Velshi: Making people care about climate change is tough. But time is running out

In 1985, a meteorologist by the name of Bert Bolin called a meeting of scientists in Villach, a small town in the Austrian Alps. Physicists, chemists, oceanographers and meteorologists from the ICSU, WMO and UNEP began to synthesize their respective knowledge on climate science. The puzzle started to take shape: human behavior was contributing to climate change. And it was happening fast. Those scientists needed little convincing that something monumental was on the horizon. The hard part would be convincing the rest of the world.


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#Velshi #Science #ClimateChange

[mfuson]

It was arrogant of mankind to believe it could do what it wanted to Earth, without fear of consequences.
Those consequences are coming.
People along the coast already see it.
There is no denying it.
The oceans are rising rapidly. The melting at the poles is alarming.
Maybe people will start taking it seriously once villages, towns and cities start getting swallowed up by the sea.
And that's just one of many consequences.
I don't have much faith in people anymore, to do the right thing.

[kateuhler]

We screamed about this in the 90's. We voted for Al Gore, and he won. But it was handed to somebody else. And Gen X felt like it was futile. We were treated like dumb youngsters that didn't know anything. We told you. We tried. Not enough people listened. And big industry and oil and gas and their enormous evil greed and Iraq just came along, and that was that.

[jroysims]

I take public transportation; I don't drive a car. Most of my errands are on foot. I always watch my thermostat. I recycle religiously.
I hope it helps.

[deanfiora]

In my homestate of Connecticut, we just had the mildest winter in recorded history. In recent years, I've seen flies and smelled skunks all winter long (which never used to happen), and the birds now come back in mid-January instead of mid-March. So don't tell me that climate change isn't happening!

[unifiedvision]

Unfortunately it's like a frog in a pan of water heating up slowly... we're too dumb to react and escape.

[makeracistsafraidagain]

I haven’t stopped doing the right things.
But in my heart, I believe it is already too late to avoid society altering negative climactic changes.
Our grandkids Will curse us. And we’ll deserve it.

[pickleofdeath]

There’s tornados in now Orleans now. WHEN HAS A TORNADO EVER COME DOWN THIS FAR FFS

[votemonty]

The fact this is less than 5 minutes troubles me. 🌀

[beckettman]

I'm not eating bugs.

How many coal power plants did China build this week?

[sharondavid-melly]

From the looks of so few comments on your report its shameful how little we care. A reality that needs a focus like the effort it took to win the World War ll we turn our political heads.. Thank you for this sober reminder

[chaoticallysay]

Veshli I get it😢 I learned about it since a child and tried not to polluted the planet as much. Yes we act now

[along]

Someone needs to tell China they're currently building coal-fired plants as fast as they can

[someguy]

Eating a vegan diet could be the “single biggest way” to reduce your environmental impact on earth, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the University of Oxford found that cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual's carbon footprint from food by up to 73 per cent.

If everyone stopped eating these foods, they found that global farmland use could be reduced by 75 per cent, an area equivalent to the size of the US, China, Australia and the EU combined.

Not only would this result in a significant drop in greenhouse gas emissions, it would also free up wild land lost to agriculture, one of the primary causes for mass wildlife extinction.

The new study, published in the journal Science, is one of the most comprehensive analyses to date, looking into the detrimental effects farming can have on the environment and included data on nearly 40, 000 farms in 119 countries.

The findings reveal that meat and dairy production is responsible for 60 per cent of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions, while the products themselves providing just 18 per cent of calories and 37 per cent of protein levels around the world.

Researchers examined a total of 40 agricultural products in the study, covering 90 per cent of all food that is eaten.

They looked at how each of these impacted the environment by analysing climate change emissions, water pollution and air pollution.

Lead author Joseph Poore said: “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use."

“It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car, ” he explained, which would only reduce greenhouse gas“Avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy, ” he added.

The research also looked into the different techniques used to produce the same foods and found vast distinctions in terms of environmental impacts.

For example, beef cattle reared on natural pastures used 50 times less land than those raised on deforested land.

The latter can leads to up to 12 times more greenhouse gas emissions by comparison.

This starkly contrasts with emissions of greenhouse gases released as a result of plant-based protein production for items such as tofu and peas.

Poore also explained that even production methods which are thought of as sustainable, such as freshwater fish farming and grass-fed beef, can pose environmental problems.

“Converting grass into [meat] is like converting coal to energy. It comes with an immense cost in emissions, ” he told The Guardian.

Poore’s research is the result of a five-year-long project, which initially began as an investigation into sustainable meat and dairy production.

He stopped eating animal products altogether himself after the first year.

The next step, Poore told The Independent, is to find ways to test his proposed approach in practice.

"The problem is, you can’t just put environmental labels on a handful of foods and look to see if there is some effect on purchasing, " he said.

"Consumers take time to become aware of things, and then even more to act on them. Furthermore, the labels probably need to be in combination with taxes and subsidies. My view is that communicating information to consumers could tip the entire food system towards sustainability and accountability."-The Independent

Joseph Poore switched to a plant based diet after seeing the results of his study. There is a reason Greta Thunberg eats a fully plant based diet.

[kevinjenner]

The US military alone emits more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than entire countries such as Denmark or Portugal.

[onlygenders]

To fight climate change, I've decided to NOT buy a private jet. Just doing my part.

[benddover]

Glad to see your efforts, and of course they are appreciated, but we have been preaching this same information since the 1970's, with no response from the public. At this point, it is better to hope for the best, but plan for the worst, because I am afraid the "tipping point" of climate change may have already been reached.

[sircasm]

Remember when Al Gore said the North Pole would melt and the sea would rise by 20 ft😂😂.. so he could pick up some beachfront property at a great price.

[maggie]

People won't care until they lose their 99 cent hamburger

[itsoktobehappy]

We can’t stop the earth’s climate from changing. We should just live fast and large and go out in a blaze of glory. We are here for a good time, not a long time. Enjoy yourselves, life is good!

[niclewis]

It's an economic burden and costly to the individual, governments and Industries. Insurance companies, fossil fuels industry have already factored in their economic liabilities of impact of climate change.