In this video by The YEARS Project, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe provides a quick take on the relevance of the IPCC‘s 2030 goals and our progress towards those goals. She addresses a recurring question, “Is climate change going to kill us all in 10 years?”
This question stems from misunderstandings of the October 8, 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which lays out how much we need to reduce pollution in order to avoid catastrophic climate change and irreversible damage.
“Is Climate Change Going To Kill Us All In 10 Years?” by The Years Project
Is switching out meat for edible bugs to satisfy our protein needs a viable way to ratchet down our carbon emissions and overall environmental impact? —J. Cruz., Gary, IN
It’s true that humans’ affinity for meat—especially beef, lamb, pork and to a lesser extent chicken—takes a huge toll on the environment given the resources and emissions expended to rear and then transport it to market. In fact, the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that raising livestock accounts for some 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions globally. Meanwhile, on the consumption side, cutting meat out of our diets is perhaps the most efficient way we can slash our personal carbon footprints. But eating only vegetables can make it hard to get enough protein, and that’s where bugs—with half or more of their body weight consisting of proteins—could play an important role in providing us with enough sustenance to feed ourselves, especially as our population surges to nine billion by 2050.
Proponents of eating bugs argue that emissions from so-called “insect farming”—that is, growing bugs for the express purpose of feeding humans and/or animals with them—is a much more energy- and emissions-efficient way to produce protein than traditional forms of livestock agriculture.
If we bartered beef, pork or chicken for a handful of insects, the environmental impact of our animal-protein intake would drop dramatically .
Insects are especially effective at converting their food because they’re cold-blooded and therefore waste less energy to keep warm.”
—David Suzuki, Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki
If
you’re curious about edible insects, why not try some? Lewiston, Maine-based
EdibleInsects.com ships edible insects coast to coast. UK-based PureGym is a
big proponent of deriving dietary protein from insects, and offers several
seemingly tasty recipes on its website and YouTube channel. Creamy Mealworm and
Coconut Noodles, anyone?
Some environmentalists are opting to meet their dietary protein needs by eating bugs—like this Thai green curry crickets dish—instead of meat. Credit: Flavio Ensiki, FlickrCC.
Of
course, just because crickets, ants, cockroaches and worms are becoming more
common as food delicacies doesn’t mean that eating them is new for humans. The
FAO points out in its “Edible Insects” report that while bugs have always been
part of human diets, recent innovations in so-called “mass-rearing systems”
mean we can produce a lot more insect-based protein than we used to: “Insects
offer a significant opportunity to merge traditional knowledge and modern
science in both developed and developing countries.”
Suzuki couldn’t agree more: “Emerging entotechnologies (from the Greek root entomo, for ‘insect’) bring together applications that focus on what insects do best.” For instance, food waste or agricultural residue is fed to fly larvae, which in turn is used as a meat-free but protein-rich livestock feed. “[L]arvae have voracious appetites for fruit and vegetable residues and could help improve the way we handle…organic waste,” reports Suzuki. “It’s a way to give a second life to stale food, rather than sending it to compost bins or biogas plants.”
“Considering
that nearly 45 percent of fruit and vegetables produced worldwide is wasted,
this is not a fringe idea,” says Suzuki. “After feeding the hungry with the
highest quality unsold portions of our food, we could feed our breeding animals
with insects raised on organic residues from grocery stores and restaurant
kitchens.”
The Thwaites Glacier, also referred to as the Doomsday Glacier, is closely watched for its potential to raise sea levels. Along with Pine Island Glacier, it is part of the “weak underbelly” of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, due to vulnerability. This hypothesis is based on both theoretical studies of the stability of marine ice sheets and observations of large changes on these two glaciers. In recent years, both glaciers have retreated and melted at an alarming rate.
For years, scientists have watched the Thwaites Glacier from a distance, but in November 2019, a team set out to investigate what is happening below.
