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George Monbiot Profile picture
@GeorgeMonbiot
Aug 9, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
Here's my article on why both the climate and ecological emergencies demand an urgent switch to a plant-based diet: theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
And here's the argument I had with a beef farmers on plant vs animal diets, on Channel 4 news last night: channel4.com/news/george-mo…
When you see figures like this, you wonder what there is left to discuss. The land and water demand and greenhouse gas emissions of animal protein production are so much greater than those of plant protein that these debates are really just a matter of science vs shouting
Link here: wri.org/resources/char…
PS, there have been quite a few comments about the bodies of the contributors on last night's Channel 4 debate. Please stay kind, and stick to the science. Thanks.
People tell me "the real problem isn't diet, it's population."
Human population growth does of course contribute to the ecological disasters caused by farming.
BUT: Human pop growth is 1.2%
Livestock pop growth is 2.4%
That's the real population crisis
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
By 2050 the world’s living systems will have to support about 120m tonnes of extra humans, and 400m tonnes of extra farm animals. The switch to meat eating as people become richer is an ecological catastrophe.

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More from @GeorgeMonbiot

George Monbiot Profile picture
Oct 28
1. Trump’s preposterous claim that a “savage Venezuelan prison gang” has “taken over Times Square” is a reminder that people like him actually know nothing about the world, because they never step out of their suites and chauffered cars, offices and private planes.🧵
2. The ruling class doesn’t do its own shopping, or wander around town, or use public transport, or walk into an ordinary café or bar, or join a queue or wait for anything.
3. They are totally reliant on other people – or their own lurid imaginations – to tell them what the world outside their air-conditioned bubble is like. And they appear to imagine a festering pit of humanity. Everyone outside the bubble is perceived as a threat.
Read 4 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
Oct 24
This is an important issue, constantly misunderstood. So here's a short thread about "marginality" and capital.
1. Land that's "marginal" for agriculture is often central for wildlife - and for the people who live there. ....🧵
2. There are not 6.4m ha of "marginal" land in the UK on which machinery can work. The “margin” is always in the eye of the beholder. But in this case it doesn’t actually exist.
3. “Core” and “margin” are key constructs of capital. The “margin” is the exploitable sacrifice zone, kept out of the sight and minds of consumers. The “margin” is other people’s heartland.
Read 7 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
Oct 21
1. Abuse and harassment are never acceptable. But this is not the first time I’ve seen an emphasis on abuse and harassment shielding bad science. This is a short thread on how it works.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
2. It happened with climate science deniers a lot. In the 2000s, they would claim to have received abuse and threats, and almost invariably get national news coverage. Sometimes they would produce no evidence of such threats. They were just taken at their word.
3. They used this story to deflect attention from their poor methodology and portray themselves as victims, standing up for science against an intolerant mob. A similar thing appears to have happened with the bad science surrounding ME/CFS.
Read 9 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
Oct 18
This story is one of the most disturbing I've ever covered. It's about how the views of a deeply weird ideological sect affected science, medicine and the media, with devastating impacts on patients. Please read and pass on. This horror has to stop. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
I see my own profession, the media, as being as culpable as any. How did we allow a bizarre sect, with a phenomenally cruel and brutal agenda, to set the prevailing view of this and other issues?
And it was right across the board: just about every major outlet in the UK.
Here's some background to this story, which is, frankly, even weirder than the contents of today's article. 21 years on, I still ask myself, wtf is going on? monbiot.com/2003/12/09/inv…
Read 8 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
Oct 11
When you dig into the hidden detail of the government's carbon capture and storage programme, the sheer scale of fiscal and environmental irresponsibility is hard to comprehend. We could be on the hook for £50 billion, with zero benefit. My column. 🧵 theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
It turns out that Labour has simply copy and pasted Tory policy, without any modifications. But the purpose of Tory policy was to provide huge, ongoing and open-ended contracts for the fossil fuel industry, not to cut emissions.
It will *raise* greenhouse gas emissions.
Astonishingly, state liability is uncapped. That £21.7 billion is just part of the price tag, and the government has no plan or idea how to limit the costs. They WILL escalate, and massively.
Read 6 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
Oct 7
1. Could we stop saying "natural gas"? It sounds almost wholesome, but it's one of the most potent drivers of climate breakdown. The term is
a. meaningless
b. fails to properly to distinguish it from other sources.
The obvious alternative is "fossil gas" or fossil methane".
🧵
2. Yes, I know the term was coined to provide a contrast with syn gas/town gas, but extracting gas from geological strata is neither more nor less “natural” than cooking it up. As Raymond Williams noted, “nature is perhaps the most complex word in the language”.
3. "Nature" and "natural" mean everything and nothing. They are generally attached to things we like, while those we don't are described as "unnatural", "artificial" or "synthetic". These are not innate qualities, but human constructs.
Read 6 tweets

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