I previously blogged about the change in behaviour we probably need to make to save the planet.
But I spoke to someone today who told me I needed to read a new book – called Six Degrees – by Mark Lynas. I googled him and guess what – we are all doomed!
In essence this is what he says:
In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a landmark report projecting average global surface temperatures to rise between 1.4 degrees and 5.8 degrees Celsius (roughly 2 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of this century. Based on this forecast Mark outlines what to expect from a warming world, degree by degree. At 1 degree Celsius, most coral reefs and many mountain glaciers will be lost. A 3-degree rise would spell the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, disappearance of Greenland’s ice sheet, and the creation of deserts across the Midwestern United States and southern Africa. A 6-degree increase would eliminate most life on Earth, including much of humanity.
This sounds like very bad news. Especially at Gas Mark 6.
And then some great news – in bucketfuls.
Firstly, it seems that Dogs and Cats are contributing to global warming. According to New Zealand-based authors Robert and Brenda Vale the amount of land needed to grow food for pets ranging from budgerigars to cats and dogs is the issue. They say an average Collie eats 164kg of meat and 95kg of cereals a year, giving it a high impact on the planet
A medium-sized dog has the same impact as a Toyota Land Cruiser driven 6,000 miles a year, while a cat is equivalent to a Volkswagen Golf.
Wow.
And then the news got even more ‘interesting’.
Lord Stern told The Telegraph that “meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”
So the answer is that all pets need to go and we need to eat salad?
I think I will stick to trying to build greener buildings and getting folks to turn the lights off. These sort of reports really do nothing for the ‘green’ cause.
November 27th, 2009 at 17:18
[...] There was a great story on the Today Programme which set out a new plan to save the world. Kill a cow – well actually lots of them… and sheep too. 30% to be precise. The argument runs something like – if you have a cull then it has two effects. The first is that the cows stop producing methane which spoils the planet (and smells). The second is that we will stop eating beef-burgers and thus become salad eating ‘ski yoghurt‘ people. I have blogged about this before here. [...]