I am Poop John the First of the Church of the Holy Shitters. I am the founder and creator of the Church of the Holy Shitters. I realize these are tongue-in-cheek statements but they come with serious messages within. I just like to laugh and entertain a little bit along the way. It helps me to stay hopeful and when you spend as much time reading about the environment as I do that's important.
As a Holy Shitter I believe life is a never ending natural cycle. Stated in the simplest of terms I eat/shit, eat/shit, and eat/shit repeatedly throughout my life. I call it the Shitloop Cycle. There are many other cycles such as birth/death, asleep/awake but we Shitters are most concerned with the eat/shit natural cycle.
We eat to provide our bodies with energy. As we digest our food to extract the energy we use, we end up with feces that must be expelled in the act of defecation. Although our bodies cannot use this fecal material it is returned to the Earth and is useful to other organisms as their food. These shit-eating organisms transform the crap back into useful stuff for us to use again. Thus completes the eat/shit cycle.
The teachings of the Church of the Holy Shitters demand we look at things in an ass-forward way. What does “looking at things ass-forward” actually mean? Well it means looking at things from the waste end perspective. We believe that if we look at things from the tail end of things it will shed light on subjects that up to now have been in the dark.
We also believe in practicing Soft and Fluffy Consumerism. Soft and Fluffy Consumerism is an ass-forward state of being for Holy Shitters. As a Soft and Fluffy consumer we strive to be soft on our environment. We contemplate fully the consumption of every product with an eye on minimizing its drain on energy reserves and reducing its negative impact on our environment. In a sense the world eats (consumption) and shits (pollution and waste) in one big Eat/Shit Shitloop Cycle.
With these tenets of our religion in mind let's take a look at our meat consumption in an ass-forward waste-end first way. First, here are a few facts.
People eat about 250,000,000 tons of meat annually worldwide.
The amount of meat people are eating is growing by about five million tons per year.
Meat production is projected to double by 2020 due to increased incomes, population growth, and rising per capita global consumption of meat.
We devote a quarter of the global land surface to livestock production, we feed them 45% of the world’s grain, while they provide just 17% of human energy intake. (UNFAO, 2011)
Large swaths of the Brazilian Amazon are being bulldozed and burned to accommodate expanding cattle ranches. Deforestation is largely resulting from cattle ranching driven by economic incentives and demand for Brazilian beef, according to the Center for International Forestry Research.
American's worldwide rank in meat consumption by category is as follows:
Poultry: 2
Beef and Veal: 3
Pork: 17
Livestock produces methane.
Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas and oil. Emissions also result from the decomposition of livestock manure and the organic components in agro-industrial wastewater.
Methane offers a unique opportunity to mitigate climate change and simultaneously increase available energy supply. However, without more stringent measures to reduce sources, methane emissions are expected to increase.
Methane (CH4) is a potent and abundant greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO2), accounting for 14 percent of global emissions. Methane is considered a “short-term climate forcer,” meaning that it has a relatively short lifespan in the atmosphere, approximately 12 years. While methane is in the atmosphere for a shorter period of time and is emitted in smaller quantities than CO2, its ability to trap heat in the atmosphere, which is called its “global warming potential,” is 21 times greater than that of CO2. As a result, methane emissions currently contribute more than one-third of today's anthropogenic (human caused) warming. An enhanced global focus on methane is critical to an effective international response to the threat of climate change.
A substantial reduction in mathane would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change away from animal products .(UNEP. 2010 p82)
And I might just mention here the many health risks associated with the consumption of meat.
So an ass-forward waste-end first look at eating meat leads one to conclude that we should strive to eat less meat or none at all for the good of ourselves and the planet.
Eat less!
The Church of the Holy Shitters will post articles on our holy S.H.I.T. day ( So Happy It's Thursday)
Last week: 3/6/14 - Is Stupidity Winning the Climate Change Argument?
Next week: 3/20/14 - Ten Thoughts on "Human Nature"
Hoping to add some humor, provoke thought, spark debate, deepen understanding, and shed some light on the fecal side.
Remember: "If we really want to straighten out all this crap we really need to think about shit." ( Shitbit by Poop John the First of the Church of the Holy Shitters)
Church of the Holy Shitters
A secular environmental religion, scientifically based, with a focus on the psychology of it all. Our ego is the culprit when it comes to dealing with climate change. We cannot save the planet. We can only save ourselves. Our current egotistical self-perception makes that prospect a dubious one at best. Meekness, humility and a realization that our shit does stink, guides us on our path to true sustainable living and climate equilibrium.
Cross posted at http://holyshitters.com/
3:51 PM PT: Update: I'm away at work until about 9pm PST. I'll return to look at all comments later. Thanks.
9:39 PM PT: I'm back.