Fight Global Warming - Eat More Beef!

It's stories like this that confirm that global warming is not that big of a deal:

A Japanese government website crashed Wednesday as people raced to take up an offer of a half-price McDonald's hamburger in exchange for pledging to fight global warming.

The Japanese unit of the US burger giant Tuesday offered a Big Mac for 150 yen (1.3 dollars), about half the normal price, to anyone demonstrating a commitment to preventing climate change.

People were asked to check up to 39 boxes on a form they could download from the environment ministry's website, each listing a way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming.

"We started seeing a rise in access yesterday and it surged this morning. We are now trying to restore the system," said Kenji Someno, who heads the ministry's Lifestyle Policy Office.

It was the ministry's first system crash following a corporate offer related to environmental efforts.

"McDonald's is such a familiar name with people and they eat there often. The Big Mac discount gives them the strong impression that it's a bargain," Someno said.

Now wait a minute. We've been told that flatulent cows (not to mention moose) are a big source of greenhouse gases, but the Japanese government just gave a big boost to the cattle industry by encouraging people to eat all these Big Macs. Greater demand for beef cattle will mean more farting cows and more greenhouse gases, thus offsetting the handful of Japanese who probably really meant to fight global warming and weren't just looking for a cheap hamburger.