Not buying tax-subsidized solar panels from a for-profit company is totally gonna send shockwaves through the greater Dover moms-n-daughters Friends of Earth Facebook page.
Current Affairs Environmental Stuff
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Zezti
Player Valuation: £70m
I might fail my dissertation because I can't write for crap, but I have at least learned some interesting stuff interviewing NHS procurers regarding sustainability. For some reason, this country is about a decade behind the US and China in sustainable procurement within healthcare. It's not even costs to blame, since the incineration of single-use clinical waste is expensive and polluting.
Point is, there's this idea that switching to 'greener' practices is always more expensive and less practical, but the truth is often the opposite - it just needs people to champion it and show proof of the total cost of ownership over an item's lifespan. From the people I spoke to, the pushing comes from the bottom of the NHS (consultants), not the top/senior management.
That's why I don't like to criticise things like that net-zero match between Spurs and Chelsea. It needs to be the topic of more conversation because otherwise it's simply never placed on the table.
Point is, there's this idea that switching to 'greener' practices is always more expensive and less practical, but the truth is often the opposite - it just needs people to champion it and show proof of the total cost of ownership over an item's lifespan. From the people I spoke to, the pushing comes from the bottom of the NHS (consultants), not the top/senior management.
That's why I don't like to criticise things like that net-zero match between Spurs and Chelsea. It needs to be the topic of more conversation because otherwise it's simply never placed on the table.
orchard
Player Valuation: £60m
Green growth’ doesn’t exist – less of everything is the only way to avert catastrophe
George MonbiotIt is simply not possible to carry on at the current level of economic activity without destroying the environment
Wed 29 Sep 2021 06.00 BST
There is a box labelled “climate”, in which politicians discuss the climate crisis. There is a box named “biodiversity”, in which they discuss the biodiversity crisis. There are other boxes, such as pollution, deforestation, overfishing and soil loss, gathering dust in our planet’s lost property department. But they all contain aspects of one crisis that we have divided up to make it comprehensible. The categories the human brain creates to make sense of its surroundings are not, as Immanuel Kant observed, the “thing-in-itself”. They describe artefacts of our perceptions rather than the world.
[...]
This isn’t, in itself, an argument against direct air capture machines or other “green” technologies. But if they have to keep pace with an ever-growing volume of economic activity, and if the growth of this activity is justified by the existence of those machines, the net result will be ever greater harm to the living world.
Everywhere, governments seek to ramp up the economic load, talking of “unleashing our potential” and “supercharging our economy”. Boris Johnson insists that “a global recovery from the pandemic must be rooted in green growth”. But there is no such thing as green growth. Growth is wiping the green from the Earth.
We have no hope of emerging from this full-spectrum crisis unless we dramatically reduce economic activity. Wealth must be distributed – a constrained world cannot afford the rich – but it must also be reduced. Sustaining our life-support systems means doing less of almost everything. But this notion – that should be central to a new, environmental ethics – is secular blasphemy.
orchard
Player Valuation: £60m
At last, UK academia awakens, somewhat:
Are livestock always bad for the planet?
Urgent climate challenges have triggered calls for radical, widespread changes in what we eat, pushing for the drastic reduction if not elimination of animal-source foods from our diets. But high-profile debates, based on patchy evidence, are failing to differentiate between varied landscapes, environments and production methods. Relatively lowimpact, extensive livestock production, such as pastoralism, is being lumped in with industrial systems in the conversation about the future of food.
The narrative that ‘meat and milk are bad’ because livestock production is a major greenhouse gas emitter is widespread, promoted by international agencies, campaign groups, corporations and governments. This overarching narrative has led to generalised policy prescriptions, applicable to some western diets and to some forms of livestock production. Of course, caveats are sometimes applied, but policy and media messages tend to simplify, meaning that the vast differences between industrial and extensive livestock production are often neglected in policy and campaign messages. As a result, inappropriate policies could do great damage to livelihoods, landscapes and the life chances of people reliant on extensive livestock production, including pastoralism. Such systems involve many millions of people across rangelands covering over half the world’s land surface.
"In the case of Poore and Nemecek’s (2018) analysis the assumptions are clear, both in the paper and in the 76 pages of supplementary materials. They only looked at ‘commercially viable’ and so mostly industrial livestock systems. They examined emissions from production to retail, but not sequestration or other environmental benefits. Their cases came mostly from Europe, North America, Australia, Brazil and China, and in order to generate a global picture they applied weighting factors both across and within counties."
"Carbon in the soil is safer from fire than carbon in leaves and branches, so grasslands and parklands have a better capacity to store carbon in the long term than closed forests (Holdo et al. 2009; Dass et al. 2018). If large herbivores are present in the ecosystem, they contribute both to suppressing fire and to incorporating additional carbon into the soil (Johnson et al. 2018). Elevated CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere will also increase carbon fixation by grasslands in soil, but not fixation by forests (Terrer et al. 2021)."
"Livestock and the carbon cycle
Key assumptions made in LCA studies are that soil carbon balance is in long-term equilibrium (Rowntree et al. 2020), and that livestock add additional emissions to an otherwise balanced carbon cycle. As a result, most assessments do not include carbon sequestration in their analyses. However, when studies of extensive livestock systems adopt an ecosystem approach and include sequestration from grazing, the carbon balance has been found to be neutral in those cases where degraded soils are restored through livestock grazing practices."
"Conversion of rangelands to cropping can be especially damaging. For example, a study by Han et al. (2008) found that there was a 22% reduction in soil carbon stocks when pastoral grazing land was converted to cropland in Inner Mongolia. Other grazing systems aim to mimic natural herbivore grazing, with high levels of focused disturbance in rotation and (disputed) claims of climate benefits (Savory 2017)."
"Analysing experiments on plant/root growth and sequestration due to increases in CO2, Terrer et al. (2021) conclude that the high carbon stocks in grasslands have great potential to accumulate more soil carbon as CO2 levels increase, with plant biomass growth being inversely related to the accumulation of soil carbon. This is contrary to many assumptions that the optimal climate mitigation response is the expansion of afforestation rather than the encouragement of sequestration in grasslands (Bastos and Fleischer 2021)."
"Clearly, reducing deforestation due to the expansion of livestock rearing in areas such as the Amazon is essential (Cohn et al. 2014) but, in other areas where grasslands are long-established, such approaches are much more questionable, especially given livestock’s contribution to creating and maintaining biodiversity."
"Plant-based foods also have their own varied costs and limitations. Highly processed, plant-based meat replacements such as mycoprotein, tofu and tempeh are increasingly present in modern plant-based diets, and their environmental impact is likely to be higher than unprocessed plant foods due to the high-energy demands of processing and transport (Hallström et al. 2015). For example, a study by Smetana et al. (2015) found that producing 1 kg of mycoprotein had a similar environmental impact to producing 1 kg of chicken, with 45% of this coming from processing. The study also found the GWP of mycoprotein to be 5.55 kg–6.15 kg CO2-eq per kg product, compared to 2 kg–4 kg CO2-eq per kilogramme of meat for chicken and 4 kg–6 kg CO2- eq of meat for pork (Smetana et al. 2015). While there is much hype about the potentials of cultured meats, linked to considerable vested commercial interests,35 the possibility of their replacing animal-source foods is remote, particularly in poorer countries."
"To date, the actual environmental impact of processed meat substitutes has not been widely investigated, and few LCA studies have included them in their hypothetical scenarios (Hallström et al. 2015; Godfray 2019; Chriki and Hocquette 2020). Moreover, it is likely that people foregoing meat will increase their dairy consumption, which has its own implications for sustainability (Nordhagen et al. 2020). A focus on specific nutrients, rather than generic ‘protein’, offers a different picture, as livestock produce high-density protein sources with an appropriate balance of nutrients for human consumption (Lee et al. 2021; Moughan 2021). Achieving this from a purely plant-based diet is more challenging."
"Food systems
Recasting the debate towards climate-friendly, sustainable food systems also turns the focus away from emissions from livestock in isolation, and onto the dangers of ‘cheap food’ (or protein) in the food system. Currently, this is driving massive increases in consumption and production of animal foods, with incentives geared towards producing more food at lower and lower costs, driving a particular type of ‘efficiency’. Particular types of production (of both crops and livestock) are captured by the commercial interests of the drive to produce ‘cheap things’,42 resulting in massive, devastating environmental damage.
What, then, is causing the climate and biodiversity crisis? It is not livestock production or meat/milk consumption per se, but the wider capitalist food system. It is this that needs to change – not through technical fixes, but through radical transformation of power relations and patterns of control. Here, low-impact, extensive livestock systems, including pastoralism, can show a way to the future. Summarising this report, we conclude with six recommendations, placing extensive livestock keepers, including pastoralists, at the centre of climate mitigation efforts."
Are livestock always bad for the planet?
Urgent climate challenges have triggered calls for radical, widespread changes in what we eat, pushing for the drastic reduction if not elimination of animal-source foods from our diets. But high-profile debates, based on patchy evidence, are failing to differentiate between varied landscapes, environments and production methods. Relatively lowimpact, extensive livestock production, such as pastoralism, is being lumped in with industrial systems in the conversation about the future of food.
The narrative that ‘meat and milk are bad’ because livestock production is a major greenhouse gas emitter is widespread, promoted by international agencies, campaign groups, corporations and governments. This overarching narrative has led to generalised policy prescriptions, applicable to some western diets and to some forms of livestock production. Of course, caveats are sometimes applied, but policy and media messages tend to simplify, meaning that the vast differences between industrial and extensive livestock production are often neglected in policy and campaign messages. As a result, inappropriate policies could do great damage to livelihoods, landscapes and the life chances of people reliant on extensive livestock production, including pastoralism. Such systems involve many millions of people across rangelands covering over half the world’s land surface.
"In the case of Poore and Nemecek’s (2018) analysis the assumptions are clear, both in the paper and in the 76 pages of supplementary materials. They only looked at ‘commercially viable’ and so mostly industrial livestock systems. They examined emissions from production to retail, but not sequestration or other environmental benefits. Their cases came mostly from Europe, North America, Australia, Brazil and China, and in order to generate a global picture they applied weighting factors both across and within counties."
"Carbon in the soil is safer from fire than carbon in leaves and branches, so grasslands and parklands have a better capacity to store carbon in the long term than closed forests (Holdo et al. 2009; Dass et al. 2018). If large herbivores are present in the ecosystem, they contribute both to suppressing fire and to incorporating additional carbon into the soil (Johnson et al. 2018). Elevated CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere will also increase carbon fixation by grasslands in soil, but not fixation by forests (Terrer et al. 2021)."
"Livestock and the carbon cycle
Key assumptions made in LCA studies are that soil carbon balance is in long-term equilibrium (Rowntree et al. 2020), and that livestock add additional emissions to an otherwise balanced carbon cycle. As a result, most assessments do not include carbon sequestration in their analyses. However, when studies of extensive livestock systems adopt an ecosystem approach and include sequestration from grazing, the carbon balance has been found to be neutral in those cases where degraded soils are restored through livestock grazing practices."
"Conversion of rangelands to cropping can be especially damaging. For example, a study by Han et al. (2008) found that there was a 22% reduction in soil carbon stocks when pastoral grazing land was converted to cropland in Inner Mongolia. Other grazing systems aim to mimic natural herbivore grazing, with high levels of focused disturbance in rotation and (disputed) claims of climate benefits (Savory 2017)."
"Analysing experiments on plant/root growth and sequestration due to increases in CO2, Terrer et al. (2021) conclude that the high carbon stocks in grasslands have great potential to accumulate more soil carbon as CO2 levels increase, with plant biomass growth being inversely related to the accumulation of soil carbon. This is contrary to many assumptions that the optimal climate mitigation response is the expansion of afforestation rather than the encouragement of sequestration in grasslands (Bastos and Fleischer 2021)."
"Clearly, reducing deforestation due to the expansion of livestock rearing in areas such as the Amazon is essential (Cohn et al. 2014) but, in other areas where grasslands are long-established, such approaches are much more questionable, especially given livestock’s contribution to creating and maintaining biodiversity."
"Plant-based foods also have their own varied costs and limitations. Highly processed, plant-based meat replacements such as mycoprotein, tofu and tempeh are increasingly present in modern plant-based diets, and their environmental impact is likely to be higher than unprocessed plant foods due to the high-energy demands of processing and transport (Hallström et al. 2015). For example, a study by Smetana et al. (2015) found that producing 1 kg of mycoprotein had a similar environmental impact to producing 1 kg of chicken, with 45% of this coming from processing. The study also found the GWP of mycoprotein to be 5.55 kg–6.15 kg CO2-eq per kg product, compared to 2 kg–4 kg CO2-eq per kilogramme of meat for chicken and 4 kg–6 kg CO2- eq of meat for pork (Smetana et al. 2015). While there is much hype about the potentials of cultured meats, linked to considerable vested commercial interests,35 the possibility of their replacing animal-source foods is remote, particularly in poorer countries."
"To date, the actual environmental impact of processed meat substitutes has not been widely investigated, and few LCA studies have included them in their hypothetical scenarios (Hallström et al. 2015; Godfray 2019; Chriki and Hocquette 2020). Moreover, it is likely that people foregoing meat will increase their dairy consumption, which has its own implications for sustainability (Nordhagen et al. 2020). A focus on specific nutrients, rather than generic ‘protein’, offers a different picture, as livestock produce high-density protein sources with an appropriate balance of nutrients for human consumption (Lee et al. 2021; Moughan 2021). Achieving this from a purely plant-based diet is more challenging."
"Food systems
Recasting the debate towards climate-friendly, sustainable food systems also turns the focus away from emissions from livestock in isolation, and onto the dangers of ‘cheap food’ (or protein) in the food system. Currently, this is driving massive increases in consumption and production of animal foods, with incentives geared towards producing more food at lower and lower costs, driving a particular type of ‘efficiency’. Particular types of production (of both crops and livestock) are captured by the commercial interests of the drive to produce ‘cheap things’,42 resulting in massive, devastating environmental damage.
What, then, is causing the climate and biodiversity crisis? It is not livestock production or meat/milk consumption per se, but the wider capitalist food system. It is this that needs to change – not through technical fixes, but through radical transformation of power relations and patterns of control. Here, low-impact, extensive livestock systems, including pastoralism, can show a way to the future. Summarising this report, we conclude with six recommendations, placing extensive livestock keepers, including pastoralists, at the centre of climate mitigation efforts."
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
Profits of 138 million quid last year.
orchard
Player Valuation: £60m
Are the fish still happy with Brexit?
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
Dead happy.
grandjoeblue
Player Valuation: £35m
Gridlock in London again. I wonder if these tactics are effective in gaining public support?
The only thing they're likely to achieve is tougher sentences for protestors.
The only thing they're likely to achieve is tougher sentences for protestors.
CEO given half a million bonus as well.
Southern Water boss's £500k bonus criticised by MP
Ian McAulay is awarded the sum despite Southern Water's £90m fine for deliberate sewage spills.
www.bbc.com
Disgusting story all round. Dunno how some people can justify their actions
Toast
Player Valuation: £80m
I’d suggest not.
Amazed no ones just dragged them off the road before if the bizzies aren’t there.
grandjoeblue
Player Valuation: £35m
Quite bad that they wouldn't even get out of the way of an ambulance. That definitely doesn't look good.
It's never looked good.
You had people on here defending them a few weeks ago when I pointed it out at first.
They're complete freaks.
orchard
Player Valuation: £60m
Look, I've no idea really about their particular claims, but it's not as simple as you like to portray emotively. It's not ambulance delayed Vs freaks. How many ambulances will be needed when poorly insulated houses and energy shortages cause oap's immune systems to ebb? And then there's the even more abstract issue of global warming in general, and how much toll that's going to take if we don't act now to prevent it getting worse.
I don't think anyone on here has said anything akin to 'damn the ambulance service', in fact, most people here buck the trend of the general UK public in actually supporting the health service by not voting for spivs and chancers who are actively weakening it.
If you feel so strongly about them, why don't you have a go at their aims rather than hide behind an ambulance?
I don't disagree with their aims though. I think it's their right to demand more. I think the way they're going about it is ludicrous and entitled and the only surprise is people have had the restraint not to run them over.
It's not just about an ambulance being stopped.
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