The environmental impact of animals raised for food has been vastly underestimated and in fact accounts for at least half of all human-caused greenhouse gases (GHGs), according to contributors to this month’s World Watch magazine. Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of “Livestock and Climate Change,” found that livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions.
Read: “Livestock and Climate Change” in World Watch magazine.
Environmentalists Plan for 2012 Earth Summit
For many environmentalists, the first Earth Summit in 1992 was the beginning of a global movement. Nearly 20 years later, as governments around the world debate their role in combating climate change, Worldwatch is participating in plans for a 2012 Earth Summit to address environmental issues that have lost international attention in recent years.
Read: Environmentalists Plan for 2012 Earth Summit by John Mulrow
Take Action This Weekend!
350.org, an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis, is organizing a global day of action on October 24, 2009. The focus of the campaign is on the number 350– the level in parts per million that scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. So far, there are close to 1,800 actions planned in 140 countries.
Read: Take Action October 24th by Bill McKibben
Blogs This Week
Dateline: Copenhagen:
Climate Change: What’s Suicide Got to Do With It? by Robert Engelman
Nourishing the Planet:
Leaving on a Jet Plane: Ethiopia Here We Come! by Danielle Nierenberg
Green Economy:
That Cracking Sound You Hear… by Gary Gardner and Tom Prugh
Transforming Cultures:
In Search of a Small But Functional (Solar) Home by Erik Assadourian