This kid I know asks if he could save polar bears by not eating beef?

Question

I am sure the question came from the fact that on a per pound basis, Methane does more to promote global warming than Carbon dioxide.

Answer 1

There's no need to worry about polar bears, there are far more of them today than 20 years ago and they're no longer an endangered species. In fact, their population is increasing and the main loss to bears is from hunting, not from global warming. The bears where it is still the coldest have the highest mortality rate and in warmer areas they're doing as well as they did during the last interglacial period when it was much warmer than it is today.

There is a lot of hype about this topic since polar bear cubs looks so cute and it's easy to gain sympathy for their "plight" but there is no threat to them.

If you truly believe in global warming caused by humans, then it would be hypocritical of you to eat beef since doing so only leads to raising more cattle which produce more methane. Methane is several times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2. Personally, I'm a skeptic who likes steak so my diet won't change as a result of this.

Answer 2

How come the lie persists?  Polar bears are also omniferous = they WILL eat plants and berries when they on the tundra (land).

http://ths.sps.lane.edu/biomes/tundra3/t...

"Another animal in the tundra would be the polar bear. They belong to the group of mammals called the carnivore. They love to eat fresh meat, such as salmon, seals, and birds. They will also eat berries and eggs. They can smell their food even when it is 20 miles away. After eating 90 pounds of food a day, they can still be hungry."

How heavy is this kid?  90 lbs?  Maybe he could feed a bear and Save a seal?!?

Seals are SO Much Cuter than vicious, fearless bears!

Answer 3

Yes, I believe in the same thing.

Answer 4

You can save the polar bear by eating less polar bear.

They're a little chewy, but great with BBQ sauce.

Answer 5

tell the kid "do u think we can save polar bears if u have more or less siblings".that kid is weird.if everyone don't eat beef than we have too many CO2 then....

Answer 6

Tel him yes it helps.

Beef uses and destroys much land ,that not has many trees on it.

one acre can support,in some places, only half a cow

and one can grow a lot of food on one acre.

Answer 7

Tell the kid to turn his tv to the finance channel.  He'll hear the analysts constantly talking about the fight between the bulls and the bears.  To help the bears, he should devour more beef (not less).  Victory through superior numbers!

;)

Answer 8

its not just beef. ideally we should all become hippy vegans but cutting down on meat in general would be a good start.

methane is about 25x more potent over 100 years then CO2 but it degrades into CO2 very quickly (about 9 years).

PS just for the record pops have not been increasing, only a few small sub populations have been increasing because they are no longer hunted. polar bears are also well adapted to the cold and have no prolbem with cold weather but they only feed on the pack ice over the winter so if there is less ice then bears may find it harder to hunt.

http://pbsg.npolar.no/pop-maps.htm

edit rick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bears...

Answer 9

He is in a paradox

If he (and everyone else in the world) ate more beef the cow production would increase and therefore the methane would increase, but at the same time they would live shorter lives and have less time to produce methane.

on the other hand if he stops the cow production would stop and there would be less cows but  the cows will live longer and they will produce more methane over the course of their lives, and therefore further global warming.