Lord Stern, author of The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change which was published on October 30 2006 is the I. G. Patel Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and former World Bank Chief Economist. He’s to be taken seriously and people are likely to listen to what he said in this interview with The Times of London: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”  

 

This is not your mother talking here telling you to eat your vegies, this is someone with a high degree of credibility and respect telling you to only eat vegies.

 

Lord Stern gave US President Obama a warning worthy of his name: the US President must attend Copenhagen in person or the deal won’t happen. Does that mean he has no faith in our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd? Mr Rudd has been beating the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme drum loudly and he is one of three leaders chosen by Danish Prime Minister, Lars Rasmussen, to be friends of the chair. The others are United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, and the Mexican President, Felipe Calderon. So we have a chair and three friends. Does that make them tables or cushions?

 

Now Lord Stern has some troubles with the rest of us. He thinks popular opinion has “so far failed to grasp the scale of the changes needed to address climate change or the importance of the UN meeting in Copenhagen from December 7 to December 18”. But has he spoken to any of the officials?

 

There have been talks for the past two years and midway through the Bangkok Climate Change talks from 28 September to 9 October United Nations Framework on Climate Change Convention Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, said: Solid progress has been made already in some key areas of a global agreement, such as adaptation, technology and capacity-building in developing countries. However, there is lack of clarity on two issues that are key to success in Copenhagen: rich nation emission reduction targets and financial support for climate change action in developing countries.

 

It has been reported that Mr Rasmussen gave a recent speech in which he was pessimistic about Copenhagen.

 

Australian farmers are staring down the barrel of the Emissions Trading Scheme and wondering how much it will increase the cost of producing the food we eat.

The introduction of an ETS has been likened to lifting the GST by 25 per cent. Farmers will pay for more inputs – electricity, fertiliser, packaging and equipment. Everyone in the supply chain will have higher costs.

Some people choose not to eat meat for religious or dietary reasons but Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) says Australians eat an average of 460 grams of red meat a week. MLA research, The Role of Red Meat in Healthy Australian Diets, is the work of 16 Australian public health and nutrition experts which was peer reviewed by an independent editorial committee, convened by MLA. It was published in Nutrition & Dietetics in, September 2007.

It said that Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend lean red meat be eaten three to four times a week as part of a healthy balanced diet. Red meat is high in protein and a source of essential nutrients including iron, zinc, vitamin B12 and long chain omega-3s. The guidelines recommend women eat approximately 100g and men eat 125g of lean red meat, 3-4 times per week. Two lamb chops or 2-3 slices of roast beef equals around 100g.

Kevin Rudd had apparently given up red meat when he yelled at a flight attendant over the incorrect meal. Now he’s like the duck in the Hans Christian Andersen tale who sat on the big egg that would not break. Even though it was bigger and uglier than anything else in the nest, it eventually did crack and a really ugly bird appeared. Of course that bird turned out to be a beautiful swan. Mr Rudd will be wishing he is so lucky with the talks in Copenhagen.