Jay Haynes

Meat

New York Times.

The world’s total meat supply was 71 million tons in 1961. In 2007, it was estimated to be 284 million tons. Per capita consumption has more than doubled over that period. (In the developing world, it rose twice as fast, doubling in the last 20 years.) World meat consumption is expected to double again by 2050, which one expert, Henning Steinfeld of the United Nations, says is resulting in a “relentless growth in livestock production.”

Americans eat about the same amount of meat as we have for some time, about eight ounces a day, roughly twice the global average. At about 5 percent of the world’s population, we “process” (that is, grow and kill) nearly 10 billion animals a year, more than 15 percent of the world’s total.

Growing meat (it’s hard to use the word “raising” when applied to animals in factory farms) uses so many resources that it’s a challenge to enumerate them all. But consider: an estimated 30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than transportation.

Dirty

Grist.

Planet Earth loses some 1 percent of its topsoil to erosion every year -- and that's an environmental threat on par with global warming, say experts. "Globally, it's pretty clear we're running out of dirt," says geologist David Montgomery, who identifies agriculture as the main culprit for "soil mining." In the U.S., cropland is estimated to be eroding at least 10 times faster than it's replaced. Farmers with an interest in sustainability are trying to persuade others to adopt "no-till" and organic farming methods to address the problem, but "it's hard to get people to pay much attention to this," says soil expert John Reganold. "Frankly, most of us take soil for granted."

Carbon dioxide

Paul Krugman.

CO2 Emissions, million metric tons

___________1980 1997 2005
Europe______4672 4446 4675
US_________4748 5544 5957
China_______1455 3969 5323

Climate change lost opportunity

Joel Makower.

McKinsey & Co., the global management consultancy, last week released a report showing how the U.S. can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one-third to one-half by 2030 "at manageable costs to the economy." McKinsey analyzed more than 250 options, including efficiency gains, shifts to lower-carbon energy sources, and expanded carbon sinks.

A cross of green

Economist.com.

AS AMERICAN officials fly off to Bali for a meeting on climate change, they will be thinking hard about the people back home who are studying their every move. In contrast to 1997, when the religious right led denunciations of the deal negotiated in Kyoto, many of today's evangelicals want America to be generous and constructive.

Coal is 50% of CO2

James Hansen in the NY Times.

The fossil fuel contribution to CO2 in the air today is due about 50% to coal, 35% to oil and 15% to gas. The annual increments for the past few decades have been slightly larger for oil than for coal, but coal use has accelerated in the past few years, and in the long run coal will be the greatest source because of its larger reserves (discovered deposits) and estimated resources (deposits still to be discovered).

Big Box, Big Fraud

Grist.

A study of 1,018 "green" products from big-box stores has found that all but one were marketed with false or misleading eco-claims. Researchers from TerraChoice Environmental Marketing called out products for committing the "Six Sins of Greenwashing".

Gore on Sustainability

Wired.

But the third wave of global equity investing that Generation represents, that’s based on full integration of sustainability factors into every facet of this process, is powered by intensive research into how the sustainability factors uncover perspectives and knowledge about business opportunities that you can’t get in any other way.

Climate skepticism debunked

BBC NEWS.

What are some of the reasons why "climate sceptics" dispute the evidence that human activities such as industrial emissions of greenhouse gases and deforestation are bringing potentially dangerous changes to the Earth's climate?

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finalises its landmark report for 2007, we look at 10 of the arguments most often made against the IPCC consensus, and some of the counter-arguments made by scientists who agree with the IPCC.

The Carbon Calculus

New York Times.

The Electric Power Research Institute’s staff estimates the effect of a charge on carbon dioxide emissions on the price of a kilowatt-hour, the amount of electricity needed to run 10 100-watt bulbs for an hour. Natural gas produces 0.84 pounds of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour, and coal produces more than twice as much, 1.9 pounds.

At $10 per metric ton, the impact is minimal. But at $50 a ton, for example, the cost of a kilowatt-hour produced by coal goes from about 5.7 cents to about 10 cents. Wind power currently isn’t competitive, according to the institute’s calculation, but it becomes competitive when carbon dioxide costs $25 a ton. By their calculations, nuclear energy, with negligible carbon dioxide emissions, looks sensible at a small carbon charge.

Here’s how the new economics might work for solar power, according to Charles F. Gay, the vice president and general manager of solar business at Applied Materials, a California semiconductor company that has branched into that field.

Solar power from photovoltaic cells is very expensive, about 25 to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour. But compare a kilowatt-hour produced by such cells, which emit no carbon dioxide, with one produced by a conventional coal plant. At $20 or $30 a ton, the 1.9 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted in producing that kilowatt-hour costs 2 to 3 cents. That cuts into coal’s price advantage and — when coupled with progress in reducing the cost of solar power through manufacturing and economies of scale — gives solar power “a much larger chance to be relevant,” Mr. Gay said. Solar thermal systems, which use mirrors to concentrate sunlight to boil water, might benefit even sooner.