Food & Agriculture
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Global Warming and Meat: A Debate with a Bite
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Does Eating Less Meat Really Stop Global Warming?
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Stop Global Warming, or the Coffee Gets It
Eat Meat to Help the Earth? You Grass-Hugger!
Published November 02, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Eating meat contributes to climate change, right? Hamburgers must be abolished if we are to save the Earth. Many staunchly support this point of view, while others scoff at what they see as radical buffoonery. But it's not quite so black and white. You see, it all depends on what kind of meat you're talking about.
A recent post of mine on the subject over on the sustainable food blog drew an interesting comment from alert reader Harry Hamil: "it is clear that well designed, intensive grazing of grasslands by domesticated livestock offers the quickest and greatest opportunity to reduce atmospheric carbon."
So, producing meat could actually be good for our climate?
Pig Poo into Clean Fuel
Published October 28, 2009 @ 02:54PM PT
What if we could turn our nastiest waste products into clean energy?
Considering that we have so many millions of animals penned up in concentrated animal feeding (or should I say “fattening”?) operations, their waste is a resource we possess in spades. We’ve long known it’s possible to capitalize on this mess but weren’t sure of the best way to do it.
New research is giving us a clue, reports New Scientist. If you’re ever stuck with a big lagoon of pig poo and you’d rather have electricity instead, your best bet, according to a team from Denmark’s Aalborg University, is anaerobic digestion. The anaerobic digestion process, by which the manure is broken down by bacteria in an oxygen-free environment to release methane that can power gas turbines, gives the best bang-for-your-poo.
Jatropha Will Not Save Us
Published October 13, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
People still want more and more biofuels, despite the fact that these crops often commandeer land used for food production, which pushes food crops into rainforests, and we know how that turns out.
Just a year ago, reports SciDevNet, a Central American shrub called jatropha curcus was being heralded as the Earth's saving grace. The seeds of the plant produce a diesel-like oil that many predicted would power planes and basically save the world at the same time as pulling millions in the developing world out of poverty.
Some speculated that the booming new industry would spark investments of up to $1 billion a year. The plant was for obvious reasons widely known as the "wonder weed."
One of the main advantages of jatropha is that it can grow in very dry conditions. At least that's what everybody said. However, according to the Green Inc. blog at the New York Times, a June study in the American Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that jatropha was one of the least water-efficient biofuels, comparing only to rapeseed in its thirst. How was that little detail overlooked?
As if that stumbling block weren't enough, according to Green Inc., a report by an environmental and human rights NGO Envirocare, leaked to The East African newspaper last week, tells how the trade in this plant is causing upheaval in Tanzania. Farmers and food crops are being displaced by biofuel production, and water is being consumed at an alarming rate.
Biofuels investors have galloped ahead of the plant science and the community-based planning needed to productively make such sweeping agricultural changes. The journal Nature concludes that we need to go back to the drawing board with some basic research on the wonder weed before this little shrub is going to save anybody at all.
Photo courtesy of treesftf on flickr
Fatalistic Friday: Climate treaty still stalled, catastrophic climate change forecast, more
Published October 02, 2009 @ 03:53PM PT
Above: At a press conference held midway through the Climate Change Talks in Bangkok, Yvo de Boer told reporters that progress has been made key areas including adaptation, technology and capacity-building in developing countries. However, progress on rich nation emission reduction targets and financial support for climate change action in developing countries is still elusive.
Grab a stiff drink and take in this week's bad news about global warming:
Climate talks stall on targets, finance: Efforts to convince rich nations to toughen emissions cuts have failed to make much headway at climate talks in the Thai capital, the U.N. said on Friday. "Progress toward high industrialized world emissions cuts remains disappointing during these talks. We're not seeing real advances there," Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told reporters. "Movement on the ways and means and institutions to raise, manage and deploy financing support for the developing world climate action also remains slow." (Reuters)
Catastrophic climate change could happen with 50 years: If average global temperatures arc toward a rise of 7.2 deg. F (4 deg. C) by 2100 (over those of the mid-19th century), according to a study released this week by the UK's Met Office, we'd be screwed in diverse ways as soon as 2060: Arctic temperatures would increase by 28.8 deg F (16 deg C), while parts of sub Saharan Africa and North America would be devastated by an increase in temperature of up to 18 deg F (10 deg C); rainfall could decrease by 20 per cent in Central America, the Mediterranean and parts of coastal Australia, causing mass drought; Temperature rises in the Amazon would cause the rainforests to die, while Alaska and Siberia would see the melting of the permafrost causing more carbon dioxide to be released. (The Telegraph)
Fatalistic Friday: Storms, heat, drought and double-dealing
Published August 21, 2009 @ 08:14PM PT
Another week's end brings us to another concentrated, hurts-less-this-way burst of the worst of the week's global warming news:
Storm Fells Hundreds of Trees in NY's Central Park: Hundreds of trees in Central Park were damaged and destroyed by severe thunderstorm winds as high as 80 mph. "I've never seen a wind of that velocity in New York City," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said. "It looks like pictures that I've seen of war zones where artillery shells have shredded trees." (The New York Times)
In hot water: World sets ocean temperature record: The ocean is 72 degrees F in Maine, 88 in Ocean City, Maryland. And all around the world, July was the hottest the world's oceans have been in almost 130 years of keeping records. "The average water temperature worldwide was 62.6 degrees, according to the National Climatic Data Center, the branch of the U.S. government that keeps world weather records. That was 1.1 degree higher than the 20th century average." (Associated Press)
Mexico Hit By Lowest Rainfall In 68 Years: It's killing cattle, threatening millions of tons of crops, and reducing the supply of water to Mexico City. (Reuters)
ConocoPhillips works to undermine climate bill, despite pledge to support climate action: Despite being a member of the pro-business US Climate Action Partnership, ConocoPhillips is now putting its weight behind opposition to climate change legislation. (Grist)
Life on Waterpod: Barge-borne home shows off sustainable living
Published August 15, 2009 @ 10:44AM PT
The Waterpod is a floating home-sculpture-adventure in sustainable living.
“It’s about getting people to talk about how we can sustain ourselves in the future,” said artist Mary Mattingly to The Brooklyn Paper earlier this year. Mattingly worked to realize the project for three years, and is living on Waterpod herself May through October.
The recycled, 240-foot long, 3,000 square foot art barge, which has been docking at various points around New York Harbor this summer, features a geodesic "Buckyball" dome as a living space, a flock of four egg-laying hens (Gilly, Rizzo, Marble and Bonzai), a hydroponic garden, a greywater recycling system and human-powered water pumping, energy generated primarily from four rooftop solar panels (along with a bicycle power generating station and a "picohydro" energy system for brief bursts of extra energy when needed), composting toilets, and a space where the public can come on board for performances.
New York Times reporter Melena Ryzik has lived abord Waterpod intermittently. She reports being "surprised at how easy it was to adapt to the Pod’s eco-conscious systems (reuse everything, don’t mind the ever-present flies, and compost, compost, compost)..."
...and how quickly the rhythms and routines of urban life melted away. Even though the Pod was docked only blocks away, a brief visit to the farmer’s market in Dumbo one Sunday felt like a trip into “town” – and into civilization. Ooh, look! A flushing toilet!
It's an experiment in ecologically sensitive living that evokes memories of "Biosphere 2" (the Earth is Biosphere 1, natch), the troubled 1990s project that sought to prove the viability of closed-system, grow-your-own living.
But the artists living on board Waterpod and managing its systems have learned (consciously or no) from that semi-fiasco. Although they grow greens and veggies on the barge, and of course get eggs from the hens, they're accepting food donations as well. They get fresh water from rainfall and the river. And they're regularly welcoming the public aboard: check the docking schedule to find out where to meet the barge.
I imagine that some will see this as a wholly unrealistic way to live. But none of the systems are radical: stationary bikes are already being used to generate energy, for instance; places like Vermont Law School are saving water and chemicals by using composting toilets; city gardening is making a big comeback for both economic and food safety reasons; and of course solar power generation is a proven technology that's getting better all the time.
Even the thing that seems most unusual about Waterpod -- living on the water -- is actually common all around the world.
Perhaps Waterpod is actually the leading edge on restoring ourselves to a way of life that can really endure: one that values clean water and uses it wisely, relies on local food supplies to a much greater extent, takes advantage of clean energy sources to the fullest, and both depends upon and gives back to the local community.
Look at it this way: If they'd called it "Extreme Houseboating," then everyone would want to do it.
Five Videos to Watch This Week: From Climate Denial to Keen Electric Sportscar
Published August 11, 2009 @ 07:41PM PT
Okay, I know it's summer. But look away for just a few minutes from Darth Vader dancing to Hammer and Mean Kitty vs FlippyCat and check out this week's haul of nifty and informative videos about global warming:
1. Climate Denial Crock of the Week
Peter Sinclair's "Climate Denial Crock of the Week" is an ongoing and very enjoyable video series that debunks global warming myths. This installment, which mentions Anthony Watts of the prominent global warming denial blog wattsupwiththat.com, was temporarily taken down by YouTube after Mr. Watts complained it had violated some copyright rules.
