climate stability

More than 170 countries gathered recently to discuss how to save wetlands, which are critical ecosystems. However, the U.S. was a no-show for most of the summit and Russia said it will withdraw from the wetlands treaty.

Wetlands are a crucial element of all life on Earth, supplying fresh water, oxygen, habitat, and food. The Ramsar Convention, an international treaty focused on the conservation and wise use of wetlands, is the oldest modern global environmental agreement, adopted in 1971.

Despite this agreement, since 1970 more than 35% of wetlands have been lost or degraded. A recent report compiled by more than 60 experts from around the world issued a dire warning that the decline of wetlands spells trouble for global food security, climate stability, and even the capacity for life on Earth to persist.

Sadly, geopolitics have overtaken even the instinct for survival. Because of a prior resolution to monitor Ukranian wetlands harmed during Russia’s ongoing war there, Russia now intends to withdraw from the treaty. Meanwhile, the U.S. delegate to the wetlands summit only showed up near the end of the meeting to demand that conference documents make no mention of climate change, diversity equity and inclusion, gender, UN sustainable development goals, or zero growth.

Disengagement by the United States from the world’s increasing and shared environmental problems is a global crisis that only worsens existing global crises.

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Earth’s Wetlands Are Disappearing and Global Efforts to Save Them Are Unraveling

Photo, posted October 8, 2013, courtesy of Marek Kusmin via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Food production is a major driver of climate change. It’s responsible for more than a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. But the environmental impact of different foods varies greatly, and making seemingly insignificant changes can actually have significant impacts.

According to a first-ever national study of U.S. eating habits and their carbon footprints, choosing chicken over beef will cut your dietary carbon footprint in half.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey asked more than 16,000 participating Americans to name all the foods they consumed in the past 24 hours. The research team then calculated the carbon footprint of what people said they ate. If a respondent consumed broiled beef steak, for example, researchers calculated what the carbon footprint would have been had broiled chicken been consumed instead.

The study’s findings illustrate how making one simple substitution can significantly reduce a person’s dietary carbon footprint. A diet’s carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that result from the energy, fertilizer, land use, and other inputs necessary to produce food.

In general, animal-based foods have a bigger carbon footprint than plant-based foods. For example, producing beef uses 20 times the land and emits 20 times the emissions as growing beans (per gram of protein), and requires 10 times more resources than producing chicken.

According to the World Resources Institute, keeping the increase in global warming below 2°C will be impossible without limiting the global rise in meat consumption.

Last year, the EAT-Lancet Commission report found that a radical transformation of the global food system was needed because it’s threatening the stability of the climate.

Make a change – big or small – today.

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Choosing chicken over beef cuts our carbon footprints a surprising amount

Photo, posted August 30, 2011, courtesy of Ken Hawkins via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Disappearing wetlands

More than 170 countries gathered recently to discuss how to save wetlands, which are critical ecosystems. However, the U.S. was a no-show for most of the summit and Russia said it will withdraw from the wetlands treaty.

Web Links

Why Choose Chicken Over Beef?

Food production is a major driver of climate change. It’s responsible for more than a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. But the environmental impact of different foods varies greatly, and making seemingly insignificant changes can actually have significant impacts.

Web Links