Now that they’re finally going after Big Oil over global warming, it’s surely only a matter of time before they start going after Big Beef as well.

Sorry, folks, but your steaks, hamburgers and chops are helping to kill the planet — along with your SUV.

Last week New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman slapped oil giant Exxon Mobil XOM, -3.20% with a surprising subpoena. He wants to know what Exxon knew about fossil fuels and global warming, and when it knew it.

Investigative journalists argue that Exxon scientists knew as long ago as the mid-1970s that the greenhouse gases from fossil fuels were contributing seriously to global warming. They argue that the company, and others in the industry, engaged in a massive cover-up, and spent huge sums financing studies that cast cold water on global warming.

Exxon Mobil, naturally enough, denies the charges.

Global warming and climate change have become absurdly over-politicized topics. It’s amazing how many otherwise sensible people seem inclined to dismiss the risk of global warming because (a) it still snows in February, (b) they took high school biology and they “just don’t buy it,” or (c) they’re conservatives and “global warming is for liberals.” Some have actually suggested a bunch of liberals have made the whole thing up to get Americans to take the train and become slaves.

We might just as well politicize drunk driving or opioid addiction.

In reality, almost every expert scientist believes climate change is a real issue. Furthermore, and most importantly, the balance of risks is clear.

If we don’t do anything, and global warming turns out to be as bad as many fear, your grandkids will be roasted to death. On the other hand, if we act and it turns out to be not as bad as people feared, well, you had to buy a Prius needlessly.

Do the math.

But if we’re going after Big Oil, we have to go after Big Meat as well.

Ruminants such as cattle and sheep produce vast amounts of methane each year as a digestive byproduct. Pound for pound, methane is about 30 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide. Last year scientists writing in Nature estimated that human beings keep about 3.6 billion ruminants around the world and these account for about 12% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Cattle — Big Beef — are by far the worst offenders. Their flatulence may kill us all.

And, naturally, there are other consequences as well. It is to raise cattle that the forests have been cut down, especially in the developing world. And in terms of overall energy use, raising cattle is an incredibly inefficient way of creating food.

Methane is very destructive to the planet but it lingers in the atmosphere far less than carbon dioxide. So actions to reduce methane output will have a much quicker effect on the environment than actions to reduce CO2. We don’t have to become vegetarians, although it would help. Chickens and pigs produce a fraction of the methane of cattle. One of the easiest things anyone can do to cut their contribution to global warming is to switch from steak to chicken, pork and fish.

Will the global warming campaign take on steakhouses like Morton’s and Ruth’s Chris RUTH, -6.77% ? Will they tackle fashionable burger chains like Shake Shack SHAK, -1.68% and Red Robin RRGB, -4.13% , and less trendy ones like McDonald’s MCD, -0.66% ? And what about meat-producing companies like Tyson Foods TSN, -3.87% ?

Stay tuned.