To "save" completely healthy polar bear cubs, economist Ross Garnaut thinks Australia needs to raise, kill, and butcher an enormous number of kangaroos

The Sydney Morning Herald

By 2050, Australia's heavily emitting cattle and sheep farms will likely be brought into an emissions trading scheme. As farmers pay for the methane their animals produce, beef and lamb prices will rise and Australians are expected to turn to far more greenhouse-friendly chicken and pork.

One study cited by Professor Garnaut finds that "by 2020 beef cattle and sheep numbers in the rangelands could be reduced by 7 million and 36 million respectively and that this would create the opportunity for an increase in kangaroo numbers from 34 million today to 240 million by 2020".

With kangaroos producing almost zero emissions, kangaroo meat could compete with beef exports as the carbon price rises.