Mmmm. Yummy. Nice plate full of kangaroo meat.
It's the answer to global warming you know.
While scientists in the northern hemisphere worry about the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and the subsequent effect on sea levels worldwide, Greenpeace are asking Australians to help solve the problem by eating all their kangaroos.
Apparently kangaroos are a major contributor to global warming because just like cattle and sheep they are extremely flatulent. There are 25 million of them belching and breaking wind across the vast expanse of Australia's Outback. The methane gas that kangaroos produce rises into the atmosphere where it traps heat, increasing the Earth's temperature. And worse, their wide-ranging travels require a constant clearing of trees and shrubs that can absorb such greenhouse gases.
According to an article on courant.com, a recent Greenpeace report contends that lopping beef from the Aussie diet and replacing it with kangaroo would cut Australia's carbon emissions some 15 million metric tons a year.
So there you have it.
Toss another Joey on the barbie, mate.
Update: Thanks to that prolific commenter Anonymous for pointing out that I (and the courant.com article that I summarized) have got this story totally wrong. The point about kangaroos is that they have a digestive system which produces no methane, whereas cattle and sheep produce huge amounts. And that is why Aussies are being advised to increase kangaroo consumption and cut back on eating cattle and sheep. A more accurate report on this whole business can be found at the BBC: Kangaroos offer clue to global warming. Sorry for the confusion.
5 comments:
Crikies! Streuth and fair dinkum! Toss me another Roo steak there, matey! XD XD
They taste slightly 'gamey' but not at all bad. Need to be done well :)
Cyalayta
Mal :)
Don't eat them all before February. Save some for me.
Skippy tastes great.
I highly recommend it!
What other country can proudly boast they eat their national emblem!!!
(We eat Emu's too...)
You've got it a little wrong, kangaroos don't emit any methane, cattle and sheep pump it out. That's why Greenpeace want us to swap from skungy old beef to tender succulent kangaroo.
Anonymous, thanks for the correction.
The courant.com article was a little confused although I think I summarized it accurately. It definitely says that kangaroos are "just as flatulent as cattle and sheep" and that they generate a lot of methane. However I see that every other source says the exact opposite. Looks like the Courant got it wrong and I repeated their mistake.
In any case, I think you are right in saying that the whole point of advising Aussies to eat kangaroos is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from cattle and sheep in Australia.
I have posted a correction on the post itself too. Thanks again for pointing out my error.
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