Dutch bishop: Restore Friday abstinence to fight climate change
December 14, 2009
A Dutch bishop has called for the restoration of abstinence from meat on Fridays to help combat climate change. “We know that every kilogram of meat takes a vast amount energy to produce and causes a great deal of CO2 emissions,” said Bishop Gerard Johannes Nicolaus de Korte of Groningen-Leeuwarden.
In his 1966 apostolic constitution Paenitemini, Pope Paul VI affirmed the general norm of abstinence from meat on Fridays but granted episcopal conferences wide latitude in modifying and applying the Church's penitential disciplines in their own nations.
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Further information:
- Bishop: fish on Friday helps fight climate change (Radio Netherlands)
- Pope Paul VI: Apostolic Constitution on Penance (Paenitemini)
- Daily Penance, Days of Penance (CUF)
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Posted by: -
Dec. 15, 2009 7:37 PM ET USA
A '97 Univ. of Exeter study found vegetables require 45 megajoules (MJ) of fossil-fuel energy to produce 1 MJ of food energy, fish require 36 MJ, and fruit requires 10 to 22 MJ. On the other hand, beef requires just 8 MJ; chicken, 7 MJ; and lamb, 6 MJ. Meanwhile, a global estimate found livestock produce only 5.1% of the world's GHG emissions. I'm all for abstinence from meat on Fridays, but let's keep it a spiritual exercise and leave the junk science to the secularists.
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Posted by: -
Dec. 15, 2009 2:41 AM ET USA
I think we're in the realm of private revelation here. Clearly the bishop is privy to some awesome transcendent power that hasn't been revealed to the bulk of the faithful yet. For the first time since its formation some billions of years ago, the earth can look forward to a changeless climate, thanks to the intervention of an ancient Church discipline. One hopes that the method of episcopal proclamation can be applied in the solution of other pressing scientific issues.
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Posted by: -
Dec. 14, 2009 3:33 PM ET USA
So much unecessary black ink is splashed over white paper in writing out 'Gerard Johannes Nicolaus de Korte of Groningen-leeuwarden' that it surely traps as much radiation as eating red meat on Friday. But, on the other hand, pulling all those fish from the ocean tends to keep the sea level low. Ductape for the bishop's mouth?
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Posted by: -
Dec. 14, 2009 3:03 PM ET USA
It takes exactly the same amount of grain to produce an ounce of protein regardless of whether the grain is feed to livestock or to a human. You can either eat the meat to get the protein or eat the grain, except not too many people could eat that much grain at a siting.
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Posted by: -
Dec. 14, 2009 1:32 PM ET USA
Little known fact: Gullible bishops pontificating on faddish causes emit more carbon dioxide than Mount Krakatoa's famous eruption of 1883. But while Mt. Krakatoa went 'kaboom!' and then quieted down, some bishops seem to produce a incessant whining sound.
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Posted by: John Chrysostom -
Dec. 14, 2009 9:15 AM ET USA
What is it about bishops? Why do they embrace faulty science and the latest socialist ideas of the Left? Anyone who looks at the scientific evidence can see that there is no man-made global warming. And we've seen recently that the temperature data was falsified.
