President Joe Biden — who will run again in 2024 — caused quite a commotion among social media users, politicians, and political commentators after his speech about cutting America’s greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 at the Virtual Leaders Summit on Climate started making the rounds online. Biden’s plan to slow climate change would require a bit of an overhaul of the country’s economy; however, Biden insists that focusing on the climate crisis will create millions of jobs for Americans (via Politico).
“By maintaining those investments and putting these people to work, the United States sets out on the road to cut greenhouse gases in half — in half by the end of this decade,” Biden revealed (via Snopes). “That’s where we’re headed as a nation, and that’s what we can do if we take action to build an economy that’s not only more prosperous, but healthier, fairer, and cleaner for the entire planet.”
Shortly after his speech, the Daily Mail ran an article that went through all the ways Biden could lower the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. The article, entitled, “How Biden’s climate plan could limit you to eat just one burger a MONTH, cost $3.5K a year per person in taxes, force you to spend $55K on an electric car and ‘crush’ American jobs,” was hypothetical, but that didn’t stop politicians and news sources in opposition of Biden from promoting the narrative that the President plans to ban almost all red meat consumption in America by the end of the decade.
President Biden never said he was planning to ban red meat in the United States
It’s a known fact that red meat production has a negative effect on the environment, as head of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford, Professor Sir Charles Godfray, confirmed to Carbon Brief. “In a very broad-brush approach, the products from ruminant animals — sheep, cows and their relatives, animals with four stomachs — they tend to have greater greenhouse gas effects,” he said. “Part of that is because digestion by ruminants produces a lot of methane.”
Although President Joe Biden never said anything about banning red meat (via Snopes), the rumors about the issue were treated as fact. “Joe Biden’s climate plan includes cutting 90% of red meat from our diets by 2030. They want to limit us to about four pounds a year. Why doesn’t Joe stay out of my kitchen?” Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert, a gun enthusiast and the owner of Shooters Grill — a restaurant that reportedly poisoned dozens of rodeo attendees with tainted pork sliders last year (via Salon) – tweeted on April 24.
Boebert’s tweet garnered over 17,000 likes as of publication, and she wasn’t the only public figure in opposition to Biden to tweet about the supposed red meat ban – controversial Fox News personality Tomi Lahren also tweeted about “living our lives” with “our guns, meat & police.”
While some folks opposed the supposed red meat ban, others took it with a grain of salt
In the wake of the news about the supposed red meat ban, concerned people who took the rumors as truth took to social media to air their grievances. “If they attempt to ban or limit consumption of red meat, it will be consumed more than before,” one concerned Twitter user wrote. “They tried it once with alcohol and a whole new industry popped up and it wasn’t all that pleasant. I imagine this wouldn’t be much different.” Other users echoed the sentiment, with another tweeting, “How many workers and small businesses are involved with meat production and distribution. Let’s just put everyone on unemployment.”
Many internet users disagreed with those concerned over the alleged meat ban. “I’m sorry the idea that BIDEN (a very moderate ‘democrat’) would ever ban red meat is literally so funny. Conservatives think Biden is our vegan king,” one Twitter user wrote, while another agreed, writing, “Climate Change is so universally acknowledged as a major problem that Conservatives lie to spin up opposition to President Biden’s initiatives. Biden is not trying to ban red meat. He is reducing emissions and creating new jobs.”
So you heard it here, the red meat ban is not a thing and meat prices are continuing to drop, but it just goes to show how quickly a rumor can spread on the internet.
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