It’s another day in a DroneAge religion
English Mastiff, Planet warming dog.
It took 12 “researchers” to discover that the best way you, personally, can change the future global climate is to avoid having kids. If you do have kids, you can make up a bit, apparently, by all going vegetarian. If that’s too hard, consider swapping your dog for a hamster. But if you have to have kids, dogs, and eat meat, at the very least, assuage your green guilt for living in the easiest, most bountiful time and place on Earth, by feeding your dog some sweet potatoes occasionally instead of Chum.
Got that? How many tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funds did it take to discover this while not ever once google searching for “reasons climate models are wrong/skillless/barking fairy failures?
Marvel at the Washington Times sentence construction — this study comes with cows?
The study comes with livestock, notably cows, already targeted by the environmental movement for their prodigious methane production, prompting calls for people to reduce their beef consumption in order to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
This news is popular with all vegetarian, childless, dogless, lizard owners:
His study, which found that dogs and cats have a significant impact on carbon emissions as a result of their meat-based diets, met with howls from pet owners and a lukewarm reception even from some environmentalists who also happen to love dogs.
So did the study calculate how many degrees forgoing all dogs in the US would cool the planet by? It doesn’t seem to say…
In his paper published last week, UCLA professor Gregory S. Okin found that meat-eating dogs and cats create the equivalent of 64 million tons of carbon dioxide per year based on the energy consumption required to produce their food, or the same impact as driving 13.6 million cars.
There is great care to package this message as the height of reasonableness, as if the people suggesting the climate changing effects of dogs were all amicable flexibility and sense. Readers can find an option that suits their level of penance: everything from not having kids at all down to occasional sweet potato snacks for your 250 pound mastiff. (Remember its not the outcome that matters when it comes to the planet, it’s the intent…)
“I like dogs and cats, and I’m definitely not recommending that people get rid of their pets or put them on a vegetarian diet, which would be unhealthy,” Mr. Okin said in a statement. “But I do think we should consider all the impacts that pets have so we can have an honest conversation about them. Pets have many benefits but also a huge environmental impact.”
What they are really afraid of, is that the Chinese will get as many pets-per-capita as the US:
“Americans are the largest pet owners in the world, but the tradition of pet ownership in the U.S. has considerable costs,” Mr. Okin said in his Aug. 2 paper, published in PLOS One. “As pet ownership increases in some developing countries, especially China, and trends continue in pet food toward higher content and quality of meat, globally, pet ownership will compound the environmental impacts of human dietary choices.”
It’s only the Earth at stake, so don’t put yourself out too much:
What’s the answer? Mr. Okin suggested making the transition from dogs and cats to smaller animals including hamsters, reptiles and birds, or herbivores such as horses.
For a moment I had an image of him studying dogs that are bigger than horses.
Lastly, listen to the committed environmentalist — so committed to saving the Earth that he runs a digital media company called One Green Planet. Not committed enough to give up his dog:
Mr. Zacharias said it’s possible to mitigate the impact of meat-eating pets by giving dogs plant-based treats, such as sweet potatoes, which he does with his dog and “she loves it.”
At the same time, he said, “you have to be responsible when it comes to feeding your dog or cat.”
“Dogs are omnivores. Technically, they can survive without meat,” he said. “I wouldn’t necessarily do that, and I don’t do that. Cats, on the other hand, are carnivores. They can’t survive without meat. They will get sick and die.”
He said pet owners can balance out the impact on the environment by eating less meat themselves.
How much will you sacrifice to save the world?
To want to cull meat-eating pets,
Is for warmists as dumb as it gets,
Who have clearly been fooled,
As the climate has cooled,
And should talk to their doctors and vets.
—Ruairi
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Image: Luga English Mastiff by Fotosuabe
h/t Climate Depot | Tom Nelson Twitter.