A Year in Ideas 2008: “Eat Kangaroos to Fight Global Warming”
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Saving kangaroos or stopping global warming?
Global warming is a serious issue that is affecting the entire world. Global warming is beginning to force changes in everyday lifestyles of people around the world. Many people have been attempting to come up with solutions for this ever growing issue. One knew idea that is represented in the NY Times “Year In Ideas” for 2008 is called “Eat Kangaroos to Fight Global Warming.” I know how this may sound. And you are probably wondering, how can eating kangaroos stop global warming? Well this article actually has a deceiving title. It actually promotes the growth of the kangaroo population due to the fact that they can help stop global warming. This article is tells people to let the population of kangaroos grown along with replacing the consumption of cows with kangaroos. So although it is encouraging people to eat kangaroos, it is encouraging their growth in population more than anything else.
This article was interesting to me because as someone who is interested in global warming, and is strongly against animal cruelty, it brought up some interesting controversy. This idea although suggesting growing the population of kangaroos is also telling people to eat them. But that is solely based on the fact that kangaroos do not produce methane. Many animals produce methane, which is one of the gasses that are causing environmental problems. But because kangaroos do not produce this gas they are ideal for “mass production” and consumption. If we were able to replace most cattle with kangaroos then we could potentially cut down our percentage of greenhouse gasses. By consuming kangaroos, humans would be letting out less greenhouse emissions than they do today.
But that is where the animal cruelty comes into play. Being that I, among many others, don’t agree with the consumption of any kind of animal, it is hard to contemplate the entire world eating kangaroos like they eat cows. The idea of raising these animals just to be killed off is not one that many people take lightly. I wonder if there was any way to just mass produce kangaroos to fight global warming without but consumption. Although, if it was necessary to take this step towards making our world last I think I would be up for it, would you?
Photo Credit: Barryspics, Aaron Escobar
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