Maher Asks Edwards If He'll "Go After The Meat" To Combat Global Warming

In this video, Bill Maher asks, "Senator Edwards, you've suggested that Americans should give up their SUVs for the sake of the environment, but a recent UN study found that deforestation for the purpose of creating grazing land for cattle and methane emissions from cattle generated more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars and planes in the world, so it's not just the SUVs, it's the C-O-W-S. Taking a shot at SUVs was gutsy. Do you want to take a shot at meat?"

Watch the video below.

See the Candidate Mashup here.

Comments

[MissFortunate]

The smart thing to do is to not only tie eating meat to the enviroment but to health care. WE should be encouraging Americans to cut down on eating meat for health reasons. You are not going to get people to STOP eating it, I don't think that's realistic right now, but certainly cutting it by a good 50% would have a dent on the industry.

But then people shout, all those jobs. Jobs will be lost, we need someone who can deal with this transitions and assure people that jobs won't get lost and that changes can still happen responsibly.

[shaggles]

This is a real dilema. I'm not a vegetarian but I don't eat beef or pork. It's not practicle to expect everyone to stop eating meat but cutting back would be good all around. If we did all stop eating meat though what would happen to all the cows? Are we going to slaughter them all and have a big barbeque and then no more meat? Maybe that would work. People would eat so much they'd never want to see meat again.

[curmudgeon3]

CLARIFICATION --

My preceding comment (10:07 am on 09/14/2007) was intended to be directed toward someone identifying themselves as "totalliberal", who responded (03:57 am on 09/14/2007)to my initial posting (02:05 am on 09/14/07).

[curmudgeon3]

I do hope that your reply was tongue in cheek.

If humans were designed to be carnivores, they would have much shorter digestive tracts and would be capable of eating raw meat, without the benefit of knives, forks, etc. Which carnivorous animals first process and cook their prey before eating it? Do you or any of your friends eat dead animals without the benefit of tools or cooking?

The primary global warming impact is that of the enormous numbers of animals grown primarily for consumption by humans and other animals. Under naturally occurring conditions, there would be far fewer cattle, hogs, etc. than is currently the case, with far less impact on global warming, AND there would be far more plant life to balance out those impacts.

If the world adopted a plant-based diet, for every twenty acres under the plow, nineteen could be returned to its natural state. In the bargain, we would preserve a maximum degree of diversity for both plants and animals, which overall, and in the long run, would be healthy for the planet. The world seemed to survive quite nicely before humans came onto the scene.

Very few people bother to actually perform their own research on such matters, preferring instead to let Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, et al do their thinking for them. If they did, they'd discover that the meat industry is very heavily subsidized, and that if it wasn't, prices would be much higher. They would discover that one pound of beef requires anywhere from 2500 to 5000 gallons of water to produce, and that a gallon of gasoline is consumed for every pound of beef.

If you'd like to do a little homework, the following article provides a brief summary of the U.N. report that I believe Mahar was referring to: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html

I trust you also read the article referenced in my previous posting.

Rather than tossing out a flip one-liner, perhaps you could do a little reading yourself, and contribute to some reasoned discussion of the issues.

[h20bird]

I'm so disappointed by his response. This is not a debatable question. As a nation we eat too much meat and everyone and everything is paying too high a price for it. The same people who stridently defend their Hummers are the people who call vegetarians and vegans lunatics. It's almost funny to watch them get so defensive.

[kittycago]

I do not drive a hummer I have had a 4 cylinder car since the gas shortage in the 70's.I also do not eat alot of beef quite frankly because I do not like it that much.I do not feel as though any vegan,hybrid driver or anyone else for that matter has moral high ground over me.Quite frankly if you are a vegan but drink bottled water, use juice boxes for your kids instead of a thermos and do not recycle garbage where you live your a far bigger problem than any person that eats meat.There is a lot of room for us all to improve in our nation and it will not be done by finger pointing.
If you live in a state or an apartment/condo complex where they do not recycle demand they implement it by law.If you send your kids to school with throw away boxes instead of rinsing out a thermos ,stop it.Use wax paper instead of plastic to wrap lunches.It is the collect little things we can do as a nation that will make a difference.Change every bulb in your home from incandesent to halogen.This finger pointing is getting us nowhere fast.

[drhammer]

While I think "taking on meat" is a tad tongue-in-cheek, I know we need to modify every behavior that degrades our planet.

But in the shorter term, I don't think any environmental problem threatens our security more than our addiction to oil.

We have yet to occupy another sovereign nation for its beef.

[BlueGeneralist]

Mahr is funny in the same vein as Don Rickles, taking his stabs at the candidates with a flourish that leaves me with ripples in my gut. I personally find that the global warming crisis should deserve a serious place in the political debate and not rendered obsolescent by wingut deniars or cheap lampooning for a quick adrenalin rush. Our democratic candidates are less beholden to the real culprits(oil companies and their legions of neocons in the White House), for the lack of action in this crisis that threatens the very existence of life as we know it including cows and bullshit.

[edva]

It's pathetic that so few people know or care about the inhumane, needless, greed-driven mistreatment of billions of sentient beings by the meat industry. Whether or not we were meat eaters in the past, there are very good reasons not to be now. There is no inherent human "right" to eat meat - we do it because we have power over captive animals, and because it gives us pleasure. However, those reasons are morally and ethically insufficient to justify the terrible amount of suffering now being inflicted upon ever-increasing numbers of living, breathing creatures, in addition to the damage to the planet's environment.
How selfish and stupid are we?

[curmudgeon3]

For those of you who consume animal products, the very least you can do is learn a little about the lives (and deaths) of creatures whose brief existence occurs solely for your gastronomical delight. You owe it to yourself to see "Meet Your Meat",which can be found one the following webpage: http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming.asp

Methane has 21 times the potency of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide has 296 times.

For a politician to make any statement even vaguely advocating a reduction of animal products in our diets would be political suicide. Many powerful industries and their lobbies, along with their MSM mouthpieces, would seek to immediately destroy anyone who might dare to hint at such a "heresy."

Citizens of this country would rather die a slow, horrible death than to reduce or eliminate their intake of meat, eggs and/or dairy products, although consuming such food items increases the likelihood that such a death will occur at an earlier age.

Most people in this country are unwilling to make even the slightest sacrifice to provide future generations anything remotely resembling the advantages that had been bequeathed to us by earlier generations who were not afraid to curtail at least some of their greed for the benefit of posterity.

Barring a miraculous reversal of course, our generation will be known decades from now as the "Generation that had the chance to save the world and instead ensured its destruction."

Let us hope that there is no such thing as true justice in the hereafter.

[curmudgeon3]

For those of you who consume animal products, the very least you can do is learn a little about the lives (and deaths) of creatures whose brief existence occurs solely for your gastronomical delight. You owe it to yourself to see "Meet Your Meat",which can be found one the following webpage: http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming.asp

Methane has 21 times the potency of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide has 296 times.

For a politician to make any statement even vaguely advocating a reduction of animal products in our diets would be political suicide. Many powerful industries and their lobbies, along with their MSM mouthpieces, would seek to immediately destroy anyone who might dare to hint at such a "heresy."

Citizens of this country would rather die a slow, horrible death than to reduce or eliminate their intake of meat, eggs and/or dairy products, although consuming such food items increases the likelihood that such a death will occur at an earlier age.

Most people in this country are unwilling to make even the slightest sacrifice to provide future generations anything remotely resembling the advantages that had been bequeathed to us by earlier generations who were not afraid to curtail at least some of their greed for the benefit of posterity.

Barring a miraculous reversal of course, our generation will be known decades from now as the "Generation that had the chance to save the world and instead ensured its destruction."

Let us hope that there is no such thing as true justice in the hereafter.

[totalliberal]

So what you are insinuating is that we should kill all animals?

Ummm.

[nasking]

I find it disturbing that so many people are addicted to killing...or find it easy to look the other way as animals are enslaved & murdered by others to fill their plates & stomachs. It's not surprising we find ourselves on the brink of another World War...killing &/or turning a blind eye just comes too easily to most Humans.

N'

[Will7]

Edwards is a fraud, a charlatan and a snakeoil salesman.

- He calls for higher taxes, yet incorporates himself personally to evade Medicare taxes on his earnings.

- He calls for energy conservation while living in a 28,000 sf compound.

- He gives speeches on poverty - at $55,000 a pop.

- He decries hedge funds, yet made $500,000 last year working for one.

- He decries sub-prime lenders, but has invested $16 million of his own wealth in a company that is foreclosing on 34 Katrina victims as we speak.

And we're supposed to believe anything this prettyboy hustler has to say? Please.

[totalliberal]

So you're a Communist, right.

[MissFortunate]

Higher taxes for people making over $200,000 a year. And why would he not be a corporation?

It's not a house anymoer, it's a compound, wow, And you don't cite the fact that they've done everything possible to make it environmentally friendly. No.

Lots of politicians give speeches and get paid for them. Rudy has made 60 mil on the fact that he was mayor of New York on 9/11. The speech thing is old and it proves nothing.

He did not decry hedgefunds.

He did decry sub-prime lenders. You leave out the charity he is setting up to help those homeowners keep their houses and his own money he used to start the fund?

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118973017623027209-SelnNhrGGCv89_lnCiy3XTGHNAc_20071013.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

You are a hypocrit for posting only the parts you want to know rather than the whole picture.

[smartstuart]

Another stupid question by Maher in a cheap attempt to get a laugh. Does Maher have naked pix of Arianna, or what. Like horseshit, he's everywhere with mundane low-brow crapola! Bill...Stick to "NEW RULES" ...and take a few days off of Huffpo....your schtick is boring! Take a powder!!! Please! You're "geting old" quickly!!!!!

[greencowgirl]

The Dutch are working on perfecting the use of stem cells to produce specific cuts of meat in laboratory conditions. Filets in a petri dish. Yumm. Other science is addressing livestock produced methane by creating new feed sources that are more efficiently digested thus reducing the greenhouse gas that adds to global warming. Now if we could only figure out how to get knuckle-dragging repugs to stop reproducing, most of the world's problems would be solved.

[BushisDumb]

There is no reason we need to live our extravagent lifestyle. Edwards is right, we could all live more modestly.

[libertron]

Starting with him moving from his mansion to a modest 3 bedroom apartment? Somehow I doubt it. You're calling someone else dumb?