"Eat whale and save the planet"

[Teamcasa]

OSLO (Reuters) - Eat a whale and save the planet, a Norwegian pro-whaling lobby said on Monday of a study showing that harpooning the giant mammals is less damaging to the climate than farming livestock.

LINK to article

Are they serious????

 

[drbill]

Quite possibly given the parameters they use to measure environmental impacts from food gathering. I'm sure a case could be made given the serious impact of cattle ranching on the environment in terms of land type conversion, use of crops to fatten cattle, and the impacts of the cattle themselves.

Of course I'd still choose cattle over whales on other criteria.

 

[stillhope]

Judging from the article it's a typical case of looking at only a single variable, in this case carbon footprint -- usually such tunnel-vision studies are funded by special interest groups. National Science Foundation, for example, would be unlikely to fund such a poorly designed study.

But I think it is generally thought that eating higher in the food web costs more environmentally, and reducing our average meat consumption is a good idea.

 

[DavidPT40]

I was going to post it as a joke, but I began thinking; eating a big bowl of (zoo)plankton each morning instead of milk and cereal would actually be pretty nutritious.

 

[BlueReef]

Do I eat meat? - Yes
Do I feel guilty? - Yes
Will I stop eating meat? - No
Why? - Animals eat each other - it's natural.
Would I ever eat whale? - No (love them too much). See below:-

There has been various natter about putting various endangered species on the menu. Could this work? Well, 'farming' endangered animals would boost their numbers, however they would likely then be in a 'protected'/false environment and hense likely still keep their endangered rating. With whales, you just can't enclose them, and no one is going to be able to (or willing to) single handedly fund a farming project and protect them till they recovered their natural abundance (even if such a company/country could reserve sole hunting rights).

Even if they recovered well above natural abundance numbers, just how can a whale of all creatures be killed humanely?? Ever seen the footage of the pod of Orcas raking a blue whale? It's not 'nice' (but is natural)!

As for farming the oceans - who's gonna be in control? Just look at the story of the Cod!

No I think these majestic creatures should be left alone, and also the number of ships on the ocean should be reduced.

In my view there is far too much focus on business these days, rather than community. On my travels I love seeing villages and families each with their small holdings, but to be honest, they are the ones with shorter lifespans, worse healthcare etc. - but they're still just as happy, if not happier. Go figure.

 

[scubadale]

Maybe the cows have changed their target from chickens to whales?

http://www.planetwayne.com/albums/Funnies/eat_more_chicken.sized.jpg

 

[wardric]

Do I eat meat? - Yes
Do I feel guilty? - not at all
Will I stop eating meat? - No
Why? - Animals eat each other - it's natural.
Would I ever eat whale? - well, not a whole one. I dont eat that much. But I could, if I had to or if the specy was not an endangered one. Then again, the taste would be a factor to determine if I would put it on my regular menu.

 

[Tom Winters]

If you ever looked at a nice big bowl of plankton on a rolling ship, you would not be all that thrilled with it. And if you were not feeling all that well that morning due to the seas, well, you would trade all that you own in this life for a bullet in the back of the head, especially after I started wolfing it down with gusto.
It is for people prone to things like this that would make a bowl of plankton at sea not only edible, but the finest food I had ever eaten no matter how revolting I was actually finding it to be.
Now all shipboard torture-of-the-terminally-seasick aside, move up a notch on the food chain and have a bowl of krill doused with sriracha. Some fine eating rarely enjoyed by humankind.

 

[rptyd]

May a gigantic cetacean ruin their day!