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Cats and Dogs Contribute Significantly To Climate Change, Says UCLA Study (patch.com)
New submitter Zorro shares a report from Patch.com: When it comes to global warming, Fido and Fluffy are part of the problem, a new study by UCLA indicates. Pet ownership in the United States creates about 64 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, UCLA researchers found. That's the equivalent of driving 13.6 million cars for a year. The problem lies with the meat-filled diets of kitties and pooches, according to the study by UCLA geography professor Gregory Okin. Dogs and cats are responsible for 25 to 30 percent of the impacts of meat production in the United States, said Orkin. Compared to a plant-based diet, meat production "requires more energy, land and water and has greater environmental consequences in terms of erosion, pesticides and waste," the study found. And what goes in, must come out. In terms of waste, Okin noted, feeding pets also leads to about 5.1 million tons of feces every year, roughly equivalent to the total trash production of Massachusetts. The study has been published in the journal PLOS One.
How much CO2 does an average person produce, compared to a dog ?
Cats are obligate carnivores, they have to eat meat because they need the ready nutrients only meat can provide.
Dogs have a higher tolerance for carbohydrates, but really, this is an accident of domestication. In any wild setting, all canine species would eat a diet almost entirely of meat because that's what's available. The occasional browsing of grasses and plants may have some digestive benefit for canines but almost no caloric value. Their caloric intake would be animal flesh.
Can't we just get rid of Massachusetts instead?
Dogs have a higher tolerance for carbohydrates, but really, this is an accident of domestication.
Not true. Dogs are not obligate carnivores. Even wolves routinely supplement their diet with fruits and vegetables in the wild.
In any wild setting, all canine species would eat a diet almost entirely of meat because that's what's available.
Also not true. All wolf subspecies (including dogs, coyotes, dingoes) have an evolutionary preference for meat but will voluntarily eat vegetation in substantial amounts and if necessary can live without meat indefinitely. The Maned Wolf has a diet that is approximately 50% vegetation. With certain exceptions most of what you eat is also readily digestible by your dog too. Dogs are omnivores in actuality.
That's some kind of pitiful argument. No wonder they're losing.
"We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
The meat we feed to animals are cut-offs that don't make it into hotdogs. It has its own separate grade, "canning grade".
Meat is not grown *for* pets, although I'm sure there's some fru-fru company that does it. As such, the pets are eating waste, and the CO2 budget is zero.
The thing that leads to less kids in the most "modern/industrial" societies, that final mile if you will, is parents being overworked. Working 40+ hours a week, and then the commute, and then the hour lunch which often is just wasted time hanging out at work and eating for half of it. And both parents being forced to work to be "normal". I see my kids a few hours each evening. I see my coworkers ... well, nearly 40 hours a week.
We need less of a population, but I'm not sure working people into bad health, unhappy relationships, and fucked up families is the way to do it. Sending babies to daycare at age 2 months is NOT FUCKING NORMAL!!! Yet 99% of the people around here do that. Kids being at some before and after care thing during elementary ages is not perfect either. Hell one of my kids is more attached to the worker at the day care than to the kid's grandparents. WTF?!
Anyway... I can rant about this forever, please excuse me. You had good points, but I hate seeing the population overworked. I was reading something about a billionaire the other day, and it occurred to me if you took his billion dollars and spread it out to a thousand people, they'd all be millionaires. Wow, wealth is really not distributed too well is it?