Paul McCartney has a beef with world climate talks

Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney has a beef with world leaders’ efforts to battle global warming, but the vegetarian’s solution—eat less meat—was not to everyone’s taste as he joined a debate at the European Parliament on Thursday.

Ahead of global talks on climate change starting in Copenhagen on Monday, the 67-year-old took his international campaign for ‘Meatless Mondays’ to Brussels—hoarse from the start of his first major live tour in five years in the historic Beatles haunt of Hamburg, Germany.

McCartney was joined by Rajendra K. Pachauri, chair of the joint 2007 Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the pair issued a declaration alongside the parliament calling for a political step change.

They called on governments worldwide “to adjust their agriculture, development, environment and public health policies to reflect the role of livestock production in climate change.”

The music legend cited a 2006 United Nations report which said livestock production is responsible for more harmful emissions—18 percent of the total—than the entire transport sector, on 13 percent.

“I would be glad if this weren’t true, and we could just carry on as we are forever quite happily and not bother with this whole subject,” he said.

“But I’ve got a nasty feeling that this is true.”  Read Article

By Roddy Thomson