Land Use Comparison - Solar Panels vs Feeding Pets


	Land Use Comparison - Solar Panels vs Feeding Pets

celestialdancer

10-31-2009 5:56 AM

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celestialdancer says:

I was quite amazed by this at first. Yet, when I thought about a bit longer, it did not particularly surprise me. It is just another one of those things that sits right under our noses, that we miss. "Can't see the forest through the trees" type of thing.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/0487e8c0-57ec-424d-bee6-efcfe6115a6c/C41053DA-B201-4E2A-A5F6-66B40523A1DA/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/ecosmackdown-solar-versus-pets/" href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/ecosmackdown-solar-versus-pets/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.wired.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/ecosmackdown-solar-versus-pets/"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.wired.com/img/1FFD105D-4C9F-4316-80D1-371DE400CC75" alt="land_required1" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/ecosmackdown-solar-versus-pets/"><P>It takes 17 times more land to feed American pets than would  be required by solar farms producing enough electricity to meet all the demand in the United States.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/ecosmackdown-solar-versus-pets/"><P>Why do we know this?</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/ecosmackdown-solar-versus-pets/"><P><EM>A</EM> new book by Robert and Brenda Vale, two architects at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, looked into the ecological foodprints of the world’s pets, <A target="_blank" href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427311.600-how-green-is-your-pet.html?page=1" linkindex="62"><EM>New Scientist</EM> reported</A>.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/ecosmackdown-solar-versus-pets/"><P>By examining the land and resources necessary to produce the meat and grains that compose pet food they discovered something startling: It takes over 90,000 square feet of land (that’s two whole acres) to feed a medium-sized dog and 16,000 square feet of land to feed a cat.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/ecosmackdown-solar-versus-pets/"><P>The <A href="http://www.hsus.org/pets/issues_affecting_our_pets/pet_overpopulation_and_ownership_statistics/us_pet_ownership_statistics.html" linkindex="63">Humane Society estimates</A> Americans own about 75 million dogs and 88 million cats. We <A href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tcmT44SLM0yUSCZH5ImNaJg&output=html" linkindex="64">did the math</A> and found that feeding those animals takes about 294 thousand square miles of land. That’s a little bigger than Texas!</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/C41053DA-B201-4E2A-A5F6-66B40523A1DA/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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