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The state has issued its plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. The plan would require shrinking the per capita carbon footprint of Californians by an average of four tons per year, using more efficient buildings and appliances, and reducing miles driven by clamping down on urban sprawl. Auto manufacturers would be driven to make cleaner cars, and utilities would need to turn to solar and wind to hike energy efficiency levels.

Your thoughts?

http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/scopingplan/document/psp.pdf

Meat must be rationed to four portions a week, says report on climate change• Study looks at food impact on greenhouse gases
• Return to old-fashioned cooking habits urgedAll comments () Juliette Jowit The Guardian, Tuesday September 30 2008
Article history
People will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change, a major new report warns.

The report, by the Food Climate Research Network, based at the University of Surrey, also says total food consumption should be reduced, especially “low nutritional value” treats such as alcohol, sweets and chocolates.

It urges people to return to habits their mothers or grandmothers would have been familiar with: buying locally in-season products, cooking in bulk and in pots with lids or pressure cookers, avoiding waste and walking to the shops – alongside more modern tips such as using the microwave and internet shopping.

The report goes much further than any previous advice after mounting concern about the impact of the livestock industry on greenhouse gases and rising food prices. It follows a four-year study of the impact of food on climate change and is thought to be the most thorough study of its kind.

Tara Garnett, the report’s author, warned that campaigns encouraging people to change their habits voluntarily were doomed to fail and urged the government to use caps on greenhouse gas emissions and carbon pricing to ensure changes were made. “Food is important to us in a great many cultural and symbolic ways, and our food choices are affected by cost, time, habit and other influences,” the report says. “Study upon study has shown that awareness-raising campaigns alone are unlikely to work, particularly when it comes to more difficult changes.”

The report’s findings are in line with an investigation by the October edition of the Ecologist magazine, which found that arguments for people to go vegetarian or vegan to stop climate change and reduce pressure on rising food prices were exaggerated and would damage the developing world in particular, where many people depend on animals for essential food, other products such as leather and wool, and for manure and help in tilling fields to grow other crops.

Instead, it recommended cutting meat consumption by at least half and making sure animals were fed as much as possible on grass and food waste which could not be eaten by humans.

“The notion that cows and sheep are four-legged weapons of mass destruction has become something of a distraction from the real issues in both climate change and food production,” said Pat Thomas, the Ecologist’s editor.

The head of the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change, Rajendra Pachauri, also sparked global debate this month when he urged people to have at least one meat-free day a week.

The Food Climate Research Network found that measured by production, the UK food sector produces greenhouse gases equivalent to 33m tonnes of carbon. Measured by consumption – including imports – the total rises to 43.3m tonnes. Both figures work out at under one fifth of UK emissions, but they exclude the indirect impacts of actions such as clearing rainforest for cattle and crops, which other studies estimate would add up to 5% to 20% of global emissions.

The report found the meat and dairy sectors together accounted for just over half of those emissions; potatoes, fruit and vegetables for 15%; drinks and other products with sugar for another 15%; and bread, pastry and flour for 13%.

It also revealed which parts of the food chain were the most polluting. Although packaging has had a lot of media and political attention, it only ranked fifth in importance behind agriculture – especially the methane produced by livestock burping – manufacturing, transport, and cooking and refrigeration at home.

The report calls for meat and dairy consumption to be cut in developed countries so that global production remains stable as the population grows to an estimated 9bn by 2050.

At the same time emissions from farms, transport, manufacturing and retail could be cut, with improvements including more efficient use of fertilisers, feed and energy, changed diets for livestock, and more renewable fuels – leading to a total reduction in emissions from the sector of 50% to 67%, it says.

The UN and other bodies recommend that developed countries should reduce total emissions by 80% by 2050.

However, the National Farmers’ Union warned that its own study, with other industry players, published last year, found net emissions from agriculture could only be cut by up to 50% if the carbon savings from building renewable energy sources on farms were taken into account.

The NFU also called for government incentives to help farmers make the changes. “Farmers aren’t going to do this out of the goodness of their hearts, because farmers don’t have that luxury; many of our membe
There is not a bill or any legislation to force a rationing of milk or meat, you who didn’t read the article are jumping to conclusions.
I am curious if those who are concerned with global climate change are considering lowering consumption of milk and meat?
BTW eating lower on the food chain is good for your health!!!

k so i had to write a poem for school, wat do u think?? & can u think of a gud title… i was thinkin of ‘our climate, our change’, or jst ‘climate change’but i thought that was a bit boring… wat do u thinkk??

here it is..

Our earth, our planet, our world as a whole,
Could be tumbling to pieces thanks to our role

The environment is our lifeline but its wasting away,
Climate Change, Global Warming and Greenhouse Gases are all causing disarray.

The Environment is our home; we all have to care,
We can’t live without its water, trees, oceans and air.

It has been given as a gift to us, this beautiful creation,
Have we taken care of it, or will it fall prey to exploitation?

Fossil Fuels, logging, cars, factories and pollution
They are all killing our planet, there must be a solution.

However humanity should never lose hope,
There are still plenty of ways that we can cope.

We can do our bit to save our planet,
Our bit to save our world.

Every time we save water, every time we turn out the lights,
Every time we don’t use our cars and instead chose our bikes

We are doing our little bit to save this treasure, our little bit to save our world,
If we all try and work together, we can make a world of difference, working towards our futures existence.
i was also considering ‘our planet, our change’ …

In his address at the global climate change conference last week, President Bush argued “We must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people.” Cato scholar Patrick J. Michaels contends, “Let’s get real and give the politically incorrect answers to global warming’s inconvenient questions. Global warming is real, but it does not portend immediate disaster, and there’s currently no suite of technologies that can do much about it. The obvious solution is to forgo costs today on ineffective attempts to stop it, and to save our money for investment in future technologies and inevitable adaptation.

http://www.cato.org/home.html

Climate change action plans help states identify and evaluate policies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through a combination of public and private sector policies and programs. Twenty-nine states and Puerto Rico have completed, or are working on, action plans.

By taking a proactive approach to planning greenhouse gas emissions reductions, states can lower their greenhouse gas emissions, reduce their energy costs, protect air quality and public health and improve the economy and environment.

If you want to see if your state has a plan, or is planning their plan, check the link below:

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/stateandlocalgov/state_action.html

At the Kingsnorth power station in Kent, the owners have proposed building a new facility, which would be the first such plant to be built in Britain for 33 years. Britain has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, and the Government is still considering E.ON’s application.

And how do you multiple stupid?

“Unless there’s a big fight over Kingsnorth these companies, with the backing of Government, want to build six more atmosphere-crunching coal fired power stations in the next few years. Collectively these power stations would emit around 50 million tons of CO2 a year.”

The first link below is the “fun” link. The 2nd has the bulk or the information and links, including one to the home site.

http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/

http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/node/4