All Posts Tagged With: "global warming"

The debate Tuesday night between incumbent (and perennial embarassment) U.S. Senator James Inhofe and challenger Andrew Rice is getting a little national attention, especially in the blogosphere.

Think Progress picked up on Inhofe’s continued inexplicable defense of his comment in 2003 that global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” I didn’t watch the debate or really even read about it because I know Inhofe will win anyway and he makes me absolutely sick to my stomach every time I hear him speak. However, Think Progress reported this excerpt from that debate:

INHOFE: I think I was right on that, and I do believe — first off, let’s keep in mind, though, what the issue is. It’s not whether or not we’re going into a global warming period. We were. We’re not now.

You know, God’s still up there. We’re now going through a cooling spell. And the whole issue there was is it man-made gases, anthropogenic gases, CO2, methane. I don’t think so.

Think Progress’ story goes on to say:

Asked whether John McCain is a victim of the global warming “hoax,” Inhofe responded, “People are afraid of some of the environmentalists out there because they pour all the money into campaigns and, consequently, we have a lot of people who fall in that category, and some of them are Republicans.”

Summing up his assessment of global warming science, Inhofe declared: “It’s hysteria.”

[...]

This chart prepared by NASA’s Goddard Institute clearly disproves the notion that we’re in a cooling period:

Far from a “cooling spell,” the U.S. is now entering a period of “global boiling.” Each day brings new, troubling headlines of a world wrought with extreme storms, floods, droughts, rising seas, catastrophic change, and species loss.

In addition, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) recently reported that Arctic sea ice volume likely hit a record low in 2008. NASA data shows that for a four-week period in August 2008, sea ice melted faster during that period than ever before. Apparently, the “cooling spell” hasn’t been felt in the Arctic.

I’ve always loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I still eat them for lunch often. Aside from the great taste, they are easy to fix and can last all day without worrying about it spoiling. Now I have one more reason to keep on eating those PB&J’s: it reduced my carbon footprint and helps fight global warming. So says The PB&J Campaign:

Each time you have a plant-based lunch like a PB&J you’ll reduce your carbon footprint by the equivalent of 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over an average animal-based lunch like a hamburger, a tuna sandwich, grilled cheese, or chicken nuggets. For dinner you save 2.8 pounds and for breakfast 2.0 pounds of emissions.

Those 2.5 pounds of emissions at lunch are about forty percent of the greenhouse gas emissions you’d save driving around for the day in a hybrid instead of a standard sedan.

If you have a PB&J instead of a red-meat lunch like a ham sandwich or a hamburger, you shrink your carbon footprint by almost 3.5 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.

Pretty impressive! And it tastes great too! In fairness, it’s really not just PB&J sandwiches that will make a different.

Any plant-based meal you eat instead of something based on meat, fish, eggs, or dairy products can have a big impact.

But wait! There’s more!

You’ll conserve water at lunch too! How about 133 gallons of water conserved at lunch versus the average American lunch? To put this in perspective, five PB&Js or other plant-based lunches per month would save more water than switching to a low-flow showerhead. If you’re replacing hamburgers, it should take you just three lunches to conserve more water than the low-flow showerhead.

Still not satisfied? There’s more still!

Don’t forget the land you save from deforestation, over-grazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution: about 24 square feet at lunch.

I’m happy to help out. I’ll do my part to fight global warming. Eat more chicken PB&J’s!*

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*This does not mean that I will completely give up hamburgers and other animal-based meals. I simply can’t cut out delicious, fresh-off-the-barbecue grill hamburgers… or steaks… or porkchops… or marinated chicken… mmmmmmmmm, grilled marinated chicken… (drooling)