[GWSG] Climate & diet; EAT-Lancet study; birds in decline; conscious living; individual acts; losses understated; twilight of the ICE; Gore summarizes

[Tilley, Al]

1. If we are going to have a climate which supports us we are going to have to eat a lot less meat and dairy foods. An altered diet will not only avoid emissions directly from the animals but indirectly from sources such as the fertilizer which grows their feed and the transportation involved along the line. It would also free the land now devoted to husbandry for reforestation and the reestablishment of wild populations.   https://www.motherjones.com/food/2019/04/meat-beef-climate-change-greenhouse-gas-emissions-hamburger-plant-based-impossible-burger-mushrooms-vegetarian-vegan/

2. The best transition food plan available is the planetary health diet, based on the largest study encompassing both health and climate, the EAT-Lancet study published last January. The EAT site links to both detailed info and recipes for some great-looking food. https://eatforum.org/learn-and-discover/the-planetary-health-diet/

3. The US and Canada have lost more than a quarter of their bird populations in the last fifty years. Grassland and shore birds have suffered particularly. Causes were not discussed in the Science paper, but co-author Peter Marra observed that the losses were “consistent with what we're seeing elsewhere with other taxa showing massive declines, including insects and amphibians.”  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190919142331.htm

4. Finally, industrial meat and dairy are more compatible with a life of greed and cruelty, a world of diminishing birds, bees, and frogs, than with a life guided by an awareness of consequences and suffering. If we want to be at home in the living world, and do not choose Trump’s wasteland, diet is part of our choice. But little is simple unless we close our eyes. Consider DHA, a fat necessary especially to healthy young human brains, and not found in plants (though it is in algae). https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/diagnosis-diet/201903/the-brain-needs-animal-fat?fbclid=IwAR2Cv7PftKZoQihEwX_OGqVVo1dR8BZUQnMmmWomj1ac7aCYr-8jV3Exnbw

5. “Some reject the notion that individual action – recycling or changing how much meat we eat or how we travel – is a sufficient response to the sheer scale of the problem confronting the planet. But this misses a key point about how we live our lives. In the heat of political debate, we forget sometimes the importance of individual acts.” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/22/tiny-changes-might-seem-insignificant-but-they-save-planet

6. A joint report by Columbia’s Earth Institute, Germany’s Potsdam Institute, and the UK’s Grantham Research Institute warns that estimates of the economic damages of the climate crisis have been far too low, misleading policy makers. “[W}hen the missing risks are taken into account, the case for strong and urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions becomes even more compelling."  https://phys.org/news/2019-09-economists-downplaying-major-climate.html

7. Among the leading German auto manufacturers Mercedes will continue to make internal combustion engines until about 2026. VW will follow ten years later, and BMW has not yet committed to ceasing production. https://cleantechnica.com/2019/09/20/daimler-vw-saying-auf-wiedersehn-to-internal-combustion-engines-but-not-bmw/?utm_source=CleanTechnica+News&utm_campaign=f053ea934d-Daily+Email+CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b9b83ee7eb-f053ea934d-331994013

8. Al Gore surveys the movements away from climate disaster and calls for a political change which would support the policies necessary to complete the transition. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/opinion/al-gore-climate-change.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_190922?campaign_id=2&instance_id=12354&segment_id=17233&user_id=8c547d53af6ff6fc7d49cb8612c07102&regi_id=436283740922

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.unf.edu/pipermail/gwsg/attachments/20190922/fbe0054a/attachment.html>