Coal Beef Or Flying - What Is Worse For The Planet?

[DanieRains]

Thoughts?

[Binkie The Clown]

1. Those three are even close to the top of the list.

Humans. It's humans that are the worst thing ever to happen to the planet.

[DanieRains]

2. We Spend Trillions On War But Pennies On The Environment

While the planet burns.....

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

5. And yet . . .

. . . you seem to still be here.

[Happy Hoosier]

30. Hey, that's SUPER helpful [roll eyes] NT

[abqtommy]

3. Can't we get rid of those three to begin with?

[comradebillyboy]

7. Do you really want to ban air travel? Do you want to really try to

dictate what other people eat?

[abqtommy]

12. To me it all comes down to how serious we want to get to minimize this global warming.

As far as what people eat, there are lots of people around the world who would love to have something to eat, period. I do know that I want me and mine to survive.

[Happy Hoosier]

32. Eliminating air travel is not realistic.

There is no viable alternative to it.

There are alternative firms of energy, and that could go a LONG way to cutting carbon emissions. And to do it quickly will no doubt raise some hackles here:

modern nuclear energy.

It's a technology that works NOW and we could have deployed broadly in 10 years.

But people have a knee-jerk reaction. Time to make a choice, IMO.

[marble falls]

17. What if they want to eat their neighbors? ...

Or just the tongues of buffalos?



Or burn the Amazon rain forests for pasture so they can sell you cheap burgers?

Or burn fossil fuel to get get you cheap Australian beef?

[Ilsa]

4. What's coal beef? A type of black angus? NT

[Blue_true]

9. Maybe beef that is grown only in coal country. Full of heavy metals. Yum, yum. nt

[Bonx]

11. "Coal Beef Or Flying" is the newest band all the kids are following on the Tweeter

This may or may not be true.

[comradebillyboy]

6. Coal is going away because it's obsolete. Air travel is certainly not

going away and neither is beef. Attempting to stop air travel or beef production would result in a total electoral catastrophe.

[cally]

18. That is narrow thinking, lots of ways to drastically reduce consumption and change behavior

Without bans. As some of many, many examples: Impossible burgers are taking off and being used as substitute beef. Stop subsidizing corn and beef dramatically increases in price. Charge full environmental costs in procucts and transportation choices and planes and cars will be more expensive. Subsidize trains as we do cars and planes and trains become more accessible and more affordable.

Many of the bad choices we have made as a society that may make our planet unlivable are as a result of bad economic policies. We can change this if we think beyond the narrowness of current policies

[Beakybird]

29. Great argument.

Dramatic changes are necessary for our survival.

[Blue_true]

8. What does "coal beef" taste like, sounds nasty? nt

[Bettie]

15. I wonder if it is like the charcoal ice cream or bread

I keep seeing on the internets.

[Blue_true]

38. I don't think I want to find out. Looks like someone just forgot a comma in the case of the

op.

[Baclava]

25. I was thinking like blackened red snapper, when this first popped up

Guess not, lol

[Blue_true]

39. My guess.

Someone had "commalitis" to start the new year, sort of like dating checks with the date of a year ago, that always trips me up.

[whistler162]

40. Like Rattlesnake

which tastes like chicken.

[brooklynite]

13. So, no flying to Seattle for burger cookout?

[ProfessorGAC]

24. Sure

Grow wings, and eat heem burgers!
One of those is easier than the other though!

[fescuerescue]

14. Coal IS part of the planet

It's been here longer than humans.

Cows. Well they have been around a really long time too. Not sure who wins the race but given that it's an animal that we didn't invent I'll give it a pass.

That just leaves airplanes.

[Silent3]

19. The question is obviously not about the *existence* of coal...

...but the massive burning of it. That's not part of the natural cycle.

As for cows, in their current form and number, they are a human invention - a result of selective breeding and farming which have an entirely different planetary effect than domestic cattle's ancestors in much smaller numbers would have had.

And even if airplanes aren't "part of the planet", so what? They're obviously assembled from stuff found right here on the planet.

Are you just making a "natural = good, artificial = bad" argument?

[0rganism]

26. coal as fuel, cows as beef

human constructs

[pecosbob]

16. I believe that making concrete is worse than any on that list when all the factors are considered

[StarryNite]

20. Beef

[tenderfoot]

21. Thoughts? This is flame bait.

eom

[Iggo]

22. It's not a contest. (n/t)

[maxsolomon]

23. Calculate the Carbon Footprint of each

There's your answer.

Let me know what you figure out.

[Newest Reality]

27. That is one of those questions,

That is one of those questions that appeal only to my opinion and that relies on how informed that opinion is and what my sources are.

In regards to those options, I can't even begin to decide on which is worse without further research or I risk exposing my ignorance in this case.

The reason I bring that up, is just a gentle nudge in the direction of finding out more and the value of knowledge in an information/leisure-based culture. Opinions are fine, but they are diverse and plentiful. We have far too much opinion regarding extremely important matters which just dilutes and pollutes the atmosphere when it comes to debates about what solutions might be most effective.

Or, I am too busy/lazy to look that up right now.

[Codeine]

28. Catastrophic depletion of comma reserves.

I’m glad to see you’re doing your part to use them sparingly.

[Beakybird]

31. I'm surprised by so many flippant and uninformed comments here.

We are witnessing an impending catastrophe.
I think that factoring the environmental costs into flying, coal, beef, concrete, etc.- would be most politically palatable and would increase innovation of alternatives.

[Happy Hoosier]

33. With all due respect...

Until a teleport machine is invented, there is no real alternative to air travel.

[Locrian]

37. true

But there are a lot of options getting from point A to point B - time of travel is a different issue.

And it depends on what one would consider "essential" etc.
I'm pretty sure there is (in general) a lot of travel that is not "necessary" - not just air travel either

[Blue_true]

41. Or.

People KNOW how dire the situation is and prefer to take action, other that watch someone chew their nails.

But some people love group worry, so for those people, knock yourselves out.

[roamer65]

34. The problem is the root cause of the 3.

Humans. There are too many of us.

[GemDigger]

35. The carbon footprint of technology.

From getting what is needed to make our gadgets to the water needed for cooling miles of servers.

[marybourg]

36. What the heck is "Coal Beef"?

[Blue_true]

42. Something that a comma would solve.

But I guess matters are so urgent that properly placed commas is the tiniest of worries.

[miyazaki]

43. In my case, when I drop the steak onto the briquettes.