"Global Warning: the impact of meat production & consumption on climate
change"
Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the United Nations
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Well if you look at the entire
commercialized meat cycle, let’s start with the killing of the animal
itself. It has to be preserved, in a cool environment, and today this is a
global business, we not only need refrigeration at source, we also need
refrigeration at transportation. And then all the meat is stored in
warehouses, from where it goes to retail outlets. And in retail outlets it’s
kept again under refrigeration.
People buy meat, they buy a whole lot of it, take it home. Refrigerators
have larger and larger freezers now. Why? Because you need to preserve meat.
And I am not even talking about clearing of forest for pasture land! So if
you were to take into account the entire chain, the entire cycle of meat
production and consumption, it’s hugely intensive in terms of carbon dioxide
emissions. And therefore, I always say that if you eat less meat you would
be healthier and so would the planet!
Facts to Know - Climate Change Warming - Global Warming
cannot wait.
Arctic methane release raises concern for runaway global
warming.
Scientists aboard a Russian research ship along the coast of Siberia
recently discovered an extensive oceanic area releasing methane; at
amounts 100 times normal for the area. Scientists believe undersea
methane in the Arctic is held in check by frozen permafrost, which is
now melting as the Arctic has been rapidly warming. Dr. Örjan Gustafsson
of Sweden’s Stockholm University, who was onboard the vessel, stated,
“Yesterday, for the first time, we documented a field where the release
was so intense that the methane did not have time to dissolve into the
seawater but was rising as methane bubbles to the sea surface." Methane
released into the atmosphere is up to 72 times more potent than CO2 over
a 20 year period, and could thus cause accelerated global warming that
would be much more difficult to control.
Melting Away: North Pole's Arctic
Sea Ice Predicted to be Gone by Summer 2008
Arctic Sea ice, which has historically deflected up to 80% of the sun's
rays to keep the ocean cool, is now melting at a dangerous rate.
Dr. Mark Serreze, senior research scientist at the US National Snow and
Ice Data Center, and Dr. Olav Orheim head of the Norwegian International
Polar Year Secretariat, state that there is an alarming chance the North
Pole's Arctic ice will melt by the end of summer 2008.
ARCTIC SEA ICE
Twenty years ago (1988):
Thick, older ice At least 3 meters thick Over 50% of the ice more than
5 years old
(2008):
Thin, new ice Only 1 meter thick 70% of the ice formed Autumn 2007 and
Winter 2007
Dr. Mark Serreze: Now we are warming the system up, and what we are
starting to do is lose that reflective sea ice.
Current melt rate is becoming too fast to recoverhttp://suprememastertv.com.
Ice melt => no reflective
cover => accelerated
warming in oceans
Lifestyle changes can curb climate change: IPCC chief
PARIS (AFP) — Don't eat meat, ride a bike, and be a frugal shopper --
that's how you can help brake global warming, the head of the United
Nation's Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change said
Tuesday.
The 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
issued last year, highlights "the importance of lifestyle changes," said
Rajendra Pachauri at a press conference in Paris.
"This is something that the IPCC was afraid to say earlier, but now we
have said it."
A vegetarian, the Indian economist made a plea for people around the
world to tame their carnivorous impulses.
"Please eat less meat -- meat is a very carbon intensive commodity," he
said, adding that consuming large quantities was also bad for one's
health.
Studies have shown that producing one kilo (2.2 pounds) of meat causes
the emissions equivalent of 36.4 kilos of carbon dioxide.
In addition, raising and transporting that slab of beef, lamb or pork
requires the same amount of energy as lighting a 100-watt bulb for
nearly three weeks.
In listing ways that individuals can contribute to the fight against
global warming, Pachauri praised the system of communal,
subscriber-access bikes in Paris and other French cities as a "wonderful
development."
"Instead of jumping in a car to go 500 meters, if we use a bike or walk
it will make an enormous difference," he told journalists at a press
conference.
Another lifestyle change that can help, he continued, was not buying
things "simply because they are available." He urged consumers to only
purchase what they really need.
Since the Nobel was awarded in October to the IPCC and the former US
vice president Al Gore, Pachauri has criss-crossed the globe sounding
the alarm on the dangers of global warming.
"The picture is quite grim -- if the human race does not do anything,
climate change will have serious impacts," he warned Tuesday.
At the same time, however, he said he was encouraged by the outcome of
UN-brokered climate change negotiations in Bali last month, and by the
prospect of a new administration in Washington.
"The final statement clearly mentions deep cuts in emissions in
greenhouse gases. I don't think people can run away from that
terminology," he said.
The Bali meeting set the framework for a global agreement on how to
reduce the output of carbon dioxide and other gases generated by human
activity that are driving climate change.
Pachauri also sees cause for optimism in the fact that, for the first
time since the world's nations began meeting over the issue of global
warming in 1994, "nobody questioned the findings of the IPCC."
"The science has clearly become the basis for action on climate change,"
he said.
In 2007, the IPCC issued a massive report the size of three phone books
on the reality and risks of climate change, its 4th assessment in 18
years.
Pachauri said it was too late for Washington to ratify the Kyoto
Protocol, the sole international treaty mandating cuts in CO2 emissions.
The United States is the only industrialised country not to have made
such commitments.
But he remained hopeful the US -- under a new administration -- would be
a "core signatory" of any new agreement.
"With the change that is taking place politically in the US, the chances
of that happening are certainly much better than was the case a few
months ago," he said.
At 67, Pachauri said he has not yet decided whether to take on a second
five-year mandate as IPCC head. Elections take place in September.
On the one hand, he said, the experience he has acquired would serve him
well.
But the advantage of retiring, he said with a smile, is that his carbon
footprint -- the amount of C02 emissions generated by all this travels
-- would be greatly reduced.
What are the major solution for Climate Change Warming -Global Warming
effect that seems to be inevitable?
Marianne:
If everyone in the UK ate no meat for 7 days a week, they would
save 91 mega tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Indeed, this would be the same as eliminating all greenhouse gas
emissions from 12.5 million households in the UK.
That is half of the UK households. If all British people ate a meat-free
diet for 6 days a week, this would create greater carbon savings than
removing all the cars off the UK roads, 29 million cars.
If everyone in the UK abstained from eating meat for 5 days a week, they
would save 65 megatons CO2 of greenhouse gas emissions.
This would save more than the emissions reductions that would be
achieved if the total electricity used in all households in the UK was
eliminated.
If all British people ate no meat for 4 days a week, they would save 52
megatons CO2 of greenhouse gas emissions.
This would lead to greater carbon savings than taking 70% of all cars in
the UK off the road.
And 3 days no meat would have the same positive effect on reducing
greenhouse gas emissions as replacing all household appliances, such as
fridges, freezers, dishwashers and washing machines with energy
efficient ones, insulating walls, installing double glazing, energy
efficient boilers, and thermostats.
"Global Warning: the impact of meat production & consumption on climate
change"
Marianne:
If everyone in the UK ate no meat for 7 days a week, they would
save 91 mega tons of greenhouse gas emissions. 