Farming and eating need to change to curb global warming: U.N. report

[snoop1130]

Farming and eating need to change to curb global warming: U.N. report

By Nina Chestney, Stephanie Nebehay

 

Greenpeace activists hold a banner in front of the United Nations before a news conference by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), after its 50th session ends in Geneva, Switzerland August 8, 2019. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

 

LONDON/GENEVA (Reuters) - The way the world manages land, produces and eats food has to change to curb global warming or food security, health and biodiversity will be at risk, a U.N. report on the effects of climate change on land said on Thursday.

 

The report said global population growth and changes in consumption patterns have caused unprecedented rates of land and water use. It called for big changes to farming and eating habits, but stopped short of explicitly advocating going meat free.

 

Dietary changes, featuring plant-based foods and sustainable animal-sourced food, could free up several million square kilometers of land by 2050 and potentially cut 0.7-8.0 gigatonnes a year of carbon dioxide equivalent, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in the report.

 

“Delaying action ... could result in some irreversible impacts on some ecosystems, which in the longer term has the potential to lead to substantial additional emissions from ecosystems that would accelerate global warming,” it said.

 

The IPCC met to finalize the report this week in Geneva, Switzerland, which should help to guide governments meeting later this year at a conference in Chile on ways to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement and avoid runaway climate change.

 

Ahead of the report’s release, Greenpeace activists in Switzerland unveiled a banner outside the meeting reading “Less Meat=Less Heat. Climate Action NOW!”

 

In a nearly 60-page summary for policymakers, the IPCC said that since the pre-industrial period, land surface air temperature has already risen by 1.53 degrees Celsius - twice as much as the global average temperature (0.87C).

 

Such warming has caused more heatwaves, droughts and heavy precipitation, as well as land degradation and desertification.

 

Human use directly affects more than 70% of the global, ice-free land surface and agriculture accounts for 70% of freshwater use.

 

Agriculture, forestry and other land use activities accounted for 23% of total net manmade greenhouse gas emissions during 2007-2016. When pre- and post-production activity in the food system are included, that rises to up to 37%.

 

“This is a perfect storm. Limited land, an expanding human population, and all wrapped in a suffocating blanket of climate emergency,” Dave Reay, professor of carbon management at the University of Edinburgh said, commenting on the report.

 

Last year, in the IPCC’s first special report, it had already warned that keeping the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), rather than the 2C target agreed under the Paris Agreement, would require rapid changes.

 

FOOD SECURITY

 

The latest report also warned of more disruption to global food chains as extreme weather events become even more frequent due to climate change.

 

It projects a median increase of 7.6% in cereal prices by 2050, leading to higher food prices and the increased risk of food insecurity and hunger.

 

Changes in consumption patterns have already contributed to about 2 billion adults now being overweight or obese, while an estimated 821 million people are still undernourished.

 

Per capita supply of vegetable oils and meat has more than doubled based on data since 1961 but currently, 25-30% of total food produced is lost or wasted.

 

Yields of crops such as maize and wheat have declined in some regions, while those of maize, wheat and sugar beets have increased in other regions in recent decades.

 

FORESTS

 

Land can be both a source and sink of carbon dioxide emissions, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

 

While forests can soak up heat-trapping gases from the atmosphere, desertification and deforestation can amplify warming due to the loss of vegetation cover and soil erosion.

 

Measures to cut emissions, such as the production of biofuels, biochar - made from biomass - as well as planting trees, will also increase demand for land conversion.

 

Reducing deforestation and forest degradation could result in a reduction of 0.4-5.8 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent, the report said.

 

The Amazon, about 60 percent of which lies in Brazil, is the world’s largest tropical rainforest but was not directly mentioned in the summary for policymakers.

 

The rainforest is sometimes called the “lungs of the world” because of the vast amounts of carbon dioxide its trees absorb.

 

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has supported opening up protected areas of the Amazon to facilitate agriculture and mining since he took office in January.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-08-08

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[JHolmesJr]

Im not sure I want to be told what I should eat.

By a bunch of people whose motives/funding sources aren't exactly clear

[Bluespunk]

29 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has supported opening up protected areas of the Amazon to facilitate agriculture and mining since he took office in January.

I genuinely wonder if the planet might not be better off if this man had not survived the assassination attempt on his life. 

 

The report itself tells us nothing new. The findings have been known to anyone who cared to think for a long time now. 

 

 

 

Edited August 8, 2019 by Bluespunk

[mogandave]

Aren't these the people that told us the world was ending in 12 years? Why do the projections go out to 2050?

 

When I was in high school they were telling us everyone would be starving by now.

 

Is it just me or have the last few days been unseasonably cool in Bangkok?

[Cryingdick]

Stop breeding like flies is the solution to the problem. 

[bristolboy]

27 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

Stop breeding like flies is the solution to the problem. 

Since the average citizen of the highly developed nations consumes a lot more per capita than the citizen of poor nations, that's only part of the answer.

[nauseus]

11 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Since the average citizen of the highly developed nations consumes a lot more per capita than the citizen of poor nations, that's only part of the answer.

But unfortunately it is the biggest part of the answer to this problem and many more. 

[mogandave]

Has not the birthrate in most developed countries flatlined and in many cases declining?

[Trentham]

8 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

Stop breeding like flies is the solution to the problem. 

Exactly. Humans are just another infestation.

[bristolboy]

11 hours ago, JHolmesJr said:

Im not sure I want to be told what I should eat.

By a bunch of people whose motives/funding sources aren't exactly clear

Because you looked real hard to find the funding sources? Took me about 1 minute.

http://www.climateaction.org/news/countries-to-increase-financial-contributions-to-the-ipcc-to-cover-for-uss

And I guess if you can't quarrel with the facts, you can always go to motives.

[VocalNeal]

11 hours ago, JHolmesJr said:

By a bunch of people whose motives........aren't exactly clear

They are angry vegetarians. Or worse vegans.

 

They would not be interested that one can get more kg/acre of Iguana than one can get from beef etc. So rather than cutting down the 3 dimensional jungle simply farm Iguanas and convince McDonalds to convert to Iguana burgers.

Edited August 9, 2019 by VocalNeal

[bristolboy]

2 hours ago, mogandave said:

Has not the birthrate in most developed countries flatlined and in many cases declining?

And it could be declining a lot faster in nations that need it most. I know of one major nation that has actually cut support for international family planning and reproductive health services. Want to guess which one that is?

[evadgib]

Having watched several unconvincing recent reports two things spring to mind;

1. The herds of wild Bovine, Equine and anything thing else with four legs that existed before we turned up dwarf the total Inc domestic stock on the planet today &

2. There's a 'Veggie' undertone to all this that is just beneath the surface.

Just my 2p.

[WeekendRaider]

this is almost as pathetic as the still somewhat popular "it's only about some ice melting in 2100 something".

 

but try Rosenfeld et. al. January 2019 in Science on how we underestimated negative forcings from aerosols.  

and for South East Asian residents... Mandy Fruend in Nat Geosci May 2019 where they used a proxie, as otherwise we only have 60 years of basic data on the ocean (duh) and discovered we may be headed for a ENSO that makes 2015-2016 and 1997 a cakewalk. 

then you realize hey!  our time ****might**** be a tad more limited than these UN folks "think"..... and why Donald Trump, whose family owns all kinds of tourist related businesses, has a much more "down to Earth" original, and more prevailing then ever, rationale for a better southern border wall than he lets on... even to his 3rd or 4th wife.   just maybe.  

 

the UN is the same folks who gave us "CORSIA offsets".... in 2027..... on some flights.  after many years of "research" and "thinking".   

Edited August 9, 2019 by WeekendRaider

[Trentham]

1 hour ago, evadgib said:

Having watched several unconvincing recent reports two things spring to mind;

1. The herds of wild Bovine, Equine and anything thing else with four legs that existed before we turned up dwarf the total Inc domestic stock on the planet today &

2. There's a 'Veggie' undertone to all this that is just beneath the surface.

Just my 2p.

2p. for that? You were ripped off. And where do you get your info from? Australia for example has hundreds of millions of sheep, tens of millions of cattle, hundreds of thousands of feral buffalo, deer, camels and horses where 200 years ago it had none. Stop watching Fox News and other such channels.

[Bluespunk]

2 hours ago, evadgib said:

Having watched several unconvincing recent reports two things spring to mind;

1. The herds of wild Bovine, Equine and anything thing else with four legs that existed before we turned up dwarf the total Inc domestic stock on the planet today &

2. There's a 'Veggie' undertone to all this that is just beneath the surface.

Just my 2p.

If it was natural, wild species that were roaming the planet you might have a point. However that is not the situation is it.

 

Most of the cattle on the planet are not naturally breeding but are the result of intense cattle farming on an industrial scale.

 

Forests are being decimated to create grazing land. Therein lies the double whammy, carbon reducing forests are cleared for methane producing cattle. 

 

You dont have to be veggie to see the problem. Cut down on meat and dairy consumption, reduce demand and start planting trees (or any type of plant really) not cutting them down.  

Edited August 9, 2019 by Bluespunk

[overherebc]

2 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

They are angry vegetarians. Or worse vegans.

 

They would not be interested that one can get more kg/acre of Iguana than one can get from beef etc. So rather than cutting down the 3 dimensional jungle simply farm Iguanas and convince McDonalds to convert to Iguana burgers.

Or crocodile burgers and make it snappy.

For old crusties like me it's all too late. I am convinced it's all going to get very bad before it gets better, if ever.

All the change over to electric cars/bybrid cars sounds good, but, producing the electricity for them comes from where?, dare I say burning fossil fuels?

Wind power/sun power is there but to replace all the usual power stations is going to take a very long time and it's appears we don't have enough time and inclination to do it.

Dropping the world population by 30% would be  a really good start.

Edited August 9, 2019 by overherebc

[albertik]

"Let them eat cake"

[bert bloggs]

Why do they bother ,nobody will take any notice and nothing will change ,eventually half of mankind will die out and then it will all start again .

[cooked]

54 minutes ago, Trentham said:

2p. for that? You were ripped off. And where do you get your info from? Australia for example has hundreds of millions of sheep, tens of millions of cattle, hundreds of thousands of feral buffalo, deer, camels and horses where 200 years ago it had none. Stop watching Fox News and other such channels.

What has Fox News got to do with anything remotely connected to this report?

[geoffbezoz]

5 hours ago, mogandave said:

Has not the birthrate in most developed countries flatlined and in many cases declining?

yes but its the Indians that are breeding like flies still. The birth rate is outstripping deaths more than 2:1.   Put the amount of curry they eat into the mix and the 7% methane into the atmosphere from human flatulence is significant.

 

India Demographics Profile 2018

Population	1,281,935,911 (July 2017 est.)
Median age	total: 27.9 years male: 27.2 years female: 28.6 years (2017 est.)
Population growth rate	1.17% (2017 est.)
Birth rate	19 births/1,000 population (2017 est.)
Death rate	7.3 deaths/1,000 population (2017 est.)

Do humans fart methane gas?

A typical fart is composed of about 59 percent nitrogen, 21 percent hydrogen, 9 percent carbon dioxide, 7 percent methane and 4 percent oxygen. Only about one percent of a fart contains hydrogen sulfide gas and mercaptans, which contain sulfur, and the sulfur is what makes farts stink.19 Jan 2018

[nauseus]

5 hours ago, mogandave said:

Has not the birthrate in most developed countries flatlined and in many cases declining?

Yes, it has. But that in less developed countries, like most in Africa, is still increasing rapidly.

[nauseus]

1 hour ago, geoffbezoz said:

yes but its the Indians that are breeding like flies still. The birth rate is outstripping deaths more than 2:1.   Put the amount of curry they eat into the mix and the 7% methane into the atmosphere from human flatulence is significant.

 

India Demographics Profile 2018

Population	1,281,935,911 (July 2017 est.)
Median age	total: 27.9 years male: 27.2 years female: 28.6 years (2017 est.)
Population growth rate	1.17% (2017 est.)
Birth rate	19 births/1,000 population (2017 est.)
Death rate	7.3 deaths/1,000 population (2017 est.)

Do humans fart methane gas?

A typical fart is composed of about 59 percent nitrogen, 21 percent hydrogen, 9 percent carbon dioxide, 7 percent methane and 4 percent oxygen. Only about one percent of a fart contains hydrogen sulfide gas and mercaptans, which contain sulfur, and the sulfur is what makes farts stink.19 Jan 2018

Hence the occasional green flash if you're into that kind of thing!

Edited August 9, 2019 by nauseus

[nauseus]

1 hour ago, albertik said:

"Let them eat cake"

Cakes make you fart.

[nauseus]

3 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

They are angry vegetarians. Or worse vegans.

 

They would not be interested that one can get more kg/acre of Iguana than one can get from beef etc. So rather than cutting down the 3 dimensional jungle simply farm Iguanas and convince McDonalds to convert to Iguana burgers.

Be careful what you wish for! ????

 

 

 

[DrTuner]

What needs to change is the number of people on the planet. Unbelievable it's still not the number one priority.

 

https://populationmatters.org/

[evadgib]

1 hour ago, cooked said:

What has Fox News got to do with anything remotely connected to this report?

...a stick for veggies to beat us with is my guess.

[Trentham]

1 hour ago, cooked said:

What has Fox News got to do with anything remotely connected to this report?

Well to quote you.............."Why be difficult? With a bit of effort you could be bloody well impossible."

Fox news and a few other right leaning TV channels constantly spread b.s.

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, geoffbezoz said:

yes but its the Indians that are breeding like flies still. The birth rate is outstripping deaths more than 2:1.   Put the amount of curry they eat into the mix and the 7% methane into the atmosphere from human flatulence is significant.

 

India Demographics Profile 2018

Population	1,281,935,911 (July 2017 est.)
Median age	total: 27.9 years male: 27.2 years female: 28.6 years (2017 est.)
Population growth rate	1.17% (2017 est.)
Birth rate	19 births/1,000 population (2017 est.)
Death rate	7.3 deaths/1,000 population (2017 est.)

Do humans fart methane gas?

A typical fart is composed of about 59 percent nitrogen, 21 percent hydrogen, 9 percent carbon dioxide, 7 percent methane and 4 percent oxygen. Only about one percent of a fart contains hydrogen sulfide gas and mercaptans, which contain sulfur, and the

sulfur is what makes farts stink.19 Jan 2018

How dare you!!!!

My farts don't stink.

 

[overherebc]

Seems try to quote someone has some problems. ( since latest upgrade ).