Move over college cranks. There’s a new crop of Grinches trying to ruin Thanksgiving—environmentalists.
Forget the threat to our waistlines. Thanksgiving dinner could pose a threat of global proportions, according to some recent headlines. HuffPost, for example, urges readers to consider the effect on the environment of our turkey dinners because a single 16-pound turkey creates a total of 34.2 pounds of CO2. Consider eating celery and asparagus, instead, since they only produce around 7 pounds of CO2 per pound. Better still, squash and pumpkin only generate about 0.10 pound of CO2 per pound. Likewise, Time wonders if Americans will ever forgo meat on Thanksgiving to lessen the effects of climate change.
For starters, I’m grateful to live in a country that’s so prosperous we actually have time to entertain such questions instead of scrounging for our next meal. I’m also grateful that we have the freedom to choose what we eat—without anyone imposing their preferences on us or onto our dinner tables.
Want Torfurkey? Help yourself. Just don’t expect me to gobble it up. So instead of the extra helping of alarmism too many folks seem to be dishing out this holiday season, here are some environmental facts worth celebrating compiled by The Heartland Institute:
- Vegetation growth across the earth has increased over the past 30 years.
- Cows represent as little as 2 percent of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions.
- Colder weather kills 20 times more people than warmer weather.
- Life expectancy has increased.
Instead of trying to scare the stuffing out of people, we should engage in an honest discussion about the environment. So this Thanksgiving let’s toss the hysteria and discredited predictions into the recycling bin—not our turkey dinners.