should be made where our important leaders can safely and comfortably live until the Ice Age is past.

Dee See| 3.8.11 @ 9:28PM

Funny with all the staged 'eco' alarm
---NOT a word about the saturation of
our environment with that non-biodegradable,
'sterility friendly' , petro-chemical waste
by product known as --------PLASTIC.

From 'Left' 'Right' and center ---NOT A PEEP!

Guess those flicker rate mind ops underway
via PCs, TVs and fourescent light are working
like a charm----------------------------

THANK YOU RED CHINA!

Sheenanigans| 3.9.11 @ 9:46PM

That's brilliant! We can reduce global nuke stockpiles and reduce global temperatures. My green heart soars! But wait...how do we redistribute our ill-gotten wealth? Oops, did I hit sen

Russ S| 3.10.11 @ 12:59AM

All you need to know about the fraud that is global warming:

http://www.c3headlines.com/glo.....uotes.html

Erik Osbun| 3.10.11 @ 12:57PM

Do not publish obvious BS like this.

steve Odom| 3.10.11 @ 1:35PM

Worthy of Jonathan Swift.

Jacob Morgan| 3.10.11 @ 1:43PM

The new science gravy train is what exactly are Western nations doing that is preventing volcanoes from erupting these days, and how would new taxes fix it?

Meanwhile, animals could be bred and slaughtered!

Vasu Murti | 3.10.11 @ 1:47PM

I'm a liberal Democrat. I generally side with secular progressives. Conservatives, however, are in a position to immediately understand animal rights:

"Oh, animals have the Right to Life."

"Meat is murder, just like abortion is murder."

"Just as we oppose stem-cell research, the animal rights people oppose animal research."

Veganism Is Direct Action!

"A diet that can lead to heart attacks, cancer, and numerous other diseases cannot be a natural diet," writes Keith Akers in A Vegetarian Sourcebook (1983).

"A diet that pillages our resources of land, water, forests, and energy cannot be a natural diet. A diet that causes the unnecessary suffering and death of billions of animals each year cannot be a natural diet."

I understand there are conservative Christians who fear vegetarianism...which is kind of like being afraid of nonsmoking, nondrinking, or recycling.

Ronald J. Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action, in his 1977 book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, pointed out that 220 million Americans were eating enough food (largely because of the high consumption of grain fed to livestock) to feed over one billion people in the poorer countries.

A pamphlet put out by Compassion Over Killing says raising animals for food is one of the leading causes of both pollution and resource depletion today.

According to a recent United Nations report, Livestock's Long Shadow, raising chickens, turkeys, pigs, and other animals for food causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, trucks and other forms of transportation combined.

Researchers from the University of Chicago similarly concluded that a vegetarian diet is the most energy efficient, and the average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by not eating animal products than by switching to a hybrid car.

"Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation."

---Union Nations' Food and Agriculture Association

Nearly 75% of the grain grown and 50% of the water consumed in the U.S. are used by the meat industry. (Audubon Society)

Over 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to grow grain for livestock. (Greenpeace)

It takes nearly one gallon of fossil fuel and 5,200 gallons of water to produce just one pound of conventionally fed beef. (Mother Jones)

Farmed animals produce an estimated 1.4 billion tons of fecal waste each year in the U.S. Much of this untreated waste pollutes the land and water.

The following points and facts are excerpted from Please Don't Eat the Animals (2007) by Jennifer Horsman and Jaime Flowers:

"A reduction in beef and other meat consumption is the most potent single act you can take to halt the destruction of our environment and preserve our natural resources. Our choices do matter: What's healthiest for each of us personally is also healthiest for the life support system of our precious, but wounded planet."

---John Robbins, author, Diet for a New America, and President, EarthSave Foundation

One study puts animal waste in the United States to between 2.4 trillion to 3.9 trillion pounds per year. The United states produces 15,000 pounds of manure per person. This is 130 times the amount of waste produced by the entire human population of the United States.

A 1,000-cow dairy can produce approximately 120,000 pounds of waste per day. This is the functional equivalent of the amount of sanitary waste produced by a city of 20,000 people.

A 20,000-chicken factory produces about 2.4 million pounds of manure a year. Poultry factories are one of the fastest growing industries throughout Asia.

One pig excretes nearly three gallons of waste per day, or 2.5 times the average human's daily total. One hog farm with 50,000 pigs in France produces more waste than the entire city of Los Angeles, and some pig farms are much larger.

Factory farm pollution is the primary source of damage to coastal waters in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Scientists report that over sixty percent of the coastal waters in the United States are moderately to severely degraded from factory farm nutrient pollution.

This pollution creates oxygen-depleted dead zones, which are huge areas of ocean devoid of aquatic life.

Meat production causes deforestation, which then contributes to global warming. Trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and the destruction of forests around the globe to make room for grazing cattle furthers the greenhouse effect. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations reports that the annual rate of tropical deforestation has increased from nine million hectares in 1980 to 16.8 million hectares in 1990, and unfortunately, this destruction has accelerated since then. By 1994, a staggering 200 million hectares of rainforest had been destroyed in South America just for cattle.

"The impact of countless hooves and mouths over the years has done more to alter the type of vegetation and land forms of the West than all the water projects, strip mines, power plants, freeways, and sub-division developments combined."

---Philip Fradkin, in Audubon, National Audubon Society, New York

Agricultural meat production generates air pollution. As manure decomposes, it releases over 400 volatile organic compounds, many of which are extremely harmful to human health. Nitrogen, a major by-product of animal wastes, changes to ammonia as it escapes into the air, and this is a major source of acid rain. Worldwide, livestock produce over 30 million tons of ammonia. Hydrogen sulfide, another chemical released from animal waste, can cause irreversible neurological damage, even at low levels.

The World Conservation Union lists over 1,000 different fish species that are threatened or endangered. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate, over 60 percent of the world's fish species are either fully exploited or depleted. Commercial fish populations of cod, hake, haddock, and flounder have fallen by as much as 95 percent in the north Atlantic.

The United States and Europe lose several billion tons of topsoil each year from cropland and grazing land, and 84 percent of this erosion is caused by livestock agriculture. While this soil is theoretically a renewable resource, we are losing soil at a much faster rate than we are able to replace it. It takes 100 to 500 years to produce one inch of topsoil, but due to livestock grazing and feeding, farming areas can lose up to six inches of topsoil a year.

Livestock production affects a startling 70 to 85 percent of the land area of the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union. That includes the public and private rangeland used for grazing, as well as the land used to produce the crops that feed the animals.

By comparison, urbanization only affects three percent of the United States land area, slightly larger for the European Union and the United Kingdom. Meat production consumes the world's land resources.

Half of all fresh water worldwide is used for thirsty livestock. Producing eight ounces of beef requires an unimaginable 25,000 liters of water, or the water necessary for one pound of steak equals the water consumption of the average household for a year.

The United States government spends $10 million each year to kill an estimated 100,000 wild animals, including coyotes, foxes, bobcats, badgers, bears, and mountain lions just to placate ranchers who don't want these animals killing their livestock. The cost far outweighs the damage to livestock that these predators cause.

The Worldwatch Institute estimates one pound of steak from a steer raised in a feedlot costs: five pounds of grain, a whopping 2,500 gallons of water, the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline, and about 34 pounds of topsoil.

Thirty-three percent of our nation's raw materials and fossil fuels go into livestock destined for slaughter. In a vegan economy, only two percent of our resources will go to the production of food.

"It seems disingenuous for the intellectual elite of the first world to dwell on the subject of too many babies being born in the second- and third-world nations while virtually ignoring the overpopulation of cattle and the realities of a food chain that robs the poor of sustenance to feed the rich a steady diet of grain-fed meat."

---Jeremy Rifkin, pro-life AND pro-animal author, Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture, and president of the Greenhouse Crisis Foundation

According to the editors of World Watch, July/August 2004:

"The human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future--deforestization, topsoil erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilization of communities and the spread of disease."

Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk, similarly says in the February 1995 issue of Harmony: Voices for a Just Future (a peace and justice publication on the relgious Left):

"...the survival of our planet depends on our sense of belonging--to all other humans, to dolphins caught in dragnets to pigs and chickens and calves raised in animal concentration camps, to redwoods and rainforests, to kelp beds in our oceans, and to the ozone layer."

Les Brown of the Overseas Development Council calculates that if Americans reduced their meat consumption by only ten percent per year, it would free at least twelve million tons of grain for human consumption--or enough to feed sixty million people.

The number of animals killed for food in the United States is nearly 75 times larger than the number of animals killed in laboratories, 30 times larger than the number killed by hunters and trappers, and 500 times larger than the number of animals killed in animal pounds.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is challenging those who think they can still be "meat-eating environmentalists" to go veg, if they really care about the planet.

peta2 is now the largest youth movement of any social change organization in the world.

peta2 has 267,000 friends on MySpace and 91,000 Facebook fans.

A few years ago, PETA was the top-ranked charity when a poll asked teenagers what nonprofit group they would most want to work for. PETA won by more than a 2 to 1 margin over the second place finisher, The American Red Cross, with more votes than the Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity combined.

“If anyone wants to save the planet,” says Paul McCartney in a 2001 interview with PETA's Animal Times magazine, “all they have to do is stop eating meat. That’s the single most important thing you could do.

"It’s staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty. Let’s do it! Linda was right. Going veggie is the single best idea for the new century.”

Achilles Toejam| 3.11.11 @ 3:31PM

Geez Vasu Murti, I'm sure glad you told us up front you're a liberal Democrat that sides with secular progressives. I saved a lot of time not reading your copy and pasted nonsensical screed, but if I missed something good I guess I'll get over it.

BTW, I haven't met a strict vegetarian yet that wasn't one sandwich short of a picnic due to deficiencies of essential fatty acids, like the myth of man-made global warming the fallacy of the vegan diet or rather lifestyle will find the same memory hole eventually. Don't get me wrong I got nothing against organic foods in fact I'm a proponent of the return of the sale and consumption of raw milk.

But vegetarians? Nuts, it's more of a religion than a dietary choice for many.

Allen Johnson | 3.10.11 @ 10:38PM

I realize this article is tongue-in-cheek. But there have been serious proposals to put aerosols into the atmosphere to cool the earth. I suppose dust from nuclear explosions would do the job, while the radioactive fallout sweeps over all of life.

One problem is that increased CO2 levels would still continue unabated in the ocean, increasing acidification and hastening the already accelerating dying of the oceans.

The issue at root is a spiritual one. People value money, temporal ease and comfort of life, and their own cock-sureness self-idolatry over respect for God's creation and the willingness to live within its capacity.

Rich Rostrom| 3.10.11 @ 11:03PM

One minor correction: the Doomsday Bomb in DSoHILtSWaLtB worked by producing persistent radioactive fallout, not climate effects.

Achilles Toejam| 3.11.11 @ 3:16PM

A lot of good funny comebacks here folks, I think the pendulum is starting to swing the other way back into the realm of common sense and truth. I think most people have figured out this whole global warming BS was nothing but a scam vehicle to drive a political social agenda that also included the aspects of a pagan religion.

History shows us that they'll be back to try again, maybe even trying the man-made ice age approach. OMG I better start stocking up on firewood! Think of all the wasted billions combating the nonexistent problem of CO2.

Wm. Tomlinson| 3.11.11 @ 5:46PM

The applause starts slowly but rises to a sustained crescendo ... long after this comment fades into the ether.

Creative Recreation | 8.11.11 @ 2:10AM

is good

Creative Recreation | 8.11.11 @ 2:10AM

is good

Creative Recreation | 8.11.11 @ 2:15AM

is good

More Articles by Jed Babbin

More Articles From Loose Canons

How Long Is This War?

May 20, 2013 | Jed Babbin

Next: The Benghazi Select Committee

May 13, 2013 | Jed Babbin

Nobody Died in Watergate

May 9, 2013 | Jed Babbin

Benghazi Bullchips

May 6, 2013 | Jed Babbin

Obama’s Thin Red Line

April 29, 2013 | Jed Babbin

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/03/08/a-modest-proposal-to-fix-globa

ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Headlines

Heritage, Levin Call for Immigration Debate

Jeffrey Lord|3 comments

NSA’s Disclosures Cast Confusing Shadows

Luca Gattoni-Celli|2 comments

Exit the IRS Stage Left

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.|8 comments

Oregon Uncovered

David Hogberg|2 comments

Lincoln on the Defensive

Christopher Orlet|4 comments

Another IRS Outrage

Kevin Mooney|1 comment

‘That De Gaulle, He Is Somebody’

Mark Tooley|1 comment

The Tea Party Returns to Washington

Kaylin Bugos|2 comments

The Spectacle Blog

James Gandolfini, R.I.P.

Aaron Goldstein | 6.19.13

An Alternate History of the Syrian Civil War

John Tabin | 6.19.13

Peter Wehner Responds

Jeffrey Lord | 6.19.13

CBO Gives Ammunition to Immigration Reform Supporters

Jordan Gonzalez | 6.19.13

Obama Addresses Nuclear Reduction, Climate Change

Claire Healey | 6.19.13

Elbert Guillory: ‘Why I Am a Republican’

Patrick Ryan | 6.19.13

The One Party State

F.H. Buckley | 6.19.13

Cummings Accused of Subverting IRS Investigation

Jeffrey Lord | 6.19.13

SPONSORED LINKS

FLASHBACK TO: 1995

Clip of the Day

Most Popular Articles

The IRS Immigration Fraud Scandal

Jeffrey Lord | 6.18.13

Obama's Climate of Intimidation

Matthew Sheffield | 6.18.13

Obama's Unaffordable Act

Peter Ferrara | 6.19.13

Whither Suburbia?

Steven Greenhut | 6.18.13

Barack's Brave New World Blarney

George Neumayr | 6.19.13

The Biggest Fool of All

Doug Bandow | 6.17.13

There's Something About Cambridge

Daniel J. Flynn | 6.19.13

Can Liturgical Music Be Saved?

Patrick O'Hannigan | 6.17.13

ADVERTISEMENT

Home |About |Contributors |Advertise |Donate |Privacy Policy |Contact

The American Spectator Foundation is the 501(c)(3) organization responsible for publishing The American Spectator magazine and training aspiring journalists who espouse traditional American values. Your contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Each donor receives a year-end summary of their giving for tax purposes.

Copyright 2013, The American Spectator. All rights reserved.