Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to the Guardian, agricultural fixation on providing high yield affordable food, instead of paying more attention to GHG emissions associated with farming, is endangering the Paris Climate Accord.
Intensive farming worldwide threatens Paris climate accord, report says
Rising emissions of nitrous oxide from farming are putting world on track to exceed 2C heating
Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent
Thu 8 Oct 2020 02.13 AEDTThe spread of intensive farming is threatening to jeopardise the world’s chances of meeting the terms of the Paris agreement on the climate crisis, as the increasing use of artificial fertiliser and growing populations of livestock are raising the concentration of a key greenhouse gas to levels far beyond those seen naturally.
Nitrous oxide is given off by the overuse of artificial fertilisers, and by organic sources such as animal manure, and has a heating effect 300 times that of carbon dioxide. Levels of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere are 20% higher than in pre-industrial times, with most of that increase coming from farming.
Emissions of nitrous oxide are growing at a rate of 1.4% a year, outstripping the forecasts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and left untrammelled would put the world on track to exceed the 2C warming limit set under the Paris agreement, according to a paper published in the journal Nature.Emissions from 13 dairy firms match those of entire UK, says reportRead more
Hanqin Tian, a professor at Auburn University in the US and lead author of the study, said: “The dominant driver of the increase comes from agriculture and the growing demand for food and feed for animals will further increase global nitrous oxide emissions. There is a conflict between the way we are feeding people, and stabilising the climate.”
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“We have the tools to reduce this problem,” said Parvadha Suntharalingam of the University of East Anglia, the co-author of the paper. “This is not insurmountable. But these practices need to be adopted more widely. We don’t have to sacrifice production, just make sure it is managed more carefully.”
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/07/intensive-farming-worldwide-threatens-paris-climate-accord-report-says
The World Health Organization estimates 820 million people are medically malnourished.
Now finally, after decades of slow progress, intensive farming is finally on the rise. Continued facilitation of the widespread unrestricted application of nitrate fertiliser could be all the world needs to do, to ensure every one of those 820 million people one day receives enough to eat.
I’ll leave it to your imagination what I think of heartless climate activists who would even consider interfering with the only process which has ever shown a hope of feeding the hungry.
Face facts CO2 and carbon taxing was always small beer but a global nitrogen tax? Now you’re talking.
“Intensive farming worldwide threatens Paris climate accord …”
Translation: ” People eating threatens Paris climate accord…”
Yep, and just think of all those tractors burning gasoline or diesel fuel.
Democrats hate the working class. Pick the industry. They’ll make you poorer. They aren’t going to bring anyone together. They’re only going to blow the country apart even more.
Take the food away from the poor countries and take the money away from the rich countries. Very simple plan to reduce the world population
Given that it appears ANYTHING humans do is bad, why are they so worried about us extincting ourselves?
That settles it then! Let’s kill off the 800,000,000+ undernourished people. That will end the need for intensive agriculture.
These climate alarmists are clearly not Holocaust deniers, they are obviously Holocaust approvers!
Eric,
While unfortunately there are plenty of people malnourished the issue is not a lack of
food but rather a lack of compassion. The world produces on average over 2800 calories of food per capita per day. Which is more than enough to make everyone obese. That people are dying from famine is simply due to the fact that governments in the west don’t care enough to donate food and prefer to let tonnes of food go to waste rather than ship it to where it could do some good.
Izaak,
Yes, there is plenty of food for all, and capacity to feed many more. The problem is distribution, getting the right foods and commodities to the people when and where they need them. However, I reject your assertion that we “don’t care”. Western governments and charitable people have been there and done that and continue to care and help where appropriate. People starve because of their own broken and/or corrupt governments that have little regard for their own countrymen. The West steps in during major famine crises, but normal, day-to-day food supply for a nation’s people is the responsibility of each respective population and their government, many of which are decidedly enemies of the West. Fallen, sinful humanity, worked out through the hands of callous, corrupt, greedy and/or power hungry leaders, results in needless poverty, disease, famine, ignorance, etc. Local resources, climate and weather variability provide the context for the continuing drama of life on earth.
Other people don’t care is the standard line of the progressive. It also relieves them of any responsibility towards helping those in need.
Ah yes, the old evil capitalists are starving the poor line of idiocy we have come to expect from brain dead progressives.
First off, the government doesn’t own the grain so the government can’t ship it to anyone.
Secondly, you are looking at how many calories are produced, not how many calories end up being delivered. If you can’t figure out what happens to those calories between farm and plate, then no amount of educating will ever help you.
Beyond that, every one of those people who are starving live in one of your socialist paradises.
India and China couldn’t feed their people either, until they dumped socialism and started using a system that worked.
Mark,
It is common knowledge what happens to the food between the farm and the
plate — much of it is thrown out because western consumers don’t want to eat
badly shaped food. In the US for example 31% of food is wasted at the retail and consumer level, much of that because people buy too much food and then throw it out. The amount of waste in the UK is similar. If governments around the world actually wanted to feed everyone it could be done overnight. But they don’t.
Much of what grocery stores throw out has to be rendered inedible because that’s what the government regulations require.
As to your faith that government is capable of doing anything well, just consider the source.
Those who are hungry, are hungry because that’s what the local governments want. Short of invading the countries and replacing their governments, there is nothing the west can do. So take your sanctimonious nonsense and sell it to a fellow worshiper somewhere.
“Izaak Walton October 8, 2020 at 3:14 pm”
I have been to Ethiopia, I was surprised at how much perfectly good food was thrown away. So the US is not the only food waster.
All of which goes to show that there is not a lack of food. There is a lack of equitable food distribution.
“Izaak Walton October 8, 2020 at 7:15 pm”
Yes, and sort of no (Depends), to the first point. Definitely no to the second.
As always, the socialist puts everything down to the distribution of wealth.
Who cares what the facts are, Izaak has an agenda to push.
How exactly does an “equitable distribution” prevent food from rotting in the fields while being stored?
Of course if you alarmists would allow them to have electricity so that they can have refrigerators, a lot of food waste could be avoided.
However that doesn’t fit your agenda, so you will ignore it.
@Izaak Walton:
The world collectively throws away over 1/3 of our food. That’s everybody, all of us. Most of that 1/3 is left in the fields and never makes it onto the trucks to the food centers (canneries or distribution) or even the farmer’s markets. It’s worldwide, not just the “West”.
We grow enough food to feed everyone and all our livestock, however everyone doesn’t live where the food grows. Distribution losses, food market crashes, stealing, hoarding, economics…it all plays a part around the globe. All of it and while I’m astounded at the 1/3, I’m surprised it isn’t more at the same time.
This is nothing new either, the growing of food and tossing of it at the same time–it’s been around much longer than the “industrial” age. But the imperialism viewpoint of that age does still stick around and that is a shame. Instead of praising companies that are sharing knowledge of moving subsistence farming into feeding more scores of people by practices from experience (and better able to absorb the loss of food), those who fall into the imperialism mindset see any interference as the haves keeping the have nots from achieving anything because it makes those haves feel superior. Utter rubbish! It’s not just the West that has these practices, there are people and companies the world over that try to improve food production for their own economics and that is nothing new. Since we developed agriculture, different cultures have shared knowledge in order to gain other goods.
Great post.
Why did my two comments disappear? They posted, I saw them on the list, then they vanished.
One just returned, but not the other. Strange. Were they in moderation for some reason? This erratic behavior is annoying.
It’s your rival, Buck Rogers – he is jealous and always trying to trick you.
I think Buck caught Pflashgordon messing with Wilma behind the bike shed trying to peel her costume off.
Not to worry, global debt-funded stimulus will pay you not to farm. Kick back and do nothing like everyone else.
I’m not broke. I still have checks in the checkbook!
The Valley in California is a pretty impressive agriculture operation….depends on irrigation and those fields seem to stretch for miles….Midwest corn production is impressive but I don’t agree with alcohol from corn – Brazil produces 2 crops of sugar cane per year and produces alcohol and sugar per demand. Florida agriculture is impressive….bought some corn this spring at 20 cents per ear but it had no flavor. Australian sugar cane production is impressive….train tracks run right into the cane fields but sometimes drought hits. A man in Omaha has a greenhouse that produces citrus…uses drainage pipe buried in the ground to provide heat. Green houses with irrigation can produce amazing results…but at a higher cost.
“The poor must die to save the planet ” say the global elitists. This is the real message from the “tolerant left”
I can’t begin to stress how arrogant and mentally ill these people are. To take all freedoms and issue strict guidelines for how to live properly for all and even more sick, let (whatever they mean by that) billions die to “save the planet” as though the planet need their pathetic help.
They make the Nazi’s look like nice guys, and have the gall to call me a “denier”.
Eric?
Do we know how many of those 820 million underfed people are also Guardian readers?
I am thinking of a number between zero and… ummm… zero, but wondering if there was any other hard data around.
Feeding People Interferes With Government Efforts To Starve Them
Women and children hardest hit.
Eric, the maize picture is not depicting drought. When it’s too dry, corn leaves stick up like swords and fold a bit to make a trough so that morning dew runs down to the stock and thence the roots. I farmed for a dozen years to raise a big family and I remember this self preservation behavior of corn. You could see a little ring of wet soil at the rootline each morning. During and following rain, the leave double over and direct rainwater away from the root.
I’ve seen this with cabbage too. The outer leaves unfurl down like hands held out and in the morning before sunrise, each has a small “cup” of water. When sun hits the plant, the hands rise up and the water flows down the trough of the leaf stem directly to the roots.