The impact of the meat industry on global warming

This took me about two hours to research and write, but it's just a reply to reply to a comment I made on an article about vegetarianism. I should probably feel bad that I spent so much time writing something that will probably make no impact on anyone whatsoever, but that's what I do here, if I'm being honest with myself (not that I've written anything here in a long time). I don't feel bad about it because I was trying to expand my knowlege about something I care about. It's also important to me to be informed about the opinions you have- if your opinions are based on something feeble, then how can you feel strongly about them or act on them?
The origional comment that I wrote was that eating meat doesn't just harm the animals that you eat, it also contributes to global warming. The person who replied to my comment said that the article that I quoted wasn't valid because it was written by someone who is a vegetarian- and therefore biased. Here is the origional article http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1839995,00.html They went on to write this,
"If you look at world charts of greenhouse gas emission statistics, produced by non-biased reputable sources, you will see completely different figures. In the US in 2009, Transportation was 27.5, Industry was 20.2, and all of agriculture was 7.4%." They didn't provide a source for this data.

Anyway, here's the comment I made, because I wanted to put it somewhere where I might read it again someday. It's good to keep track of where you learn things because sometimes something seems credible and becomes a belief and when we go back later, we realize that our beliefs were based on something of questionable truth. I don't think I'll feel that way about this particular thing though.


(Here I wrote the name of the person I was responding to), I want to know your reputable non-biased source for the figures you gave. It is possible that the source I gave was incorrect, but at least I referenced one. I know that not all deforestation is for livestock Too much of what is produced goes uneaten or is eaten by those of us in first world countries who eat far more than what is necessary to sustain us. However, even if livestock production was a small part of deforestation, eating less meat would be a small improvement- which is better than nothing. Most commercially raised cattle is fed corn instead of just grazing on grass. It makes sense to me that it makes less impact on the environment to eat that corn ourselves rather than spend months feeding a cow to get it fat enough to eat. Unfortunately, if population growth continues the way it has been, I don’t think the planet can sustain us all even if we were all vegetarian. There are just too many of us. But I think we stand a better chance at survival if we use less resources in as many areas of our lives as possible- diet being one of them.

As to the article that I referenced last time, I don't think it necessarily discredits the argument if the source is a vegetarian. Is it possible that a person might become vegetarian after researching causes for global warming? It seems logical that if you learn that a behavior is potentially destructive you would cease doing it. If you considered the last source I cited as biased, I found this article referencing research from the Livestock, Environment and Development Initiative (LEAD) based at FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). “More than two-thirds of all agricultural land is devoted to growing feed for livestock, while only 8 percent is used to grow food for direct human consumption, LEAD reported. If the entire world population were to consume as much meat as the Western world does-176 pounds of meat per capita per year- the global land required would be two-thirds more than what is presently used, according to Vaclav Smil, professor of environment and geography at the University of Manitoba and participant in the EVP study.” The article was in Scientific American magazine. If you want to know about the author, here is his website (http://www.nathanfiala.com/index.html). An organization affiliated with the United Nations seems like a reputable source to me, especially since the research comes from multiple people of different nations and beliefs doing their own independent research. Here is more info about them (http://www.fao.org/ag/AGAinfo/programmes/en/lead/lead.html)

Arguing with myself

I just spent ten minutes writing two sentances replying to a post. The blog entry was about how they were depressed by the popularity of mindblowingly stupid shit on YouTube. I wrote this "There are a disturbing amount of stupid people in the world. What makes me feel better is the fact that we'll all be dead someday." I thought about putting a smiley face at the end, but figured why use such a stupid crutch as an emoticon to communicate tone. I meant what I said, but it could be taken many ways. Someone could think I was joking or that I'm some deppressed goth that wants to commit suicide. Or I could be like someone who believes in "thinning the herd", believes that evolution was meant to keep the strong and smart alive, and we shouldnt coddle the stupid like we do in America today. I dont know what a person like that would prefess the solution to be. Killing them?..
A stupid comment on a blog turned into a debate with myself as to the worth of human beings- ex: would the world be better off without us? Will learn from our mistakes and evolve? I almost wrote "Why worry about what supid people do if it doesnt effect you?" But don't they effect us? Germany is going to close its nuclear power plants because of what happened in Japan, but no major changes have been made here to reduce our need for oil since the Gulf oil spill. Shouldn't we have learned something from that?! Human stupidity can be dangerous.
Stupid shit on Youtube is less dangerous, but still concerning. The fact that stupid crap is popular probably doesnt do harm other than annoy, and maybe perpetuate stupidity. Would someone who spends hours watching TV that does nothing to expand their world view be receptive to anything that might change their minds? Is TV stupid because the people watching like stupid shit or are people made stupid by watching it? Probably both. Any time there's a question like that, the answer is usually both. An example of this is a debate that archeologists had for a long time about whether dinosaurs were related to lizards or birds. I remember thinking as a kid- why can't it be both? Lizards and birds could have a common origin. Educated fucking adults were arguing as if the answer were gospel and to deny it made you an idiot. Why is it so hard for people to look at all sides of an arguement and be willing to change their minds? .. Actually, it is hard, because I just spent half an hour debating with myself and havent come up with a conclusive answer. But I'm OK with that.

My attempt at dispensing justice at a graduation ceremony.

Today I endured the physical and psychological torture that is a graduation ceremony. It was my boyfriend's sister's high school graduation. I was proud of her accomplishment, but I doubt one person there didn't think at more than one point "When is this gonna be over?!" I expected it to be long and boring, but what made it unbearable was the people behind us who kept blowing an air horn. It would have been merely annoying if they did it once or twice, but they did it at least five times. People asked them to stop and gave them dirty looks, but the white-trash assholes didn't care. They blew it at ear-level and held the note longer than necessary and laughed at people's reactions. At one point, they even said they should be recording so that they could put it on YouTube. Finally, I scooted closer and waited for them to blow it one more time. When they did I tried to rip it out of the guy's hands, but I wasn't able to. He and his stupid friends seemed shocked and started yelling at me, and then David practically tackled the guy with the horn and tried to wrench it out of his hands. His mom yelled at him and we decided to leave. What I think is sad is that, had I been successful in getting it away from him without causing a scene, people would have thanked me. I can't believe not even one person defended me or David. I guess that's the price of civilized society, people wait for someone with authority to stand up to people like that, and are too scared to do it themselves. It annoyed me that people kept saying they were "about to" do something to stop them, but they probably had no intention of doing it. There are few people who actually do what they threaten to do when it will cause conflict. I think that the guys who were blowing the horn were being extremely rude and uncivil, and when you act like that, you should expect people to treat you the same way. I hope some day they learn what empathy is, or that someone kicks their asses.

Sometimes I worry about the future of humanity...

... And then I go into the "Ladies" room at my college, and I read, written on the feminine product disposal box, "I eat period blood." And the response, "Whoever wrote this is a fag." And I realize we'll all be dead soon, and everything will be okay.

Taste in men

Ain't he just adorable?






Too bad he's 10 years older than me, a racist, and a murderer.






I can't help who I'm attracted to. I've probably had some of the weirdest crushes. Charlie Chaplin and Varg Vikernes (that guy in the pix above) are probably the weirdest. I still think Marlon Brando is hot in a Streetcar Named Desire, and there are several guys who I wouldn't kick out of bed for being covered in fake blood.. Real blood is a different story. Actually, a lot of the guys I have crushes on, I wouldn't like in real life. My own taste confuses me because I don't have a "type". Here are some more pictures of guys I like (I tried to put them in chronological order).



Eric von Detten (actor) was my first crush, then Leonardo Di Caprio, and Daniel Johns from Silverchair- I became a vegetarian because of him.



Givanni Ribisi and Sam Rockwell (Actors).. Just noticed a lot of them have Italian names.



Meegs Rascon (guitarist of Coal Chamber). Charlie Chapin- cute underneath that mustache, first dead guy I ever had a crush on. Brian Molko from Placebo- made me like bisexual men.




Danzig (Musician), Rory Cochrane. Till Lindemann (singer of Rammstein)- Fist guy I had a crush on who I thought might be completely insane, and disgusted me a little.. Surprisingly, Marilyn Manson didn't, I also had a crush on him but don't feel like putting up a pic. You know what he looks like.



Meg and Jack White from the White Stripes (yep, both of them. I have some more girl crushes but won't go into them now). Chris Jericho (Wrestler. Go ahead, laugh.) Maynard James Keenan (singer of Tool. Weird as hell. Made me want to try hallucinogenic drugs some day- but not anytime soon).



Eddie Izzard, Russell Brand, Noel Fielding (stylish English comedians. Eddie is a crossdresser.. Kinda into that.)


Ville Valo (singer of HIM. Got me into Finnish music, for which I'm eternally gratefull). Marlon Brando.. Why did he have to get fat and people make fun of him? Sad..



Frost (drummer of Satyricon. Real name Kjetil Haraldstad- awesomely impossible to pronounce for an English speaker). Ogre from Skinny Puppy (He's a nice guy, don't judge him by the fake blood).



My boyfriend David! I love him, and he lets me play with his hair. :)

Friend?

There's someone I hate and love, I'll call her A. If you're reading this, it should be glaringly obvious that I mean you. Once I didn't talk to her for a year because we got into a fight that started because I was tired of being ignored. It's pathetic that I still like her and I want to call her my friend, but I'm not convinced she deserves that title. The last time I saw her was December. She doesen't live here, so it's understandable that she wouldn't think of me as much as people with whom she has more contact. But still. December? The last time I talked to her, she was planning on moving somewhere even farther away from me than she lives now. She had a lot of shit to worry about, and I'm sure she has even more now. We used to talk about our shit together, but it's been a long time since then. A LONG long time. She used to be so important to me, she helped me though depression, and I tried to help her. I don't know if she's depressed now, I don't know anything. She used to have a blog on Livejournal, but she hasn't written anything in it since October. Before that, she wrote a lot, it's weird that she stopped so suddenly. We're "friends" on Myspace. I've sent a few messages to her with that, I've tried e-mailing her, and sent a text- all were ignored or unread. I try not to sound needy, and I don't want to smother her with my once every two months attempts to contact her. It should be clear to me that she doesn't give a fuck, but she's done this before, and convinced me that she does. Is she punishing me for something I didn't know I did?

The light's on in the other room. I didn't want to spend this much time on the computer, but she pulled me in like years ago, when we would talk online until three or four AM. So long ago, it feels like another lifetime. I know we've changed and moved on, but I still want her in my life.

Laguna Beach (Mis)adventure.

Some cool stuff has happend lately, I consider even the "bad" stuff to be cool in a way because it's better than being bored. I just got back from a three-day vacation to Laguna Beach with my parents. It was for their 25th anniversary, but they wanted me to come too because I guess they love me or something :) My boyfriend David stayed at our house while we were gone to keep the dogs company. I wanted to invite him too, but our dogs get depressed when they're alone for too long, and we would've had to get a bigger hotel room and bla bla bla. We stayed in a beautiful place called the Aliso Creek Inn. By the name, you might have gathered that it was near a creek, and you would be right. Our hotel room was just across from the creek which wound through bright green hills. It felt remote even though it was a two minute drive to the busy Pacific Coast Highway.

Our room was more like a cabin.

Laguna Beach was a cool place because the town was crowded along the coastline, and the hills beyond it were mostly preserved in their natural state because it's protected land.

It's about an hour and a half drive from my house, which is not bad in my opinion. But, for reasons which I will explain later, we had to make the roundtrip drive twice in the span of three days.

The first day we went shopping, and didn't buy anything- miracle of miracles!

I thought this was a cool looking building, across from the place where they have the Festival of the Masters (a festival where people build sets and pose to look like famous works or art). On the hill next to it was a tiny light-house looking thing. If anybody thinks they know what the hell that was for, please enlighten me.

This is where we ate lunch on the first day.

On the second day, we ate a delicious breakfast at a place called the Greeter. Then looked at a few shops and went for a short walk on the beach.

These pictures of my parents illustrate how much like a little boy my Dad is. I told my parents to pose and pretend like they love eachother. He hates cheesy shit like that.

I like this picture of a guy walking a pitbull and a Yorkshire terrior. Which one do you think belongs to his girlfriend?

We went to a nature center and hiked through the mountains and along a beautiful lake.

In the last picture, you can see a lot jet-trails scarring the sky. It was a reminder that even though we were in the wild, civilization wasn't far away. Plus you could hear the freeway.

I took these pictures as an old couple passed us on the trail, and my parents kept walking. It was like looking into the future.

In the middle of this pic is a California quail sitting on a post.

It was only 12:00 or 1PM after our hike- sometimes I don't even wake up until that late, but I wasn't tired because we were doing fun stuff. I feel sorry for my Dad, though, because there was some sort of confusion at his work and people kept calling him. He also wanted to play golf and ride his bike, but the course was closed, and when he'd gone out to ride in the morning, it was freezing cold, so he had to cut it short. He was stuck with us. :) My mom and I wanted to go to a modern art museum, and he grudginly came along. It was hillarious because the first thing we saw when we went into the museum was a photo of two guys wrestling, naked. Ah, the arts...

After the museum, we walked along the coast some more.

In the last pic are some girls on the beach taking a picture of a message they wrote in the sand that says "Happy B-day Yutis" (I think that's what it says, I've never heard that name before). I dunno why, but I like the idea of taking picture of people taking a picture, and them not knowing about it. It's the same kind of acceptable spying as Facebook and Myspace. Don't worry, I'm not into actual spying- that's disgusting.

This was a weird sculpture. What do you thnk it looks like? My mom says a flamingo, and David thinks it looks like a fairy-comet falling to the earth.. :)

I was tired when we got back to our hotel, but I resisted the urge to nap and practiced my guitar instead. After that we went to the pool, the water was cold but it felt good. My dad and I played ping-pong by the pool until both balls rolled away under a fence. I read a book called Mexican Whiteboy- I'll explain the significance of that later. We went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, where the waiter was a muscular, somewhat intimadating man who spoke with an accent. The restaurant had a fireplace in the middle where they baked. We had something I'd never heard of before, I think it was called Timboli, which was pasta and vegetables baked into a flaky crust. It was some of the best Italian food I've ever had. That was another cool thing about Laguna beach- everywhere we ate was good.

This was a creepy building across from the restaurant. I think it's mysterious.

Back at the hotel at about 10:00 PM, my mom and I were reading. She wanted to go to bed soon, but I wasn't feeling that tired. My phone rang, and I figured it was David. I was right, and could tell by his voice that something was wrong. He told me he'd lost his keys at work, and our house-key was on them. Oh shit. He said he'd looked everywhere and asked everyone in the store if they'd seen them, but no luck. Usually my friend Kristin who lives down the street has an extra key, but a few months earlier I'd taken them and not given them back. It was because my parents were asleep in the back bedroom and David and I rang the doorbell and called their cellphones and the house phone, but no answer. I left messages on their cellphones, but not the house phone. My mom said I should have left one on the house phone because she would have heard the answering machine. The reason why I didn't have a house-key was because I didn't bring one because my mom and I had gone out together to see Shutter Island, and I figured we'd come home together, so I wouldn't need it. We met David at the theater, and after the movie I went mini-golfing with him. When my parents didn't answer, we went to Kristin's house to get the key, and I never remembered to give it back. So all this trouble came from one stupid decision not to bring my keys.

My mom and I thought about calling a locksmith to open the door, but we figured they probably wouldn't open it without us there. The dogs had been inside since David left for work at 4:45 PM, and we didn't want them to go to the bathroom in the house- especailly since the girl, Mojo is old. Plus they needed to be fed in the morning. We decided it would be best if we drove home to open the house ourselves. I wasn't that tired anyway. I wasn't that bothered by the situation because I'd had a good day, and lately I've realized that a lot of bad things become funny in time. Bad or good, it's all experience, which makes you a more mature and unique human being.

My mom and I felt really bad for David, though. None of us were mad at him, especially not me, because I've done similar things- like forget the tickets to a concert. It was annoying, but not as bad as it could have been- at least we were somewhere where we could drive home in less than 2 hours. It actually only took an hour and 20 minutes because there wasn't much traffic.

In the morning, we drove back to Laguna because my Dad was still there and we still wanted to spend more time there. But when we got there, it was drizzling and a lot of the shops were closed. I didn't mind because it was beautiful and we ate another awesome breakfast at the Greeter, and I slept on the way home.