From The Times October 27, 2009 Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas
by Robin Pagnamenta, Energy Editor
People will need to turn vegetarian if the world is to conquer climate change, according to a leading authority on global warming.
In an interview with The Times, Lord Stern of Brentford said: "Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world's resources. A vegetarian diet is better."
Direct emissions of methane from cows and pigs is a significant source of greenhouse gases. Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas.
Lord Stern, the author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on the cost of tackling global warming, said that a successful deal at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December would lead to soaring costs for meat and other foods that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases.
"I chose to be vegan initially as an energetic pursuit, as meat and dairy slowed me down, but have since become convinced that it is not only the most healthy way to live, but also the most compassionate and ecologically responsible way." -Woody Harrelson, World Go Vegan Week Supporter
World GO VEGAN Week
Celebrate Compassion...
The 4th annual World GO VEGAN Week is taking place this year from October 25 through 31. This week is a celebration of compassion and a time to take action for animals, the environment and everyone's well-being. We encourage people to use this week to use this week to educate their community about the vegan lifestyle as a compassionate, sustainable, and healthy way of eating and living. Promoting veganism through outreach events and the media, we know that our annual World GO VEGAN Week is helping make the word "vegan" a household word, universally recognized as meaning love and compassion for all living beings.
World GO VEGAN Week is also about celebrating what it means to be vegan. Veganism enables people to live in balance with all of Earth's creatures and promote freedom from exploitation for animals as part of their everyday lives. Modern animal agriculture is cruel and violent toward the chickens, cows, pigs and other creatures used to make meat, milk and eggs. During World GO VEGAN Week, we encourage people to become conscious of what - and who - they are eating, the effect it has on the world, and that a non-violent alternative exists.
We urge people to recognize the effects their actions have on the world, and our ability to actually avert some impending disasters such as global warming.
For the health of people, the environment, and farmed animals, veganism is the best choice. World GO VEGAN Week embodies this idea. As an international campaign, it encourages people around the world to experience the benefits and joys of a more compassionate way of life.
Reducing global meat consumption would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut the costs of climate policy substantially. This is the result of a PBL study published in Climatic Change. Apart from a reduction in methane and N2O emissions, vast agricultural areas would become unused, mostly as a result of reduced cattle grazing, and could take up large amounts of carbon. Shifting worldwide to a healthy low-meat diet would reduce the costs of stabilising greenhouse gases at 450 ppm CO2 eq. by more than 50%.
Abstract
Climate change mitigation policies tend to focus on the energy sector, while the livestock sector receives surprisingly little attention, despite the fact that it accounts for 18% of the greenhouse gas emissions and for 80% of total anthropogenic land use. From a dietary perspective, new insights in the adverse health effects of beef and pork have lead to a revision of meat consumption recommendations. Here, we explored the potential impact of dietary changes on achieving ambitious climate stabilization levels. By using an integrated assessment model, we found a global food transition to less meat, or even a complete switch to plant-based protein food to have a dramatic effect on land use.
We've overshot sustainability. Three hundred fifty parts per million (350 ppm) is the recommended safe threshold for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Today, at 386 ppm, we're over the limit. There is evidence that we will see ice-free summer Arctic a hundred years before IPCC estimates and we have already seen flooding in Iowa's city that would never flood and massive fires in the American west. An ice-free Arctic full of dark water will absorb more heat and change global climate patterns. Burning forests emit massive amounts of carbon dioxide, producing a deeper greenhouse effect. To avoid further expensive climate chaos we must deploy the most creative and innovative technology in the world to rapidly pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. And regenerative farming is it. Hope in Organic Farming: Agricultural Carbon Capture and Sequestration
Even if we acted sustainably by stopping carbon emissions today, we would not be living on a healthy planet-- we need agriculture to pull carbon out of the atmosphere. The US Congress is considering a law to cap emissions of greenhouse gases, and to award credits for technologies that capture carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it safely. Write your representatives to tell them you support the most sophisticated carbon capture and sequestration method around: organic farming. Or better yet, call them up, and tell them that organic farming could pull fortypercent of global greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere -- each year.
Let's Hold Agriculture Accountable
The Senate's new climate bill caps our nation's greenhouse gas emissions, and begins rewarding people and organizations that reduce our impact on the climate system. Farmers can store atmospheric carbon dioxide in their soils as soil organic carbon, which is why the Senate climate bill must support farmers with carbon credits. Unfortunately, the current bill does not limit the amount of greenhouse gases that farmers can emit, even though agriculture is responsible for 15% of our national emissions. Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions are mainly produced when chemical companies burn fossil fuels to produce synthetic fertilizers, and when distributors fly food around the world. Why should we give farmers credit for storing carbon in soil and not hold them accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions? You can help create this accountability when you tell your Senator to cap agricultural emissions.
The Real Farmers of the Future Will Build Soils
The most cutting edge forms of climate-friendly agriculture -- organic, regenerative, local, biodynamic -- don't produce greenhouse emissions the way industrial chemical farming's toxic inputs do. Rather, the real farmers of the future nurture their soils with innovative techniques such as advanced crop rotations, intercropping, soil amendments, and even animal grazing. These healthier soils are more resistant to dry and wet years, the frequencies of which are increasing as our climate transforms. The cutting-edge techniques these farmers use are continuously being improved and developed by farmer experience and supported by scientific research. Rather than giving carbon credits based on specific practices (which may become outdated or disproved) farmers should get credits based on the measured amounts of carbon they sequester in soil. A bill that rewards farmers for measured sequestration means farmers can work to increase soil carbon, rather than be limited by a specific law.
Don't disregard those wall calendars showing far-off nature scenes quite yet. It just might make you a more caring, community-oriented, and generous person. A new study by the University of Rochester found that after looking at nature scenes, people feel closer to their community, are willing to give more money to a charitable cause, and care more about social outcomes than they are after looking at man-made scenes. The reason, the researchers state, it communing with nature helps people also commune with their basic values.
The University of Rochester reports what we all have been savvy to for awhile now, that seeing naturescapes helps reduces stress, and even having a window in a hospital room helps people recover more quickly. "While the salubrious effects of nature are well documented... this study shows that the benefits extend to a person's values and actions. Exposure to natural as opposed to man-made environments leads people to value community and close relationships and to be more generous with money, find [Richard] Ryan and his team of researchers at the University of Rochester.
From experiments including 370 participants, the results show that after viewing urban settings or natural settings, people exposed to natural settings rated close relationships and community higher than they had before seeing the scenes, whereas after viewing urban settings, people placed more value on wealth and fame. Additionally, those who viewed nature scenes were more likely to give higher amounts of money to a good cause.
"Lead author Netta Weinstein says that the findings highlight the importance of creating green spaces in cities and have implication for planners and architects. Incorporating parks and other representations of nature into urban environments may help build a stronger sense of community among residents, she explains. By contrast, "to the extent that our links with nature are disrupted, we may also lose some connection with each other," the authors warn."
If it is the case that being around and seeing nature makes us more people-oriented and generous, perhaps we should flood the offices of Copenhagen delegates with plants, scenes from natural settings, and earthy furniture so that they're really ready to negotiate with the future of the planet front and center.
DO YOU KNOW... "18% of all global Green Houses Gases are from the consumption of MEAT and DAIRY?"
Recently we came across some statistical facts that shocked us. Alarm bells began to ring loudly inside our being! There was nothing I could do to stop them ringing.
Out of this an idea to launch a graphic and visual campaign to raise public awareness to save the human came to me.
We have been increasingly hearing about saving the whales and saving the tigers and saving the Amazon rain forests for over 20 years now...
This is all good and noble and necessary, but to most people it is too far detached from their busy lifestyles and immediate bubble of existence...
However to save the human implies something far more serious and urgent, it forces one's mind to stop, think and connect the dots. It shocks us into awareness.
Humanity needs to wake up now in large numbers if we are to survive at all.
According to Dr. James Hansen, leading climate scientist with NASA: "we have passed tipping points. We have not passed a point of no return. We can still roll things back, but it is going to require a quick turn in direction."
Some of the recent facts* that we came across:
-- Livestock production is responsible for 18% of global GHG emissions from all human activities.
-- 70% of previously forested land in South America is used for livestock production.
-- At present there are nearly 60 billion animals a year used to produce meat & dairy. The human population is 6.7 billion.
The UN FAO predicts that between 2001 & 2050 the above figure could double. -- A vegetarian driving a gas guzzling SUV car is more eco friendly than a carnivore riding a bicycle.
**OUR MISSION STATEMENT** Save the Human campaign is to raise public awareness about these alarming facts in a funky graphic way that appeals to young & older people in an inspirational way that empowers them to not only change their lifestyles but also to pro-actively be part of the solution.
The team with which to manifest this campaign at this moment in time is made up of designers, directors, producers and sponsors all acting selflessly & voluntarily with a strong passion and full-hearted support to see this change happen.
This is an idea whose time has come and therefore it will receive popular support. It is the time to save us, go vegetarian, go organic now and today. - Bobsy Gaia, Chairman of ABLE Charity
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead-
Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas
