Top U.S. Scientists and Economists Call For Swift, Deep Cuts In Global Warming Pollution

From the article in Science Magazine: "In an open letter published online yesterday, leading American scientists and economists urged U.S. policymakers to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The action comes as the Senate is poised to vote on landmark U.S. climate legislation."

I hope they'll listen.

You emit what you eat

I've just read this report in the Climate Change Report of the journal Nature.

The full article has appeared in the journal Environmental Science & Technology:

quoting the report:

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Olive Heffernan

Environ. Sci. Technol. 42, 3508–3513 (2008)

Worried about your food miles? With rising public concern over how individual lifestyle choices affect the climate, more attention is being paid to the notion that long-distance transport of goods can harm the environment.

But a new study by Christopher Weber and Scott Matthews of Carnegie Mellon University in Washington, DC, suggests that a dietary shift may be more effective in reducing your emissions than eating local produce. They conducted a life-cycle analysis of all greenhouse gas emissions, not just carbon dioxide, associated with the production of food consumed in the United States, compared against those associated with long-distance distribution. Food production far outstripped transport as a source of emissions, accounting for 83 per cent of the 8.1 tonnes of greenhouse gases that an average US household generates each year by consuming food. Although transport distances were considerable, they led to only 11 per cent of total emissions.

Different food groups varied widely in their emissions, with red meat, for example, producing 150 per cent more greenhouse gases than chicken or fish. The authors suggest that eating less red meat and fewer dairy products even one day per week would do more against global warming than becoming a 'locavore' who eats an entirely regional diet.

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Environmental refugees

I've just listened to a podcast on the BBC website, interviewing a few people who have moved with their families to New Zealand. The reason that all interviewees state is, that they've moved to lessen the effects of climate change on their families and future generations.
One of the interviewees says, that one advantage of New Zealand is that it has so few people, as compared to, say Japan, which has about the same land surface. So people consume less, they pollute less and live healthier and better lives. It's a bit ironic that if this phenomenon gets more widespread (not just among well to do westerners) this key advantage may diminish.
It may be that we're looking towards a future, where environmental migration becomes much more widespread.

The Crude Fact

Jeremy Leggett, writes in the "comment is free..." blog of the Guardian. He has an interesting commentary intitled: The Crude Fact which nicely sums up the problem of peak oil . The notion that, when the global extraction rate of oil reaches a maximum value and starts decreasing. Resulting in supply shortages of an ever more energy hungry world, giving rise to high oil and energy prices.
Sadly mainstream media has been ignoring the problem in years gone by. But it seems to me that the problem has seen a bit wider coverage this year. This has been helped along a lot by top oil company bosses like the CEO of Total and Jeroen Van Der Veer the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell supporting the notion that oil supplies around the world are very tight and a real supply problem exists.

Image from: www.suburbanhousehunters.com

The Manpollo Project

I have started this blog in the hopes of further promoting the ideas of a US high school science teacher regarding climate change and how the problem should be addressed. Every person should be as clear thinking as this man is. When faced with the threat of climate change and its consequences it is simply foolish and morally wrong to stop and argue about whether the problem is man made or not, assuming that you can not afford to be wrong. Fact being that the majority of people and politicians do not act in a responsible manner in advancing sustainable living. Watch the video yourself and maybe post a comment about what You thought about the arguments presented.



Sequels to the video can be found at manpollo.org and wonderingmind42.com and on youtube.