If Food Waste Were a
Country, It Would Rank No. 3 for Greenhouse Gas Emissions
(http://ecowatch.com/2013/food-waste-rank-no-3-for-greenhouse-gas-emissions/)(07.10.2013)
Theres a consensus that we must act
urgently, if we are to avoid a four-degree Celsius raise and total systems
collapse.
First we should safeguard, restore
and wisely manage our life-support systems, including uncontaminated water
bodies and sources, soil and seeds and practice conservation and efficiency.
Known climate-destructive practices
must be phased out as soon as possible, including extreme forms of fossil-fuel
extraction (e.g. fracking, SAG D, deep-water drilling surface mines, mountaintop removal and tar sands
projects), ocean trawling, overfishing, crop burning and endangering natures
protective resources like mangroves, coral reefs, forests and peat land.
Food waste is the third largest
emitter of greenhouse gas emissions globally.
We must also immediately wean
ourselves off fossil fuels; coal,
natural gas and oiland invest in a combination of decentralized renewable energy; solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, micro-hydro and liquid
fuels made from waste and other sustainable feedstocks.
Water-intensive, mono-crop,
petrochemical industrial agriculture has decimated our topsoil and created dead zones in the oceans. The simplest, most natural and likely, the most effective
way to sequester carbon is to rebuild soil. Regenerative organic farming
practices build soil. Some of the methods used to accelerate natures
intelligent soil development process include compost,
bio char, brown coal, Micorizal fungi, vermaculture and managed livestock.
If food waste was a country, it would be
the third biggest greenhouse gas emitter behind the U.S. and China. Diverting
organic waste from landfills and livestock manure from ponds in anaerobic
digesters, compost and pyrolysis can amend soil vitality while reducing
methane.
While these changes might seem
challenging, we do have the capacityif we can only galvanize the will. Many
communities have already begun implementing some of these solutions. But
top-down change is also essential, if we are to address the climate crisis
with the speed and scale needed. For this to happen, citizens must insist on
getting the influence of money out of politics and the legislative process.
Maximizing regional self-sufficiency
with these agricultural practices and energy production methods will strengthen
local economies, make them more resilient, help prevent global conflict, and
ease the sense of scarcity and the economic burden increasingly felt by the
majority.