It’s not what you say, it’s who you get to say it

The front page of yesterday's Times carried responsible and constrained coverage of an interview with economist Nicolas Stern.

In this interview, Lord Stern states the case that a meat-free diet would help reduce carbon-emissions and would relieve pressure on the world's finite natural resources: principally land and water.

The predictable reaction in today's edition (relegated to p11 in the print version) concentrates on the emissions element of the argument in the tried and tested tactic of raising doubt about the science - the tobacco industry was particularly accomplished in this arena.

Despite the unnecessary claims of climate simpletons like Jeremy Clarkson the science is established, measured and sadly, for our grandchildren, very real.

Despite all of this, the broader point to make about this article is that it is nothing new. Various groups, which at best would be euphemistically referred to as fringe groups, have for many years been arguing that mankind's ravenous appetite for natural resources can not be sustained at current levels.

That it takes an economist rather than an environmental scientist to get the issue into the open and onto the front page of one of the agenda-setting publications tells its own story.

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