British environmental activist George Monbiot: “It’s by far and away the greatest cause of habitat destruction, the greatest cause of wildlife loss, the greatest cause of extinction, greatest cause of soil loss, greatest source of fresh water use. It’s one of the greatest causes of climate breakdown, bigger than transport.” …
“We need to act as drastically within that sector as any other sector to prevent the collapse of our life support systems and what that means, above all else, is getting out of livestock farming is really shutting down animal farming altogether, because that has massively disproportionate impacts on the living planet, and we need to switch towards other sources of food plant-based diets which are far more efficient, far lower environmental impacts.”
“It’s a bit like leaving fossil fuels in the ground unless we do that. We’ve really got very little chance indeed of preventing this domino effect of system collapse right across systems which basically makes the planet uninhabitable. So eating meat and milk and eggs is an indulgence we cannot afford.”
By: Marc Morano – Climate Depot
On Ireland state-run TV – RTE – Prime Time program – July 19, 2022 – Miriam O’Callaghan
Rough Transcript:
RTE Host Miriam O’Callaghan: George has a big emphasis on agriculture and how agriculture needs to cut its emissions. And I know it’s an issue you feel very strongly about. You’ve said that agriculture is arguably the most destructive industry on Earth. Explain and do you still believe that George?
British environmental activist George Monbiot: “It’s by far and away the greatest cause of habitat destruction, the greatest cause of wildlife loss, the greatest cause of extinction, greatest cause of soil loss, greatest source of fresh water use. It’s one of the greatest causes of climate breakdown, bigger than transport. One of the primary causes of water pollution and of air pollution. So it’s right at the top. Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to say land use, the biggest issue of all it’s by far and away the greatest form of land use that humans inflict on the planet which means all that land is land. which can’t be used for wild ecosystems.
And well, obviously, we need farming, we need to minimize those impacts. We need to act as drastically within that sector as any other sector to prevent the collapse of our life support systems and what that means, above all else, is getting out of livestock farming is really shutting down animal farming altogether, because that has massively disproportionate impacts on the living planet, and we need to switch towards other sources of food plant-based diets which are far more efficient, far lower environmental impacts. But also switch out of farming altogether to produce protein-rich foods, which we can do through precision fermentation – brewing microbes.
RTE Host Miriam O’Callaghan: I can hear farmers all over the small country of ours, shocked and perhaps screaming at their televisions because they say are you saying all animal farming in your opinion, really needs to stop?
Monbiot: Yes, it does. It really does. It’s a bit like leaving fossil fuels in the ground unless we do that. We’ve really got very little chance indeed of preventing this domino effect of system collapse right across systems which basically makes the planet uninhabitable. So eating meat and milk and eggs is an indulgence we cannot afford.”
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Related:
Billionaire-funded eco group quietly taking farmland out of production in rural America
Climate Depot’s Morano: “If the Davos crowd of the World Economic Forum were looking for a better global environment on which to enact their central planning vision of a Great Reset, it would be hard to imagine a more conducive chaotic time than right now.” See: Watch video: World Economic Forum’s utopian Great Reset vision of 2030 – ‘You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy’ – ‘Whatever you want you’ll rent & it’ll be delivered by drone’ – Meat will be ‘an occasional treat’
Reality Check:
There were 60 Million bison roaming the the great plains of the US 150 years ago. But somehow we are to believe cows pose a unique threat to the environment. pic.twitter.com/ksikT8s867
— Seattle Indy (@SeattleIndepen1) August 2, 2022
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Serious question: Were there more bison on North America 200 years ago than there are cattle now? I’ve read that bison numbered in the millions before being hunted to near extinction. And I’m sure that bison farts were just as bad as cattle farts.
There is a wide difference in the estimates of NA Bison. They ranged beyond the Great Plains, for instance into Pennsylvania. An estimate that says between 30 & 60 million is commonly quoted. Another says 85 M.
There are now (2016 est.) about 360,000. https://bisoncentral.com/bison-by-the-numbers/
There were 92 million cattle in the United States in 2016 (which is approximately 1–3 times the common bison herd estimates) and in 2015, 28.8 million head were slaughtered; about 24 times the recorded bison slaughter over the 3 years it was at its peak.
Full disclosure: I live in cattle country where the land will not support row crops; mostly rocky and both late and early freezing. Hay is brought in from nearby farms when pasture is not producing.
Thanks for the information. Didn’t realize there were so many cattle around.
I fart in your general direction. And your father smelt of elderberries. (as the French knight once taunted)
There is a difference between the Plains Bison and Forest Bison, the latter not being as abundant and generally smaller.
Last one killed about 1801. Some folks don’t believe they were there. Odd folks.
Anyway, the State now has over 3,000 on small farms, as does Washington
State; a few near where I live.
Bison by the Numbers (arcgis.com)
And I’m sure that bison farts were just as bad as cattle farts.
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There isn’t anything “bad” about farts. All organisms with an alimentary canal produce methane. Climate “Science” has created a catechism that has convinced you and a lot of other people to refer to cattle farts as bad. Methane emissions from cattle are NOT bad or worse or any other negative you can think of. What’s going on is raw propaganda. Several years ago the notion that cow farts cause global warming was initially regarded as laughable, but the lie has been repeated so many times for so long that it’s difficult to not write about cow farts as a problem.
I bang on about not buying into left-wing bullshit a lot. Words have meaning and buying into the left’s definitions and terms is counterproductive.
Activists have been hoodwinked with dishonest lies about farmed animals methane emissions
So many people now live in cities and they have no contact with the country side unless they are driving past on a motorway .
The left and dim witted activists are vilifying farming and I am sure that the end game is to nationalize farming over the world as they are against the free market economy .
They want the governments to control everything starting with the UN .
Why else have we got the UNIPCC telling all countries to cut emissions which can only lead to hunger and poverty for billions ?
Anything with initials starting with “UN…” is automatically bad/wrong.
And, BTW, cattle do not, predominately, fart. Being ruminants, the methane is produced by bacteria in the third stomach, so they belch. (Copiously!)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurochs
Why are leading activists so ignorant of history and human anthropology. Morano points out the 60 million Great Plains buffalo, but also the auroch, the large progenitor of modern cattle that occurred throughout Asia, N.Africa and Europe was a staple food for Neanderthals to homosapiens.
“Two aurochs domestication events occurred during the Neolithic Revolution. One gave rise to the domestic cattle (Bos taurus) in the Fertile Crescent in the Near East that was introduced to Europe via the Balkans and the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.”
Also, their ’emissions’ are more quickly recycled back to vegetation than UK’s Drax Power’s wood burning ‘green’ electricity generation, and it is the exact same logic behind both!! George Monbiot, like climate science’s Richard Betts et al, share, with WEF billionaires and idiot Western heads if state, responsibility for the developing global economic and food disasters in the making.
Someone as mentally deranged as Monbiot is to be pitied really, but not the clowns who encourage him.
What is he going to do with all the farm animals anyway; I hope he is not suggesting a killing of all these poor creatures, that would be evil on an epic scale. Perhaps he is going to personally eat them all himself to keep the rest of us from sin.
I am not however ever going to eat the fermented pond scum he advocates, cannibalism would actually look a better option (no I’m not suggesting it just making a point about how foul and noxious his alternative is).
Even pond scum production or insect production in quantities sufficient to feed the world would require a massive agricultural enterprise, fertilizer, energy, etc. Aside from manna in the Sinai 3,000 years ago, the food doesn’t just appear at our feet ready to eat.
What he really desires is the death of 90% of humanity, just not him.
Animal Rights activist (ALF, PeTA) have been trying to shut down “Factory Farms” for decades.
Others have been trying to eliminate cars, SUVs and oil for decades for various reasons.
And of course, nuclear power and new dams have been in the crosshairs of some for decades.
All long before CAGW reared its ugly head.
Odd that the “solutions” these past various past causes espoused are same “solutions” to CAGW. Isn’t it?
I’d seen Monbiot’s name scattered about in relation to climate numerous times over the last couple of decades but I had never seen him in person until a couple of weeks ago when he appeared on a U.S.-based newscast produced by and put out for zanies and crackpots called Democracy Now!**
It was then that I realized that Monbiot is a full-on nutter. The man is an outright lunatic— you can’t get crazier than that guy.
________________________
**If you are bored and need amusement, Democracy Now! is fabulous entertainment. It is a non-stop parade of zanies and crackpots. It’s where people like McKibben and Monbiot and Chomsky display their utterly delusional thinking. It really is hilarious (in small doses).
Unfortunately, psychotic delusion appears to be contagious. The brain dead will parrot his nonsense like it was unquestionable truth.
Monidiot
Getting desperate are we George – nobody listening to your unhinged rants any more? Gotta wind it up a gear or two now eh?
OK George, explain how 10’s of millions of Buffalo survived in the US for 1,’000’s of years and left behind some of the most fertile soil on this Earth and maintained the Ogallalla Aquifer at brim full capacity?
How did they do that George?
btw. Nice shot of what I’d take to be pedigree Limousin.
One does have to be careful tho, the idea that Red = Danger is not a human invention, we borrowed from somewhere.
What shows up beautifully in the picture is:
How to tell a docile cow from one that is maybe ‘not so docile’ or shall we say, ‘Temperamental’
You look for the whorl in the hair on their face.
But in any case and ALWAYS, never make direct eye-to-eye contact with animals like cows.
i.e. Animas with eyes on opposite sides of their heads.
Critters like us, with forward facing eyes (stereoscopic vision) are/were always The Predators in their world.
So if a cow sees a pair of stereo eyes focussed on it, every fibre in its body is going into fight/flight mode – and that is when people get hurt.
Especially folks walking (of course) dogs
I want other predators and lesser animals to know that I’m the top predator and to avoid me at all costs. The trick is to be sure they have an escape route other than over my dead body.
Monbiot the moron opens his gob and once again pollutes the planet with the crap he spews out.
Hey! George, be careful what you wish for:
Why does the WUWT site give airtime to this dangerous idiot spreading mental health problems to our children and vulnerable people.
Why?
Not everyone is aware of it.
How many parents knew that’s AlGore’s “Incontinent Truth” was being shown in schools as the gospel truth?
This obsession with finding causes to blame for things happening over which people have no control is Paganism.
These people are effectively trying to placate their god, gaia, or Baal, or Moloch, or whatever they call their climate god these days.
The next logical step in their pagan beliefs will be human sacrifices.
Oh Please. Humans can’t eat grass. Horses, Cows, pigs, goats, sheep and chickens can. Humans can eat all of these and use them for labor which is why they were domesticated in the first place.
Why do you give this fool Monbiot such publicity?. Human based climate change is a scam.
Monboit knows nothing about science. Me? 40 years experience teaching physics based energy,climate,environment subjects. International speaker at climate conferences in US and China. Double masters in physical sciences. Humans have little impact on the climate. It is the sun and ocean cycles.
I’m sorry, animals of all types have existed for hundreds of millions of years all over the world putting out poop, urine and who knows what else. How is that cattle are now going to destroy the planet? For years, the big thinkers have said that there was not going to be enough food to feed the population. Now they want to destroy a food source?
Its kind of simple even if it is stupid.
If a critter is domesticated, it’s not “Natural”.
If a crop is domesticated, it’s not “Natural”.
If Man had anything to do with anything, its not “Natural”.
Therefore, Man must be controlled to preserve what is “Natural”.
(Yet to hear any coherent argument that Man and what we do is not also “Natural”.)
Monbiot is an idiot.
Perhaps Monbiot does not understand that manure is a central part of organic farming and is critical for building soil tilth.
Instead he gives us BS.
The scary part is that he obviously believes the things he says, and convinces others (sheep) too.
Lysenko believed what he said too.
I tried being a vegan once, but then I listened carefully to the sounds the vegetables made when picked. Their little screams filled my head, and I couldn’t sleep for weeks. Now I’m committed to existing on air and water, though I’m not sure water doesn’t object to being drunk. I’ll have to look into that…
And, mimosa absolutely recoil at the touch of humans. I’m sure they would kill us if they had the chance.
Moonbat hates that God cared for his creation.
‘what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild’
Before 1750, the most reliable, strongest, non-human source of power was provided by oxen. Before 1800, the most numerous species in North America were Bison. Best common measure of relative wealth in Asia, Africa, and Europe before 1900 the number of domesticated animals. Before domestication of the Aurochs, humans were hunter gatherers. Best means to reduce infant mortality and malnutrition dairy production.
While the transfer of disease from animals to humans is on almost everyone’s minds, we seem to forget that immunity to disease through real innoculation has often been developed in large quantities using large domesticated animals.
Weren’t these the people who had the data and settled the science?
Best means of heating and providing power this winter: cremate environmentalists; they’re self-starting.
With a little encouragement, self-immolating.
Ack. A small amount of methanol, gasoline, kerosene is also a help. Good news: in these days of great enlightenment, progress and technological advance, we can make it biodiesel.
Monbiot is actually a Moonbat and it is his like we should be eliminating. Insane fools like him are our true existential threat.
How can ‘The Guardian’ continue to take the views of this idiot seriously? No doubt they’ll find a way.
Actually, this is great news. It’s so outrageous that only the Liberal elite will be stupid enough to take it seriously. Joe Public will just laugh.
That is a serious question. Perhaps the editors of The Guardian are similarly deranged.
Quick note: for those comparing bison and cows. I believe bison have slightly different hooves than cows. Bison hoofs are more pointed and act like aerators while cow hooves are more flat and compress the earth more than cut it. Haven’t researched this extensively. Anyone know for sure?
I don’t know the answer either. However, we have been shoeing horses for almost as long as we have been riding them. There is nothing stopping us from shoeing cows with ‘cowshoes’ with aeration spikes to improve the soil. 🙂
Settle down.
Cattle used as draught animals, for ploughing and pulling carts, were often shod with a pair of L shaped shoes on each foot.
I have occasionally found examples on freshly ploughed ground.
The plough strips produced by oxen ploughs were S shaped as the 4 or 6 strong teams that were used had to start turning before they reached the end of the furlong.
Horses only needed two to pull a plough.
Somewhere i have a photograph I took near Unter Ammergau in Southern Garmany in 1963 of a cow being used to plough a field which had been milked before working in the field.
In the next field was a modern Claas combine harvester.
I’m so relieved that someone has found something that is “worse” than mining. Well done George.
“ But also switch out of farming altogether to produce protein-rich foods, which we can do through precision fermentation – brewing microbes.”
AKA- ruminants. It’s what farmers do.
Far too few people seem to know that ruminants are mobile self-feeding fermentation vats.