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« Trunk Show | Main | The YouTube Impact » May 3, 2007You Can Always Blame AmericaThe United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change doesn't explicitly say so, but it has identified another way that America contributes to global warming: Rice. And I don't mean Condoleeza. Glenn Reynolds points to a report that the growing of rice is a big contributor to global warming because rice paddies produce large amounts of methane, which is 23 times more potent a "greenhouse gas" than carbon dioxide emissions from autos and industrial plants. In fact, the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting this week in Bangkok concludes that rice production was a main cause of rising methane emissions in the 20th century. It calls for better controls."There is no other crop that is emitting such a large amount of greenhouse gases," said Reiner Wassmann, a climate change specialist at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.Says Glenn: "This is depressingly free of anti-American potential, but I'm sure something can be done." No so fast, Glenn. America is a big contributor to rice-based global warming... A look at the list of top rice-consuming nations quickly reveals that the United States is the third-largest consumer of rice among non-Asian nations - and second-largest consumer of rice on the list if you exclude both Asian nations and India, a major producer and consumer of basmati rice. (India and China combined produce about half the world's rice, though it is grown in more than 120 countries, including in the United States.) Rice has for thousands of years been a staple of Asian culture and the Asian diet, and of the diet and culture of India, so their consumption of large quantities of rice today is culturally correct and acceptable. But the consumption of rice in non-Asian nations - driven, no doubt, by American-style pro-rice advertising that itself is fueled by corporate greed for profits that cares not a whit about cultural or environmental sensitivity - can not be defended. According to the United States Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, American consumption of rice nearly doubled from 1992 through 2002, with total consumption currently rising 2-3 percent a year, well ahead of population growth. One reason for that: Americans love beer. According to the USDA, American per capita rice consumption - including rice used in beer - has risen sharply over the past 25 years. America is one of the world's 13 largest per-capita consumers of beer - driven, no doubt, by beer advertising that itself is fueled by corporate greed for profits that cares not a whit about how beer consumption contributes to global warming via methane emissions from rice paddies. Meanwhile, as far back as the mid-1990s, population growth in Asia was rising faster than rice production. China, despite its fast growing population, actually consumes less rice now than it did four years ago. American is a big consumer of rice, including in beer. Our voracious demand for rice drives up production of this planet-threatening crop. If America would agree to a cap on its rice consumption, including in beer, and then agree to roll back rice consumption to 1990 levels, other non-Asian nations would follow suit and global rice production could level off. This new global Rice Accord would, of course, exempt China, India and all other Asian nations where rice is part of the local culture and diet and has been for thousands of years. Next time you're at a steakhouse and can't decide between mashed potatoes or rice as one of your side dishes, skip the rice, go with the potatoes, and help save the planet. And skip the steak while you're at it because cow farts are a bigger cause of global warming than vehicle emissions. Just order a big bowl of green beans - the "green" menu choice. Remember: No rice caps, no ice caps! Update: The California Rice Commission says rice straw may be a good source for making ethanol. If America's demand for ethanol to replace gasoline made from fossil fuels spurs rice production, it will be yet another case of America contributing to global warming because of its insatiable demand for fuel for its SUVs. Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! To all readers: If you post a comment below, please also post it over at the Ecotality blog, where I posted this same article. Posted in Environmentalism
Comments
Not so fast Bill. The alcohol industry helps global warming a lot with population control: LINK By killing 17,000 Americans every year with their products, they remove countless numbers of SUV's from our roads (and permanently end their insatiable demand for gasoline AND rice). Think of them as rice offsets. Posted by: Eric Holcombe at May 3, 2007 7:58 AMNot so fast! Alcohol also contributes to unplanned pregnancies, which increases the population, and those babies consume a lot of rice even as babies, then grow up to be rice-eating, steak-eating, SUV-driving global warming machines. Posted by: Bill Hobbs at May 3, 2007 8:04 AMI got it. We're eeevvviiillll. Reminds me of Otter in Animal House: "I've got news for you, pal. They're Posted by: Reid at May 3, 2007 8:07 AM But if cow farts contribute to global warming, maybe we should eat more beef so there are fewer cows left farting... I'm so confused... Posted by: Thomas Pfau at May 3, 2007 8:17 AMThis reminds me of the old Allen Sherman parody called "The Drinking Man's Diet." For breakfast there's corn flakes and vodka, Wow. I agreed with Glenn Reynolds, at first, but now I see that America truly is to blame for global warming caused by rice. I'll bet President Bush eats a lot of rice when he attends Bohemian gatherings on the way to the Skull & Bones conferences where they burn money in large smokestacks. Now, I get it. Posted by: DeepForestGreen at May 3, 2007 8:56 AMThere's a fair amount of rice grown in California. I wonder, will the state now try to ban rice growing there? Posted by: Blacque Jacques Shellacque at May 3, 2007 9:11 AMlol Posted by: Jimmy at May 3, 2007 9:28 AM"- and second-largest consumer of rice on the list if you exclude both Asian nations and India, a major producer and consumer of basmati rice." You don't regard India to be an Asian nation? Posted by: R DeWitt at May 3, 2007 9:51 AM...the United States is the...second-largest consumer of rice on the list if you exclude both Asian nations and India... So...India isn't in Asia anymore? When did that happen? Whenever it was, I'm sure global warming is to blame. And, of course, Bush. Posted by: Angie Schultz at May 3, 2007 10:01 AMI'm not sure, but I seem to recall that methane is produced when the paddies are flooded. The flooding is a pest control measure and is not necessary for rice growth. It may be possible to grow rice without methane emissions, assuming the replacement pest controls are environmentally acceptable. Posted by: Rick Skeean at May 3, 2007 10:11 AMIndia of course is a subcontinent of central Asia. People don't tend to think of Indians as Asians, though, hence I made the distinction. Posted by: Bill Hobbs at May 3, 2007 10:26 AMI whole-heartedly agree that Americans need to cut down on the amount of rice consumed in beer. I do my part by drinking only microbrews that use barley, hops, yeast, and water (with the occasional bit of local corn, wheat, or berries for flavor). I encourage all Americans to follow my example and eschew mass-produced, rice-sugar fermented swill. Posted by: Heather at May 3, 2007 10:40 AMIt's cow belches far more than farts that emit methane. This is due to bacterial digestion of cellulose in their eponymous rumens (ruminants). If they ate more starchy foods such as rice than fibrous foods such as grass, hay and such, they would belch less. Feed the rice to cows and break even on methane while still being able to buy votes with subsidies to rice growers, and still having steak with your real ale. Posted by: back40 at May 3, 2007 11:08 AMYou did a pretty good job hitting all the points of how X is bad for the earth, and how America is to blame. However, I noticed you were not able to throw in the war in Iraq...amateur!! Seriously though, one specific portion seems to ring true in many arguments against rich vs. poor countries (or world vs. US): Rice has for thousands of years been a staple of Asian culture and the Asian diet, and of the diet and culture of India, so their consumption of large quantities of rice today is culturally correct and acceptable. In terms of older traditions and cultures trumping "new" non-authentic traditions, I am reminded of the Prince of Wales Big Mac / Cornish pastry comment flap. Apperently, your body is able to differentiate between wholesome "organic" culturally traditional trans fat from Johnny-come-lately American-consumerism-at-its-worst trans fat. Apperently. Posted by: J at May 3, 2007 11:37 AMHm, I am an Asian-American who consumes rice. Does this make me doubly the climate criminal since I'm both Asian AND American? (By the way, very much enjoy your blog--I've lurked for a while hereabouts!) Posted by: Mad Minerva at May 3, 2007 12:01 PMGood work. We are getting at the root cause of global warming. My theory--it all points to the proliferation of japanese steak houses in America. (Can anything but America be at fault?) The methane produced so us fat americans can indulge on hibachi steak and fried rice has to be astronomical. Damn you Beni Hana! Posted by: BD at May 3, 2007 12:16 PMHaha! I love the ending. But I'm upset that you did not discuss rice offsets. How much self-righteousness does it cost to buy off a bushel of rice? And has anyone considered that a beer shortage would quickly lead to an invasion of Germany? I KNEW we shouldn't have pulled so many troops out of that country... Posted by: rc at May 3, 2007 12:47 PMSchultz and DeWitt, in current PC speak "Asian" denotes persons of what used to be known as the Mongoloid phenotype and associated cultures, so deftly characterized by noted anthropologist and metallurgist R. O'Donnell in her devastating "ching-chong" commentary. So while you are factually correct in observing that India is actually located in Asia, the truth is no defense against your Hate Crime. Report to Berkeley for re-education at once. Posted by: Steve Skubinna at May 3, 2007 1:46 PMFrom Rick: "The flooding is a pest control measure and is not necessary for rice growth." I can't be certain, but I believe that's wrong. Rice fields in California are flooded, even with access to the same pesticides used on other crops. That suggests it's probably necessary. But each year, not only are the fields flooded, but they are burned off. That emits lots of CO2 and lots of black smoke. But the particulates in the smoke offset the greenhouse effect of the CO2, so it's all good. Except the part about putting rice in beer. Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at May 3, 2007 2:07 PMMad Minerva - as I understand it being of Asian descent you can consume rice guilt-free... or you can pledge not to eat rice and sell rice consumption offsets to RC. Not so fast, jimmy - Mad Minerva does indeed get a pass if her rice eating is *authentically* Asian. But if she is, perchance, not authentically Asian - a Republican, for example - she loses her exemption and becomes a Greedy Environment-Destroying Rice-Eating Probably-Fat American. (I think. My latest handbook is dated 2005 so the rules may have changed.) Posted by: jaed at May 3, 2007 4:02 PMAn interesting approach to blaming America - "United States is the third-largest consumer of rice among non-Asian nations - and second-largest consumer of rice on the list if you exclude both Asian nations and India..." Of course, the question you fail to answer is exactly *why* we should exclude Asian countries from the list. I mean, other than the fact that failing to exclude Asian countries from the list eviscerates your entire "argument". The link you posted shows that the US consumes 3,882 thousand metric tons of rice, out of a total of 366,921 thousand metric tons of rice consumed in the world. In other words, the US is responsible for 1% of the total rice consumption in the world. Your argument seems rather dubious in light of the actual facts. The average weighted consumption of rice is 21,583.6 thousand metric tons per nation. It's hard to take you seriously when you make arguments this thinly supported by the evidence. Posted by: Ty at May 3, 2007 6:47 PMOr, you could be making a joke and it was much too late in the day for me to recognize it as such. Posted by: Ty at May 3, 2007 6:49 PMBill: You are brilliant, but you did not go far enough: "if you exclude both Asian nations You should also have excluded South America, Austrailia, Europe, and the rest of North America. Then, according to you faultless logic, the United States would easily be the worst offender contributing to Global Warning. Of course, cynics might point out that if you exclude the entire rest of the world the United States would be the ONLY contributer to global warning. But, of course, a man of your demonstratable feeble wits could care less about actual, rational thought. And, guess what, if we exclude every other human being, you sir, are not only the greatest contributor to global warming by yourself, you are also the smartest human being in the world. Congratulations! Posted by: LordActon at May 3, 2007 6:57 PMTo the few of you who didn't get that this was a joke, well, it was. The references to "rice caps" and rolling back consumption to 1990 levels and yet exempting China and India are all references to the Kyoto Accord, which would have capped CO2 emissions at 1990 levels - but exempted India and China, thus making the "caps" pointless. If you still thought I was serious when you got to the words "cow farts" and the admonition to only order green beans at the steakhouse, that's where you should have realized I was joking. To those of you who got it and played along, I thank you. You made my day. Posted by: Bill Hobbs at May 3, 2007 7:22 PMMaybe there's a tofu-based rice-substitute. Posted by: Laika's Last Woof at May 5, 2007 4:49 PM"- and second-largest consumer of rice on the list if you exclude both Asian nations and India, a major producer and consumer of basmati rice." or from Al's "Convenient Fallacy"... "Eliminating all other countries in the world, the U.S. is the largest consumer of rice and therefore must be held accountable for it's gluttonous, wanton disregard by taxing and redistributing their assets." Posted by: Rick Forman at May 6, 2007 9:46 AMPost a comment
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