Just one year to go to check on the accuracy of this prediction, claimed by warming proponent George Monbiot in 2002.
Within as little as 10 years, the world will be faced with a choice: arable farming either continues to feed the world’s animals or it continues to feed the world’s people. It cannot do both.The impending crisis will be accelerated by the depletion of both phosphate fertiliser and the water used to grow crops. Every kilogram of beef we consume, according to research by the agronomists David Pimental and Robert Goodland, requires around 100,000 litres of water. Aquifers are beginning the run dry all over the world, largely because of abstraction by farmers.
Guardian. Why Vegans Were Right All Along.
And it wasn’t just eating meat, that Monbiot was demanding we ditch – “vegetarians who continue to consume milk and eggs scarcely reduce their impact on the ecosystem”. As the title puts it, “Vegans were right all along”. Give up meat, eggs, cheese, butter and milk, or we’ll all be starving within as little as ten years, he warned.
…
Monbiot is not a racist. He is not even a neo-Malthusian. But in his eagerness to impose austerity on everyone, he gets taken in by the arguments of those who are. It’s why he earnestly believed the patently ludicrous claim that it took 100,000 litres of water to make 1 kilogram of beef, a risible claim that anyone not ideologically blinded would instantly dismiss as nonsense, as he himself was forced to do as 2012 approached.
It is the anti-immigrant and anti-human agenda of the people who warn of “scarce resources” and “too many people” that is the real danger, not the idle bravado and loose chatter of a bunch of guys on an internet chat-room.
More here at Haunting the Library
h/t to Andrew Bolt
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Pimental and Goodland cannot be Agronomists; their astonishing level of ignorance about the hydrological cycle demonstrates they know nothing about their claimed specialism which is quite deeply involved with water use. All of the Agronomists I have met were rational, intelligent scientists who just would not make such a fundamental error. Perhaps the Moonbat accidentally misquoted them, or misread the numbers. Such a concerned and morally upright Marxist wouldn’t tell fibs about such things, would he?
I made this comment on HautingTheLibrary’s blog but it was moderated out.
I have no time for AGW, or most environmentalism and not much for Monbiot.
Nevertheless, this article is mostly weasly. It is guilt by association. In fact it is guilt by association at two removes. Monbiot quotes a scientist ( who turns out to be wrong on the facts but that is not the real implied underlying charge). Scientist has views on immigration which some environmentalists share, and which make sense in the context of local activism in California ( if you think California too crowded, why support Immigration – the real question is for Sierra Club members who are pro-immigration).
This scientist shares a platform with real racists. Maybe that is also a mistake on his part but has nothing to do with Monbiot, who wasnt there. From all this we learn at the end that Monbiot is not a racist though we spend half the article on racists. This kind of argument is well poisoning.
Maybe Monbiot quotes from a guy some day who once shared a platform with a pedophile, but we are not saying that he is a pedophile.
( We are, all, of course making the internal association. Like saying “Dont Think About Elephants).
Totally weasly nonsense..
Yes, science and technology, coupled with the free market forces, can feed many more billions of people than we have now (there’s nothing more inventive and productive than greed).
When I drive through the suburbs of modern big cities, though, be it in America, in Turkey or in Russia, I have a sharp disconcerting feeling that something is terribly wrong.
All those countless people in squalid apartments, mostly going trough the witless motions repeated from town to town, from generation to generation: do they really enjoy the fleeting miracle of life? Do they employ any of their brains’ powerful abilities? Do they, really, NEED THEMSELVES?
Wouldn’t it be better if there were less people having much more resources and free time on their hands, per person? Isn’t this relentless reproduction exactly what dictators and plutocrats want, afraid to lose their ill-gotten power, striving to keep the lid on what any individual can achieve within his or her lifespan?
The more there are people, the less is the probability of successful individual self-expression, invention, imaginative thinking, breakthrough, beauty. The more people, the more often mediocrity wins, squeezing out talent and innovation, institutionalizing and standardizing everything to death, regulating and controlling, taxing and persecuting, taking away and giving empty promises in return, making life gray, miserable, depressing, unrewarding. Taking life out of life.
No. Something is wrong with this picture, neo-Malthusians of Monbiot’s persuasion notwithstanding. Something must give, it cannot continue forever. I am sure that the evolution will find a way to limit the population explosion. It always finds a way, usually a terrible one.
I am no longer interested in anything Monbiot has to say.
I thankfully join the ranks of Dr. Richard North, the man who challenges the EU every single day and refers to any politician of standing in support of the EU as “Euroslime” and who calls Monbiot consequently George Monbiot, (aka Moonbat, although “ocean-going shit” will do) everytime he has towrite his name.
If George Monbiot, (aka Moonbat, although “ocean-going shit” will do) really was so worried about the world food situation why didn’t he protest when the EU decided per decree to mix diesel and car fuel with 12% crop based biofuels.
He had almost 10 years time to fill his pathetic paper with articles protesting this scam.
George Monbiot, (aka Moonbat, although “ocean-going shit” will do) is a hypocrite and he truly is George Monbiot, (aka Moonbat, although “ocean-going shit” will do)
If you want to silence somebody who’s making the claim that making some amount of beef or milk or eggs “uses up” some amount of water, ask them if they learned about the water cycle in elementary school. Of course, it’s quite possible that they didn’t, in which case you may need to explain that water does not actually get used up — fortunately for us all!
Louise says:
January 25, 2011 at 2:19 am
‘Monbiot is a journalist
I can understand politicians or scientists predictions being questioned but journalists?’
Louise is a troll who has forgotten that Paul Nurse decided to interview Delingpole on climate science in Horizon last night (BBC) rather than a scientist. Sauce for the goose etc.
While Monbiot may be crying doom and is sowing FUD on many fronts, calling him on 100,000 L of water to produce 1 kg of beef is a miss. My 24-foot above ground swimming pool holds 50,000 L of water. A typical cow will produce about 200 kg of beef. Given the amount of water a typical ruminant has to drink, the quantity used for processing the beef, how much it takes to produce the feed, I would say 100,000 L/kg is way too low.
Fact is, 100,000 L of water is unlikely to affect the hydrological cycle anywhere, especially considering most of it ends up back where it came from.
David says:
January 25, 2011 at 2:42 am
Too many politicians have relatives with investments in wind power, and plans for employment therein on retirement, for the huge renewable obligation scam to be stopped.
Cameron, the neo-Blairite, and Huhne, whose liberality with our money is unquestionable, are negotiating a pan-European super grid to interconnect continental wind farms.
This cunning plan will enable us to import wind power from Denmark, Germany, etc., at times when our winds fall still, whilst enabling them to continue to fleece the populace through the R.O. certificates.
The phrase “lambs to the slaughter” springs to mind, together with an irresistible urge to check my wallet for the little that they have left me, at the thought of those two incompetents negotiating with the den of thieves in Brussels.
“Count your fingers after shaking hands with a continental” may be considered zenophobic today, but in 30 years exporting to Europe, that advice was invaluable; little that I read today with regard to the EU leads me to suspect that anything has remotely changed.
I’m jumping past 100 postings, so maybe this has been covered before.
Pimental has written very knowledgeably about the production of ethanol as fuel and concluded that the energy used in its production is just about what one would get back if that ethanol were used as fuel. I respect him for that.
And I question that it is automatically wrong to question limiting population and immigration. Since my wife is from another country, I am obviously not automaticaly against all immigration! But we must be sure that we don’t import the problems and conflicts of the originating countries, and we are seeing too much of that already. As for population, too many people will eventually limit available resources, including food and water, to say nothing of overcrowing the cities. We can’t continue with endless population growth, otherwise we will end up like the famous Petri dish of medium that has been completely taken over by bacterial growth so that all die. We have to have a balance between political correctness and a clear vision of what future action is needed.
IanM
“Monbiot is not a racist. He is not even a neo-Malthusian”
It’s simples really, Moonbat is a “headbanger”
For more on David Pimental, see:
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=david+pimentel+ethanol&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart
Also, just google “david pimental” for a LONG list of entries.
IanM
Louise, Journalists report the news. They do not make predictions. He may have a job as a journalist, but he is no journalist.
wws says:
January 24, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Monbiot is realizing that his only real mistake – a mistake that his fellow travelers are now correcting – was to make his prediction for 10 years and not for 100, or 1000. Obviously the only predictions that one will never have to apologize for will be those for a time frame much greater than the lifespans of any potential responders.
wwws, you are wrong, read carefully, “In as little as 10 years” States a minimum of 10, could be as many as a million.
Evidently people have NOT learned from Malthus and Paul Erlichman.
As an ENGINEER who makes things WORK…I say “to HELL” with people as this.
Or perhaps a better fate, as indicated below.
Sorry, I hang up my civilized credentials in this matter. These people are DANGEROUS in their own way. I struggle greatly, I find myself “unforgiving” for such arrogance and stupidity. Perhaps it is worthwhile to point out that they are all “witches”. A little WATER on them and they will melt away, “Look what you’ve done to my beautiful evilness…!!” (Yes, that is an allusion to a famous film.)
John Law says:
January 25, 2011 at 8:59 am
“Monbiot is not a racist. He is not even a neo-Malthusian”
It’s simples really, Moonbat is a “headbanger”
John. sorry but i must take exception.
Having spent many hours in the mosh pit “banging my head”i must protest in the strongest terms;)
What moonbat is , if written down,would never be passed by the mods.Unless of course we re-visit the phrase…..see you next tuesday;)
Great work Anthony. Let’s continue to keep track of these and other predictions as the years go on. It’s the best way to illustrate the error of these “scientists”.
Steve G says:
January 25, 2011 at 6:46 pm
“Great work Anthony. Let’s continue to keep track of these and other predictions as the years go on. It’s the best way to illustrate the error of these “scientists”.”
You can recycle the entire stack of warmist claims.
There won’t be a single claim that will be met.
“They’re Picanic Baskets, Booboo!”
Hungry bears, following the sun,
Chance upon a teeming Vegan run,
Certified low fat organic edibles,
Walking, jogging, and cycling for fun,
And basking, in parked convertibles.
Yes, phosphates end up in the oceans and it would be very costly to get them back from there.
Monbiot’s already abandoned this argument:
I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat – but farm it properly
By George Monbiot
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/06/meat-production-veganism-deforestation
Monbiot is not a journalist, he is just a member of the Main Scream Media. That media that keeps on screaming the mantra/meme GLOBAL WARMING GLOBAL WARMING GLOBAL WARMING… even until the planet freezes over.
The problem is that the Main Scream Media are mistaken for the Main Stream Media, however, though I am not sure if the latter is still in existence.
The truth can be found, in a discerning way, in the blogosphere in blogs such as WUWT. As a matter of principle I have not bought a newspaper for ages now (sarc on: and thus helping to save the planet). Come to think of it, the Main Scream Media never told us not to buy newspapers to save the planet. I’m sure these mass production paper-printers have an immense carbon footprint, but OTOH they do find babies and daipers to be a threat to the planet. LOL
The encapsulation of this cretinous philosophy of Monbiot’s can be found in the bumper-sticker exhortation that we all “live simply that others may simply live”. Because if I refrain from buying and consuming, what I don’t buy or consume magically appears on the plate of a pauper in Palestine. Right. Anyone who fails to instantly see the fallacy here should be drummed out of public discourse.
Moonbat was the one who also said in 1999 that flying across the Atlantic is the moral equivalent of child abuse. I believe he is now on a multi-city tour of the US. But I’m sure he is walking from town to town, like a latter-day Jesus in hipster glasses. Right?
I find it disturbing that only two comments yet have brought up the fact that he already withdrew from his vegan activism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/06/meat-production-veganism-deforestation
this shows that people should be careful to not become what they despise in others, mindless zealots.
Monbiot might or might not be an arse but grilling him on outdated positions he himself no longer holds is not a good good way to show higher standards.
Anthony, please more science and less personal attacks.
Food shortages are certainly a reality but Moonbat did not predict the root causes of this particular reality: Cold and / or cloudy growing seasons, and, the idiocy of wasting edible grains on making ethanol for fuel.
I havn’t read all the comments but in case no one elase has mentioned it, the 100,000 litres per kilo of beef includes the water used to grow the plant material the cattle eat.
1 metre of rain per year over 1 hectare equals 10,000,000 litres.
1 hectare of grass can grow (easily) 1 steer per year producing 250 kg of beef at slaughter. (At 2 years of age after skin, bones and offal are removed.) Please note grass reared animals, reared outdoors grow at rates much lower than corn fed animals in barns.
Dividing 10,000,000 by 250 gives us
40,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilo of beef. But since the water comes from rain, who cares?
Grain fed animals would need more so perhaps the 100,000 litres is about right.
BTW grain feeding cattle to produse beef is only economic in the US and EU which both have massive agricultural subsidies.