Originally Posted by
plustax
Morally wrong no, nor it it any of the other adjectives you used, but it's definitely not conducive to the overall health of our species (nor the longevity of it).
If you are asking my personal answer, I used to take the stairs to my seventh floor job. I work on the second floor now.
If you want to get into things like providing health care and curing diseases then I am not really sure about how that will turn out in the end. I work in cancer research. Will this be useful because we eventually reach the stars and go out into the universe or is it simply accelerating the destruction of the planet and our own species as a result?
I don't know. Cars however as they are used currently do and hence we talk about them here.
Does that make sense?
Yes, about the only post here that does make sense.
The way meat is produced in the modern age is clearly very bad for the environment. That's a scientific fact. You can't dispute it if you are a rational person. But, like you say, that doesn't necessarily make it morally wrong to eat meat.
But if we choose to eat meat (as it's currently produced), the facts have to be taken into account. It's childish to just say "eating meat is fine because that's what we want to believe." We have to face facts and make rational decisions about the use of resources if we're going to survive in the next couple generations.
At the current time, it doesn't look like people want to eat less meat. Global meat consumption is going up as more people can afford it. If that's what people want, fine. But it would be smart to have a discussion about the effects of producing more meat, and come to some intelligent decisions about the practice. We might be able to eat less meat per person, as well as develop less harmful ways of producing it. Just because something is bad for the nvironmnt doesn't automatically mean that you're going to outlaw it. But you do need to make decisions based on the scientific facts about what is a rational plan other than banning meat.
There are many similarities to this issue and the role of automobiles. People don't want to ban cars, but they do need to think rationally about how we can have cars while still doing less harm to the environment. The two answers, as with meat consumption, are to both drive less globally and to find technological innovations that cause less pollution while driving.