Animal agriculture is responsible for a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.
Animal agriculture uses a massive amount of land.
Animal agriculture is responsible for 90% of the reasons of forest fires in the amazon rainforest.
Animal agriculture is using a rather massive amount of water.
One of the things that absolutely shocked me is that a plant-based diet would reduce the amount of land required by about 3.1 billion hectares – which is the size of the African continent.
By hearing these numbers it’s normal that one gets outraged, right? One wonders – if things are so bad why is the government not doing anything.
So here are a few reasons why we don’t see rapid global transitions to veganism:
1. Animal agriculture’s impact on the GDP
The animal industry is not unlike to the oil industry right. It’s a big driver of the GDP of a country, which is an indication of the wealth of a country.
It’s a big driver – especially in Brazil.
Now why is the GDP important for a country? When the GDP drops, the wealth of a nation declines. This has a few impacts on the individual and the government.
A wonderful book that I’ve read a few years ago, that changed how I view the world, is ‘The Dictator’s Handbook’.
Funny title aside, the book has a very profound message. And that is: Governments are run by people. If you understand people – you understand governments.
This is important to note because most people think governments are this faceless entity of decision makers in ties. The reality could not be further from the truth.
If government decision makers are meat eaters – which based on the law of averages – most are. Which decisions are they most likely to favor?
You’re right, the ones supporting the status quo and they’re pre-existing habits.
Where does that leave us?
On one side: Billions of animals die each year because of our food choices. Irregardless of our eating habits we must realize that this is completely unsustainable and morally wrong.
Our food practices are also breeding grounds for pathogens, which can lead to pandemics.
If that wouldn’t be enough, our food choices also shorten our lives and hasten the way to global warming.
On the other side: We have this incredible force of the status quo – and the strong, international dependence of animal farming for economic growth. And growth is required for a country as countries are like a bicycle…
… to keep their balance they have to keep moving and growing.
The solution that I propose is similar to the indirect, slightly concealed solution the documentary proposes: And that is a gradual but consistent switch to meat and dairy alternatives.
Scorching temperatures and reports of water scarcity are grabbing headlines, as drought caused by climate change creates long-term problems for farmers and communities in the United States and around the world. Without adequate supply of water, farmers are being forced to plant less in order to conserve the water they will need to get through yet another year of prolonged drought. The consequences will be higher food prices here, but also social instability in countries important to the US.
Seth M. Siegel Courtesy Talia Siegel
As frightening and as insurmountable a challenge as chronic and growing water shortages may seem, there are solutions at hand that can save us from crisis.
A small country in one of the driest regions in the world is among those that have developed policies and techniques to provide water in cities and farms alike. That country is Israel. And with drought becoming the new normal, policymakers would be wise to take a look at what Israel has done, and to begin the process of creating their own water-resilient societies that are less dependent on rainfall that may never return.
This “all of the above” approach leads to resilience from this intentional redundancy, but it also opens the door to innovation and risk taking that has often resulted in world-changing breakthroughs.
Israel became a nation in May 1948, but decades before, while under the control of the British Mandate, the Zionist leadership began prioritizing excellence in water, along with defense and immigration policy. In most countries, the (unromantic) subjects of water infrastructure and technology are in the hands of mid-level officials and more junior cabinet members. But to read the diaries of Israel’s founders is to see the daily interest, bordering on obsession, on getting water policy right. For example, long before desalination took off in Israel, the country’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, often wrote about the prospect of “desalting the sea” in order to “make the desert bloom.”
Not everything Israel does is relevant everywhere. Because of its small size, approximately the land area of New Jersey, it can do things more easily than can water-poor countries of vast dimensions. Likewise, having a long coastline and most of its population within relatively easy reach of the country’s desalination facilities, provide opportunities that aren’t available everywhere.
But some of what Israel does, everyone can do – at least, in theory.
First, Israel charges the real price for water. (Though the cost is subsidized for those receiving social welfare; everyone else pays the full price.) By use of market forces, consumers, farmers and industry are always looking for ways to conserve water, or to use technology that leads to the most efficient use of water possible. In most of the world, water is deeply subsidized which leads to enormous wasting of water due to overuse. As one example, because at full market price it is cheaper to fix leaky pipes than to waste the water, Israel has an uncommonly low leak factor of about 7-8%. Even in the US, there are communities with water mains that lose up to 50% of the water flowing through them.
Israel’s success in water is also tied to the decision to put the administration of the country’s water is in the hands of apolitical technocrats. Their job is to get the highest quality water to the largest number of people possible. Price is a factor, but not the only one. By comparison, in some US cities, mayors know that their constituents may see a rise in water rates as a de facto tax increase. This results in suppressed water fees, and with it the inability to modernize facilities with the best equipment and software, and difficulty in attracting and retaining highly skilled engineers.
Israel also differs from much of the world in its approach to agriculture. Decades ago, flood irrigation – which soaks soil by flooding fields with water – was discouraged by the government, effectively ending the practice. Yet, around the world, 85 percent of irrigated fields use flood irrigation, a practice that goes back to the time of ancient Egypt and the flooding of the Nile River Basin.
While this wasteful and unsustainable method may be thought to be in use only in less developed countries, here in the US, we flood irrigate millions of acres in California, Texas, and even in the parched southwest. Farmers have little incentive to switch to water-saving technology because they can continue using water as if it were as abundant and inexhaustible as sunshine or air. In Arizona, for example, 89% of the irrigation used is flood irrigation, and in the states of the rapidly depleting Colorado River Basin, there are as many as six million acres that continue wasting trillions of gallons annually by flooding fields.
Fittingly, Israeli technology may come to the rescue in the US southwest. Low-cost, gravity-fed drip irrigation, developed by an Israeli scientist, has already been deployed on thousands of acres in Arizona and elsewhere. (Full disclosure: I work with this scientist’s company.) The technology saves half of the water previously needed for flood-irrigated fields while improving yields and reducing the need for water-polluting fertilizer. This newer approach is similar to the more familiar form of drip irrigation invented in Israel more than 60 years ago. But this system uses gravity as its energy source, eliminating ongoing external energy use and expense.
It’s been said that the wars of the 21st century will be fought over water. That may be so, but it is cheaper and smarter for every water-stressed region and country to transform how it uses its water. That has to start with changing how we think about our water. And in that, every country – rich or poor, large or small, landlocked or with a long seacoast – can learn from what Israel has done.
This state blew up its last coal plant to make way for a massive, community-changing construction project: ‘In our opinion, it’s irreversible’
Article by: Laurelle Stelle
August 26, 2023
New Jersey has demolished Logan Generating Station, one of its last coal-fired power plants, Bloomberg reports.
Built only 28 years ago, the plant was purchased from Atlantic City Electric in 2018 by Starwood Energy Group, Bloomberg says. The investment company intends to convert it and the nearby Chambers plant to make affordable, clean energy — meaning electricity that’s generated without putting heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.
This project is part of a push in the U.S. and throughout the world to get rid of polluting energy sources that warm up the planet. Similar projects in Michigan, Hawaii, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, Massachusetts, and other states are making the country’s electric power healthier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.
This change could not be more timely, as a new report from the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign recently revealed the harm caused by the U.S.’s heavy reliance on coal.
The fine particle pollution from coal plants causes 3,800 premature deaths each year, often in states far away from the actual location of the plant. And that data doesn’t even include the health risks caused by other types of coal pollution.
Coal is also expensive compared to other options. According to Forbes, “209 out of 210 existing U.S. coal plants are now more expensive to run compared to replacement by new cheaper wind or solar energy in the same region.”
Meanwhile, the heat-trapping gases generated by coal plants contribute to increasing temperatures worldwide. The heat, in turn, causes more frequent and more destructive natural disasters like hurricanes and floods.
Switching to eco-friendly solar, wind, and water power is the smart move for health, finances, and long-term safety — and after the transition, former coal plants will still play a crucial role. Because these areas are wired to the power grid, they’re the perfect places to put energy storage projects, Bloomberg reports.
Most clean energy sources need battery storage because, unlike coal which generates power on demand, wind and solar depend on the weather. Providers will need to generate and store energy when conditions are favorable, then release it at night or in calm weather.
So far, New Jersey doesn’t have enough wind and solar sources to need battery storage, says Bloomberg. But Starwood Energy Group is investing in what it sees as the inevitable future.
“In our opinion, it’s irreversible,” Starwood’s CEO, Himanshu Saxena, told Bloomberg. “Folks just have to get on the train.”
