Carnivore Gore

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals began a new campaign last week razzing former Vice President Al Gore for refusing to discuss the link between the meat industry and global warming.

PETA billboards that read “Too Chicken to Go Vegetarian?” next to a caricature of a tubby Gore chomping on a drumstick are scheduled to start popping up in cities nationwide, according to the animal-welfare organization. The campaign follows a recent United Nations report claiming that animals raised for meat generate more greenhouse-gas emissions than all of the vehicles in the world combined.

Officials from PETA lambasted Gore for shying from the issue. President Ingrid E. Newkirk pulled no punches on the organization’s Web site, saying, “Mr. Gore is ignoring a scientifically established fact: There’s no such thing as a meat-eating environmentalist because meat-eating is the main culprit.”