Finally! A “Climate Change” Initiative That Will Be Popular!
This is absolutely hysterical. Using official British government statistics a noted environmentalist, who is a published author on environmental subjects as well as a Green Party parliamentary candidate, has come up with a program that will be good for the earth. Better, in fact, than a lot of the pious, feel-good stuff being pushed by activists. And it is a program that will appeal to a lot of people.
Become a couch potato, drive everywhere and save the planet!
Walking does more than driving to cause global warming, a leading environmentalist has calculated.
Food production is now so energy-intensive that more carbon is emitted providing a person with enough calories to walk to the shops than a car would emit over the same distance. The climate could benefit if people avoided exercise, ate less and became couch potatoes. Provided, of course, they remembered to switch off the TV rather than leaving it on standby.
The sums were done by Chris Goodall, campaigning author of How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, based on the greenhouse gases created by intensive beef production. “Driving a typical UK car for 3 miles [4.8km] adds about 0.9 kg [2lb] of CO2 to the atmosphere,” he said, a calculation based on the Government’s official fuel emission figures. “If you walked instead, it would use about 180 calories. You’d need about 100g of beef to replace those calories, resulting in 3.6kg of emissions, or four times as much as driving.
“The troubling fact is that taking a lot of exercise and then eating a bit more food is not good for the global atmosphere. Eating less and driving to save energy would be better.”
Mr Goodall, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Oxford West & Abingdon, is the latest serious thinker to turn popular myths about the environment on their head.
Catching a diesel train is now twice as polluting as travelling by car for an average family, the Rail Safety and Standards Board admitted recently. Paper bags are worse for the environment than plastic because of the extra energy needed to manufacture and transport them, the Government says.
And we must not forget that using red worms to compost kitchen scraps emits huge quantities of really nasty greenhouse gases. Or that a Prius is actually worse for the overall health of the planet than a Hummer. So, have a seat and save the earth, folks.
Environment | Gaius Sunday, 5 August , 2007
By FedUp, Sunday, 5 August , 2007 @ 12:53 pm
What a great idea!!! Do you think we can get the congress and the clowns on the campaign circuit to stay home… and SHUT UP! I believe there is a large hole in the ozonw and it is centered over Washington DC… All that hot air can’t be good for anything…
By Thomas, Sunday, 5 August , 2007 @ 2:20 pm
On the other hand, what’s the economic effect on the National Health if everyone were to chagrin exercise?
By feeblemind, Sunday, 5 August , 2007 @ 3:14 pm
As we are on the subject of staying in doors, one wonders if they have done any studies on the carbon footprint made by a man and a woman engaged in initimate activity? Can you see a call for celibacy to save the planet? Nah…. me neither.
By old_dawg, Sunday, 5 August , 2007 @ 8:20 pm
Here is an initiative that I can get behind- sitting on my behind and eating steak to reduce greenhouse CO2.
Gaius, would you mind dropping off a few sides of beef on your way past the house next time?
By terrence, Sunday, 5 August , 2007 @ 10:47 pm
But, Gaius, those saintly people who drive the Pius MEAN well, they are TRYING to save the planet, the blessed planets. So, it does not really matter if they ARE saving the planet; their intentions and FEELINGS are all that matter. (”Pius” is not a typo.)