Forget About Tuesday, Cash On The Barrelhead Today, Wimpy!

About the only other characters more associated then Wimpy, with hamburgers (cheeseburgers, in this case) was Aykroyd and Belushi, in the classic SNL Greek Diner skit.

And those may soon be long-gone, fond memories.

Future generations may have to Google (or use whatever will be in vogue for knowledge searches) "hamburger" and "cheeseburger" to get hip to the pre-Global Warming crowd, as they sit around the futuristic retro soda shop, wolfing down their soy burgers and non-dairy, highly-concentrated protein shakes.

Hamburgers are the Hummers of food in global warming

Pelletier is one of a growing number of scientists studying the environmental costs of food from field to plate.

By looking at everything from how much grain a cow eats before it is ready for slaughter to the emissions released by manure, they are getting a clearer idea of the true costs of food.

The livestock sector is estimated to account for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and beef is the biggest culprit.

Even though beef only accounts for 30 percent of meat consumption in the developed world it's responsible for 78 percent of the emissions, Pelletier said Sunday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

That's because a single kilogram of beef produces 16 kilograms carbon dioxide equivalent emissions: four times higher than pork and more than ten times as much as a kilogram of poultry, Pelletier said.

If people were to simply switch from beef to chicken, emissions would be cut by 70 percent, Pelletier said. 

[Snip]

If meat consumption in the developed world was cut from the current level of about 90 kilograms a year to the recommended level of 53 kilograms a year, livestock related emissions would fall by 44 percent.

"Given the projected doubling of (global) meat production by 2050, we're going to have to cut our emissions by half just to maintain current levels," Pelletier said.

"Technical improvements are not going to get us there."

Poor Wimpy, he's gonna starve.

Don't see'em making the switch to chicken.