re: "Stop the denial" (BP, PostBag, May 22, 2023)
Dear editor,
Eric Bahrt is correct that beef production remains a major source of greenhouse gas production, specifically of methane, which "is more than 25 times as potent ... at trapping heat in the atmosphere" (US EPA, 2022) than is boring CO2. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the sentence Mr. Bahrt quotes that claims "Beef production remains the biggest source of greenhouse gasses", which sentence, according to Google, exists solely on a few Facebook pages run by avid vegetarians, and now on the Bangkok Post. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in contrast, reports that for the US, "Human activities emitting methane include leaks from natural gas systems and the raising of livestock," in that order, with natural gas and petroleum systems contributing 29% and enteric fermentation (animal digestion) 25%. (US EPA, Overview of Greenhouse Gases, 2023, April 13)
But 25% is still a lot of methane to be pumping into our atmosphere by ruminative animals converting plants into tasty flesh at low cost, except to our shared environment. Happily, methane also breaks down relatively quickly, making it sensible to focus on to contain global warming.
Even more happily, science and technology are now providing us with alternative ways to grow real meat without the release of harmful methane. With cultured (lab grown) meat now becoming a reality, that sustainable alternative to real meat needs to be further developed with economic incentives to make it more attractive for research and production. Putting cultured meat made in animal-free factories on the tables of consumers looking for the delicious taste of real meat that mindless nature, or darkly humorous gods, has implanted in us whilst not simultaneously destroying the environment we all must live in is win-win for ourselves and nature. Moving to such human-made meats will also remove most if not all of the suffering currently inflicted on innocent members of other species by we human animals bent on needless pleasure according to our evolved, or god given, nature.
Felix Qui
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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.
The text as edited was published in PostBag on May 24, 2023, under the title "Meaty options" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2577089/handling-the-purse
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