Essay by Eric Worrall
“… Unless humans rapidly change mass food production systems, including eating less beef and dairy, emissions from the sector could add nearly 1 degree to global temperatures by 2100 …”
The food we eat is ramping up global warming, study warns
By Mark Saunokonoko • Senior Journalist
8:51am Mar 7, 2023Unless humans rapidly change mass food production systems, including eating less beef and dairy, emissions from the sector could add nearly 1 degree to global temperatures by 2100, a study has warned.
If that modelling is accurate, the 1.5 degrees target in the Paris Agreement which called for countries to take concerted action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is in peril.
Global food consumption alone could boost warming by almost 1 degree by the end of this century, researchers from Columbia University in the US said.
…
Read more: https://www.9news.com.au/national/the-food-we-eat-could-add-nearly-1-c-to-global-warming-by-2100/acc958cd-a45c-4918-b0be-82465be2bb88
The abstract of the study;
Future warming from global food consumption
Catherine C. Ivanovich, Tianyi Sun, Doria R. Gordon & Ilissa B. Ocko
Nature Climate Change (2023)Cite this article
Abstract
Food consumption is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and evaluating its future warming impact is crucial for guiding climate mitigation action. However, the lack of granularity in reporting food item emissions and the widespread use of oversimplified metrics such as CO2 equivalents have complicated interpretation. We resolve these challenges by developing a global food consumption GHG emissions inventory separated by individual gas species and employing a reduced-complexity climate model, evaluating the associated future warming contribution and potential benefits from certain mitigation measures. We find that global food consumption alone could add nearly 1 °C to warming by 2100. Seventy five percent of this warming is driven by foods that are high sources of methane (ruminant meat, dairy and rice). However, over 55% of anticipated warming can be avoided from simultaneous improvements to production practices, the universal adoption of a healthy diet and consumer- and retail-level food waste reductions.
Read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01605-8
In my opinion, based on my personal experience, a mandatory switch to a vegetarian diet would kill a lot of people.
A while ago, I had a personal health crisis – I was putting on too much weight, and my blood pressure was climbing into the danger zone.
I had to lose weight or suffer the consequences. But how does a long term fat guy lose weight and keep the weight off?
My doctor said “meat is your friend”. Some of my friends said “I’m thin because I eat meat, and very little veg”.
I gave it a try – and it worked. I’ve lost heaps of weight, all my health metrics are back in the green again, or out of the red zone at least.
Meat works for me because I don’t feel hungry, which was the downfall of all the other diets I’ve tried over the years. I eat as much meat as I want, and still lose weight. The only rule I have to stick to is to avoid carb rich food, avoid potatoes, bread, corn and pasta (OK, maybe I break the rule once or twice per week – but not every day, like I used to).
So my response to anyone who demands that I surrender my lifeline to health and wellbeing, the one diet out of all the diets I tried which finally delivered results, a diet which is also helping some of my friends, to prevent one miserable degree of global warming by the end of the century, is you can take your climate concern and shove it… I think you know the rest of that phrase. And I suspect a lot of people in my situation would feel the same.
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“… Unless humans rapidly change mass food production systems, including eating less beef and dairy, emissions from the sector could add nearly 1 degree to global temperatures by 2100 …”
Survey question: Do you eat this cheeseburger if eating less beef and dairy could subtract nearly 1 degree to global temperatures by 2100?
Typos can be attributed to one-handed typing. The other hand was holding a cheeseburger.
Also: obligatory comment about eating a cheeseburger to control “feelings”, hunger or otherwise, when the weight of analysis sides against it.
See also “The greatest danger Tocqueville saw was that public opinion would become an all-powerful force, and that the majority could tyrannize unpopular minorities and marginal individuals.”
It is far more common for the minority to tyrannize the majority yes? ( I think we are getting there rapidly)
Make that a double cheeseburger, with fries and a shake!
Anyone remember when McDonalds had real malts?
Back when Hamburgers were 19¢ and Cheeseburgers were 29¢.
I can remember when it was real meat.
Give up Beef and Dairy… never going to happen.
Not on my watch
All Climate Hypocrites must go first and lead the way for others who CHOOSE to follow
Give up reading about global warming … I’m all for that.
Well, maybe we’ll all burn in a CO2-induced hellfire, but a good steak makes it go down easier.
Exercise, lifestyle and diet are the core of good health.
I saw a piece the other day that claimed that “the vast majority of Americans aged 17-24 are unfit for military service”, high obesity rates have narrowed the recruiting pool considerably. High sugar and processed food are not good. Forget the climate
change view just look at the health care costs.
I’m and old timer and get job offers now and again. I was told the younger guys just don’t want/know how to work, don’t always show up every day, can’t pass a drug screening ect.
It starts at home and at school.
An example of Mathemagic, assuming methane does not overlap the absorption spectrum of both water vapor and CO2, and forgetting that the absorption is a log effect. So assuming a dry oxy-nitrogen atmosphere, maybe. But the assumption runs contrary to reality.
They are probably a pack of vegans, anyway.
“They are probably a pack of vegans, anyway.”
Well, why don’t they go back to Vega? It’s only 40 light years away!
What they drive on Vega
Is ‘Vega’ also known as “Hell”?
Naw, you get a Hellcat there
Is it not true that Vegans emit more methane from their backsides along with the CO2 from their mouths? Maybe culling is required. Cows are effectively processed grass so should be suitable for vegans!
Did you hear about the tiger that lost weight on a vegan diet?
Mind you, he was only eating 1 vegan each day.
Cows are Vegan so I’m a second hand vegan
As I recall, had all their Paris Accord plans been followed perfectly by every nation, the G.A.T. increase to disaster would have been reduced by .1 to .3 degrees, using their math.
(Their CATASTROPHIC warming would have been delayed by, at most, 3 years.)
Atkins diet.
The absurdity from the abstract, “We resolve these challenges by developing a global food consumption GHG emissions inventory separated by individual gas species and employing a reduced-complexity climate model, evaluating the associated future warming contribution and potential benefits from certain mitigation measures.”
Thanks for the laugh, Catherine C. Ivanovich, Tianyi Sun, Doria R. Gordon & Ilissa B. Ocko !
Regards,
Bob
Publish or perish – I forgive them.
If Ilissa B Ocko has a Doctorate, does that make her Doc Ock?
Ooh my Spidey Senses are a tinglin’
While working under the Obama administration, a non-published call went out to all Federal researchers. My interpretation of this “call” was that if you can perform research that proves “climate change” you can receive a lot of multi-year funding for that research.
I just could not come up of anything that would be useful. I did not think about writing peer reviewed articles that infer that we should all starve to “save the planet.”
I predict food riots and political change coming. Sri Lanka was just the beginning.
Uh, no. I ain’t giving up eating meat for some study put together by some academics. Probably on the back of a taxpayer funded grant. 1 degree by 2100! Give me a break. For some supposed to be so smart “scientists”, they obviously missed the part of early education where warmth is required to grow the veggies and maintain life on the planet. More warmth, more veggies and everything else. Morons.
It’s definitely not well-done science, probably raw.
With them, science is rare.
That’s bad for science, but good for beef.
According to European elite sources, and Justin Trudeau, a diet is coming for us – oh no not them, of worm and cricket meat. Nutritious, and tasty they say. Drop me a note, I’m preparing cooking instructions and recipes! Trudeau has already dropped a few million on a grant to an Ontario company developing these products.
“could add nearly 1 degree to global temperatures by 2100″
I could win a billion dollar lottery by 2100 (after all, I have nearly 77 years) but it’s damn unlikely.
How does such nonsense ever get published? Models show what could happen verses what will happen…useless!
Further, so what if GMT increase by 1C in the next 77 years? From where I sit, we would all be much better off, especially if we could phase out the UN, the WEF, and the WHO along the way.
I’m sure the 1 billion starving people worldwide would love any kind of diet.
How about solving that issue before lecturing the rest of us on what we can and can’t eat?
And before any meanie greenie says it, the pastures used for growing cattle are grade 4 or worse so unsuitable for crops.
Where I live the land is flat enough mostly for growing crops but farms are mostly dairy.
The reason is that farms earn more money producing meat and milk.
It is also worth mentioning that most farms near me are not irrigated as there is sufficient rainfall.
I agree. Meat oriented diet options include Atkins, Keto and Carnivore. I used to be a semi vegetarian. Had trouble NOT gaining weight. I had heard of those meat based diets but didn’t take them seriously until watching some YouTube channels which promote this type of diet especially: KenDBerryMD (https://www.youtube.com/@KenDBerryMD/videos) and many others. My wife is fussy about the meat she buys- mostly organic turkey and beef. We no longer fear eathing eggs, real full cream milk and cheese, yogurt. We also eat plenty of vegetables, mostly what we grow or get at the better supermarkets. But dropping the fear of meat and dairy products is very satisfying and I control my weight better. So I’m eating far more fat than every before and my weight is now what I was when graduating from high school in ’67- 165 pounds and 5′ 10″ tall. Being very active all my life is important too.
However, my wife still won’t permit bacon in the house. I asked her to get some and she bought turkey bacon! Dr. Berry does an entire video showing how he cooks up a LOT of bacon which he loves.
So I detest these climatistas who want us to eat like rabbits.
Sustitute Spam for bacon. Slice it very thin and fry it up til the edges get burned. Tastes just like bacon with less grease.
I’m 53 and only a little above my late teens to mid 30s weight. Took about 2 years to lose 26kg, cut out carbs and worked hard on portion size. Plenty of meat and dairy, veges and as little processed stuff as I can get away with. Eat pretty much what I want now, just in moderation. It takes a while but smaller meals, consumed more leisurely also helps you avoid overeating.
Best advice as you age to control weight is CFD. Calorie ..ucking Deficit. It gets harder to work it off so you have to avoid taking it in. Food which helps you feel satisfied is the key.
Also exercise pretty much every day, I’m lucky enough to be able to ride a bike to work and swing past the beach for a swim most days. Incidental exercise is a really easy way to burn energy.
Well, this lie gets trotted out yet again. Yawn.
The progressives will simply implement rules and policies that will drive up the price of meat. Meat (and energy) will be reserved for the wealthy.
All in the name of equity!
Try this source to help anyone concerned about High Carbohydrate foods by checking the GLYCEMIC level of common foods:
University Health News
Excerpt:
Glycemic Index Chart: GI Ratings for Hundreds of Foods
The Glycemic Index (GI) chart shows how much and how quickly a carbohydrate-containing food raises your blood-sugar levels. The lower a food is on the GI, the lower the effect on your blood sugar.
The standardized Glycemic Index ranges from 0 to 100. Zero-glycemic foods—those without carbohydrates—include items like meats, fish, and oils. Pure sugar has a glycemic index of 100. Low-glycemic foods have a glycemic load of 55 or lower and include most fruits and vegetables, beans, dairy, and some grains. Foods such as bananas, raisins, and sweet potatoes are considered to be medium-glycemic foods and are ranked between 56 and 69. High-glycemic foods are ranked at 70 and above and include table sugar, ice cream, and other heavily processed foods that are high in calories and fat.
LINK
“75% of the warming is from high methane source foods—beef, dairy, rice”.
The Columbia authors do NOT know their radiative physics. True, methane is a GHG in the lab in dry air. BUT NOT in the real world where the atmosphere averages about 2% water vapor, which is much more abundant and completely overlaps the methane IR absorption bands. The new paper is simply wrong from the abstract. Should never have gotten through peer review.
This was an idea that has been demolished after the discovery last year of huge biomass deposits in the earth’s crust that leak vast quantities of methane over millennia. Also if a vegetarian diet was really good for humans, evolution would have ensured we were millennia ago. We are STILL omnivores so that is the scientific proof anyone needs.
So … if we eat more meat, Earth’s temperature rises which helps us to grow more meat. Seems like a win-win to me.
All those grazing lands tend to be grazing lands simply because they are productive for grass but not good enough to grow vegetables. So not eating meat is a waste of productive land.
Meat is how we humans eat grass.
Grazing animals is the most sustainable food production on earth.
There’s a reason my eyes are on the front of my face and not on the side of my head.
I will reuse your words. Brilliant.
“”If that modelling is accurate””
Not a chance
Senior journalist? Mediocre hacktivist
This is another bullshi! study undertaken by people who have no idea how food is produced.
Enteric methane from farmed livestock is not a problem and never will be a problem as all fodder consumed by farmed animals has absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere and the methane emitted during digestion is broken down within 10 years into CO2 and water vapour .
Not one additional atom of carbon is added to the atmosphere over any ten year period .
Between 1999 and 2009 methane atmospheric levels were stable so there was no problem with methane from farmed animals .
Over those 10 years world coal production was also stable at around 4.7 billion tonnes per year. No problem there also .
Since then coal production and combustion has increased to 8 billion tonnes and China now uses 5.3 billion tonnes .
Methane levels have increased since 2010 but at under 2 ppm parts per million in the atmosphere any warming effect is minimal.
Water vapour at 2% = 20,000 ppm dwarfs any future warming from methane .
Grass fed meat and milk production has a very low carbon footprint .
What these clowns who write these articles do not understand is that there are now 8 billion people to be fed in this world and they cannot be fed with subsistence farming .
Half of the worlds food is grown with the nitrogenous fertilizer that is produced with natural gas.
Restrict or ban this fertilizer and wide spread starvation will happen right around the .
“Unless humans rapidly change mass food production systems, including eating less beef and dairy, emissions from the sector could add nearly 1 degree to global temperatures by 2100 …”
It could also add zero degrees. I’ll risk it.
Maybe I’m too unscientific to understand the nuances, but people move from Chicago, where the average annual temperature is 51, to Miami, where it’s 67, all the time without a problem. “Nearly a degree” of global temperature increase just isn’t panic-inducing.
These people cannot accept that we don’t worship them for their brilliant lifestyle choices. They want to force their belief system on the rest of us. We must all share their misery. The fact that the rest of us enjoy eating meat is enough for them to want to outlaw it.
Yes very logical. One doesn’t need to understand the science to appreciate positive changes in our weather, winter to summer! A few degrees of warming is only beneficial to all, so the AGW scare campaign is based on stupidity, never mind the utter falsehood that CO2 is a pollutant, that the EPA is now being asked to reconsider its verdict on.
If the population understood that the whole basis for the climate scare has been scientifically proved to be wrong, they will get very angry with their politicians and the environmental lobby fulminating this madness.
One degree is also a one hundred percent lie.
A classic.
https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.gKCUGbiFq1yJhH9JCHWR_gHaKV&pid=Api
Everybody knows that the cute non-domesticated animals which would replace the domesticated livestock once that grassland is rewilded don’t emit enteric methane,
Water buffalo, bison, antelopes, gazelles, kangaroos, carribou, etc, are as pure as the driven snow.
And how could anybody even consider the notion that Bambi would be sufficiently crass to do so much as burp, let alone pass wind?