Guest post by Kevin D. Knoebel
How much stupidity is needed to win a Pulitzer? The competition is fierce, apparently certain writers are piling it on high and deep in the attempt.
For example, there is a sterling example of post-modern post-journalistic brilliance that just popped up at Salon by David Sirota, Would we give up burgers to stop climate change? As will be seen, the heaping begins with the subtitle: “A new report suggests that adjusting our diet can slow global warming. Now let’s see if our politics will let us”
The first paragraph is quite revealing:
In case you missed the news, humanity spent the Earth Day week reaching another sad milestone in the history of catastrophic climate change: For the first time, measurements of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surpassed 400 parts per million, aka way above what our current ecosystem can handle.
On the NOAA/ESRL Mauna Loa Observatory CO₂ measurements page, currently the last released monthly atmospheric concentration mean was March 2013, 397.34 ppm. Where the “surpassed 400” came from is quite unknown, not revealed. And overall not that important, as about now is when the annual cycle is peaking. The annual mean is far more scientifically relevant, and was 393.82ppm in 2012. The 2013 mean will not be breaking 400ppm. There may indeed have been a recent daily measurement above 400ppm, which shows why they use monthly means due to the range of daily variations. It will be quite surprising if the final April mean breaks 400ppm.
And how has the ecosystem responded to the “earth-shattering” increase? Crop yields up, the Sahel is greening, etc. Perhaps the ecosystem is having the equivalent of a surge of manic behavior right before a nervous breakdown. Sure, it looks great now, but soon it’ll all come crashing down. Yup, any decade now. No longer away than the next century, certainly.
BUT, there is hope! A new report, just as it says, done by Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, former advisers to the World Bank, shows us the way. All we have to do, is give up meat. Bold added:
If you find it demoralizing that we are incinerating the planet and dooming future generations simply because too many of us like to eat cheeseburgers, here’s that good news I promised: In their report, Goodland and Anhang found that most of what we need to do to mitigate the climate crisis can be achieved “by replacing just one quarter of today’s least eco-friendly food products” — read: animal products — “with better alternatives.”
Does this sound like something you’ve heard before? Guess what, it is! The World Watch institute has the report (pdf). It was published at the end of 2009. For 3 ½ years now, this report has been chewed up, digested, rendered into the appropriate final form. Even a major vegan site found their numbers way too high.
Now, suddenly, Mr. Sirota has become aware of this amazing new report which, in the shadow of a nigh-impossible atmospheric CO₂ measurement of currently unknown origin which clearly shows the ecosystem has been broken, gives us the hope of avoiding planetary incineration by switching to great-tasting better-for-us non-animal foods. Which we would gladly do IF we could only overcome the politics!
Forget the Pulitzer, this stuff is GOLD. This is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize of Journalism. Please, feel free to send your recommendations in to Al Gore, I hear he has some pull with the Nobel Committee.
Also notify the publishers of Roget’s Thesaurus, as Mr. Sirota has revealed two previously unknown synonyms for politics, which is that which must be overcome to avert planetary incineration: physiology and instincts.
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*snork*
Sarcasm does become you, Mr. Knoebel. 😀
I like my hamburger with lettuce, tomato, ketchup, lots of mustard, dill pickles, and a thick slice of cheddar cheese. Cheddar is better I always say. And since I was freezing today, I want two hamburgers today to make my area warmer. And to make sure the planet gets warmer, I will wash it all down with a big glass of fresh milk.
I asked Mr. Sirota why The Planet wasn’t incinerated when the North American Bison covered the Continent.
When I hear Crickets, I’ll know it is his response.
Anyone who bothers to look up the local CO2 levels around the planet will notice that the 400 ppm level was reached years ago, at least briefly and at least locally. The only meaningful number after that would be a global average value which as we all know, has not risen above 400 in several centuries at least, depending on who’s proxies you believe.
Aren’t there several thousand chemical test measurements made over the course of a century showing that 400 ppm was routinely exceeded in times past? Ah…the past isn’t what it used to be, even if you were there to measure it. (Kinda like the temperatures in the 1930’s.)
Twelve degrees below normal here In Virginia today. For dinner tomorrow night, I think I’ll get me a nice thick Delmonico, just dripping with blood!!
400 parts per million simply isn’t enough. It’s basic science that plants grow better and need less water with higher co2. Everyone needs to do their part to increase their carbon footprint for the good of the planet and the people on it.
/ You just don’t get it. Ruminants emit methane, much worse than CO2. What the post did not analyze was the deadly AGW effect of more cow farts!/
Sarc off. How on Gods green earth can anyone take this sort of stuff seriously?
I’m aghast. Somebody named Sirota wrote that drivel and not Seth Boringstern.
The air you exhale is about 43,000 PPM CO2, so you should stand well back from your sampling device, with no other animal life or industry upwind for a long distance. That is why Mauna Loa is such a good site.
Would I give up hamburgers to prevent climate change? NO. Actually I plan to increase my consumption of hamburgers to save the world from global cooling and I’m doing it willingly with pure and unselfish motives because I want to “save the planet.”
“The air you exhale is about 43,000 PPM CO2”
Actually people exhale quite a bit of CO. The CO/CO2 ratio of a person is about 1.6%. As we all know, CO is quite poisonous and a GHG so I think the EPA should get in there are regulate breathing, especially the heavy kind.
Melody Harpole says:
May 5, 2013 at 6:35 pm
I totally agree. We should all try to emulate Al Gore.
Spring fever. 😉
“…aka way above what our current ecosystem can handle.”
And how, pray tell, does he know what the current ecosystem can handle, not to mention a different, much better ecosystems that can handle it if this one can’t.
These brainiacs trip overthemselves a salivate evolution anytime the word creationism isn’t tested. Well, welcome to evolution. The climate changes and species adapt or perish.
Or maybe they actually like the concept of creationism better with the nice in changing Garden of Eden?
“Would we give up burgers to stop climate change? ”
Presumably, to get to this headline, one has to believe a chain that approximates the following:
Climate change doesn’t occur naturally.
Humans cause climate change.
They do this by putting CO2 into the atmosphere.
We can stop climate change by putting less CO2 into the atmosphere.
We can do this be eating less meat.
.
How sad for the writer …
( … and, by the way, the US bioethanol industry makes enough distillers grain feed to make 33 pounds of burgers per year for every American – more if you remove the vegetarians [not literally, of course])
“Actually people exhale quite a bit of CO. The CO/CO2 ratio of a person is about 1.6%.”
I find that difficult to believe, Crispin. Do you have a reference for it?
“Would we give up burgers to stop climate change? ”
Presumably, to get to this headline, one has to believe a chain that approximates the following (alternative ending):
There are enough dumb f**ks who will somehow put money in my personal coffers by reading this crap … so, as long as that’s the case, I’m going to write it.
“post-modern post-journalistic brilliance” = great phrase
Sirota was on talk radio here in Denver for a while. Can’t stand him… If he leaned any more left he’d be touching the ground.
Crispin, no way do people exhale 1.6% of CO2 as CO. That would be over 600-700 ppm. I could believe 1 ppm.
I encourage everyone to roll back on their consumption of meat. Especially baby back pork loin ribs and boneless rib-eye steaks. Special thanks for abandoning lamb chops, and to carry it over to the other white meat, lobster, thank you, thank you for just saying no. I’d also like to see a lot of you cutting back on halibut steaks and fresh cod. I’m on a fixed income and could use all the help possible to reduce demand for this junk food. I can barely afford lump charcoal and the meat as it is.
Re CO2 at 400 ppm – what about greenhouses with 1,000, even 1,500 ppm pumped in to make the veggies grow faster? Why aren’t they burning up? What keeps them warm is not the CO2 in them – it’s the glass that is a far better heat radiation blocker than CO2 ever could be – and heating, if needed in colder weather. And it’s ridiculous to claim that they get catastrophically hot – one would think they wouldn’t be able to grow those veggies in them if they did.
Exhalation & Gas Exchange
The main reason for exhalation is to rid the body of carbon dioxide, which is the waste product of gas exchange in humans. Air is brought in the body through inhalation. During this process air is taken in through the lungs. Diffusion in the alveoli allows for the exchange of O2 into the pulmonary capillaries and the removal of CO2 and other gases from the pulmonary capillaries to be exhaled. In order for the lungs to expel air the diaphragm relaxes, which pushes up on the lungs. The air then flows through the trachea then through the larynx and pharynx to the nasal cavity and oral cavity where it is expelled out of the body.[1] Exhalation takes longer than inhalation since it is believed to facilitate better exchange of gases. Parts of the nervous system help to regulate respiration in humans. The exhaled air isn’t just carbon dioxide; it contains a mixture of other gases. Human breath contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These compounds consist of methanol, isoprene, acetone, ethanol and other alcohols. The exhaled mixture also contains ketones, water and other hydrocarbons.[2][3]
It is during exhalation that the olfaction contribution to flavor occurs in contrast to that of ordinary smell which occurs during the inhalation phase.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhalation
No mention of CO there at all.
michael hart says:
May 5, 2013 at 7:20 pm
I find that difficult to believe, Crispin. Do you have a reference for it?
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according to “Biology” by Claude A. Villee (Third Edition, W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia and London, copyright 1957 it works out to about 3.7% by volume , 5.7% by weight , for the average adult , this seems to be somewhere in the ball park as I`ve seen more modern analysis put it at up to 40000 ppm (4%)
oops , that`s co2 content not , co