Grass-fed Beef: Climate Destroyer
George Wuerthner March 20, 2025 For many years, I’ve been a critic of cattle production. I have mainly focused on public land grazing because that is one area where citizens can have a voice in management. More recently, concern about livestock’s contribution to climate warming has garnered more attention. The punch line is that any kind of beef is bad for our climate, and one should avoid red meat whenever possible. The average cow produces about 220 pounds of methane per year, or about half the emissions of an average car! Many [...]
1,100 Communities at Risk of Urban Wildfire
George Wuerthner March 19, 2025 A new report from Headwaters Economics concludes that 1,100 communities scattered across the country are vulnerable to urban wildfires, such as the recent Altadena and Pacific Palisades blazes in California. While the origins of these blazes were on public lands, wind-tossed embers soon ignited homes, setting up an uncontrollable chain reaction in which one burning home ignited adjacent homes, which overwhelmed firefighting capabilities. While most people tend to believe wildfire risk is greatest in the West, the new analysis concluded that 52% of the communities vulnerable to such [...]
