There’s a lot of health benefits to being vegan, but also a lot of challenges just to stay healthy because it is hard to get all the nutrients you need to stay healthy in the quantities you need, like iron.

Looking at this statistic, you should be concerned about your health in your ability to go vegan if you are considering it, and not the nobility of global warming. You can offset the 1.5 tonnes CO2 for about $45, which is a LOT less than the cost you’re going to incur in eating meat compared to going vegan, or your doctor and health bills if you don’t go vegan sufficiently to sustain your health.

I’m not against one or the other. I’m a meat-eater, to be upfront. However, I’m not going vegan because I know I can’t without devoting far more of my life to my diet than I care to do to get the proper requirements to not only stay healthy but also to marathon training. I know others who do it and I know I can’t do what they do so props to them. I’m just trying to put things into perspective, which is part of my purpose in having this blog.

However, here is some great advice from the source article below on how to be a “caring carnivore”, a term that must just make the vegans and vegetarians cringe! [Envirostats author] 

How to be a caring carnivore

* Elect to eat one or two organic, locally produced cuts of meat a week rather than eating cheap processed meat every day

* Roast a chicken and live off it for a week, making stock from the bones and eating the leftovers – avoiding wastage

* Investigate meat alternatives such as tofu (pictured left), tempeh, textured vegetable protein and Quorn

* Buy organic milk, or try soya (pictured right), almond, oat, hazelnut or quinoa milk instead

* Chicken and pork are more carbon-efficient and produces less methane than beef

* Be aware of other good sources of protein. These include pulses, beans, nuts, seeds and, of course, soya beans

* Many kinds of bread and even some vegetarian products contain unnecessary milk products like whey, buttermilk or lactose, or eggs. Check the packaging and avoid buying non-organic dairy by avoiding these products 

- Researchers from the University of Chicago for statistics on vegan versus meat-eater emissions via The Independent, Dec 23 2007

- Unattributed source for number of British vegans, via same newspaper source and link above

Doomsday tourism, eh? Nice term. It’s a fine difference to eco-tourism, where you just want to see natural sites. Here, you want to see natural sites that is not predicted to remain for long. 

An interesting story about the eco-tourist boom of those rushing to see sites that are changing so fast they may disappear and never be seen as they were. Most of these are ice disappearing in one form or another, or sea levels rising. Let’s hope those who are rushing there are doing so responsibly so these sites are not gone sooner than would be otherwise without their presence!

Antarctica: the Müller ice shelf and the Larsen ice shelf are shrinking dramatically.

Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania: global warming is blamed for melting of the year-round snows at the summit of Africa’s highest mountain. They could be gone in 15 years.

The Arctic ice cap: the melting of icebergs and ice caps in the Arctic is blamed on global warming and threatens the habitats of species such as polar bears.

The Maldives: rising sea levels (3½in per year) could make these 1,200 islands in the Indian Ocean uninhabitable within 100 years.

Venice: the Italian city is sinking into the Adriatic and rising sea levels could make things worse.

Alaska: American travel agents report thousands heading for the shrinking glaciers and melting permafrost.

Great Barrier Reef, Australia: it’s been predicted that rising water temperatures, which are bleaching the famously vivid reefs, will kill 95 per cent of the living coral by 2050.

Kitzbuhel, Austria: the home of the world’s most fearsome ski run is among low-lying Alpine ski resorts whose long-term futures are threatened by rising temperatures - on average the warmest they have been for 1,250 years.

Galapagos Islands: rising water temperatures are bleaching coral and causing the deaths of marine species.

Patagonia: South American glaciers are also retreating.

According to the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, more than 37,000 tourists visited the continent last year - double the number five years ago. A third came from America, while the second largest contingent - one in seven visitors - travelled from Britain. “There definitely is a rush to see and explore the world before it changes,” said Matt Kareus, of Natural Habitat, which operates excursions to Antarctica.

Interesting. We Canadians flock to warmer weather. Going to Antartica isn’t exactly our style, though, mind you, I personally took a half day vacation last winter to photograph Halifax harbour freezing in -36C windchill. We’ve got the deepest ice free unfrozen natural harbour in the world, in case you didn’t know. Besides, we Canadians have got the North Pole so why go to the South Pole?

At least we’ve got the North Pole for now.

Merry Christmas again! [Envirostats author]

- Eco-tourism story via The Telegraph, Dec 23 2007

The cement GHG contribution statistic has been presented on this blog before, but not the industry’s growth nor their inability to do anything significant on this emission volume despite efforts, both of which were the subject of the source story, of which excerpts are provided below. [Envirostats author]

FANS of cement like to point out that it is the most widely used substance on the planet after water. Unfortunately it is also one of the most polluting. The main ingredient in concrete, cement is made by heating limestone and clay until they fuse into a material called clinker, which is then ground up and mixed with various additives. Both the heating, which is normally fuelled by coal, and the chemical reaction it induces release large amounts of carbon dioxide, and so contribute to global warming.Cement-makers have been improving the efficiency of their kilns for over a century, leaving relatively little scope for further big gains. Fuel substitution is also difficult: environmental activists worry that burning waste might release noxious chemicals. Indeed, Greenpeace’s campaigns against cement plants have focused more on the dangers of waste incineration than on their role in climate change. And building codes limit the extent to which cement can be diluted with additives.

Moreover, these measures yield only marginal benefits. Demand for cement is growing faster than emissions per tonne are falling, leading to an overall increase in emissions.

 Cement firms see no way to alter the basic chemistry of cement-making.

- Cement industry via the Economist, Dec 19 2007

Here’s another big contributor to global warming not many talk about, but probably because it’s not something most of us have going on in our lives that contribute to global warming. It was marketed as one cheap and effective way to get bang for your buck in trying to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming. [Envirostats author]

“Just like a global phase out of old, energy guzzling light bulbs or a switch to hybrid cars, protecting and restoring peatlands is perhaps another key “low hanging fruit” and among the most cost- effective options for climate change mitigation,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

Peatlands are wetland ecosystems that accumulate plant material under saturated conditions to form layers of peat soil up to 20m thick - storing on average 10 times more carbon per hectare than other ecosystems. Peatlands occur in 180 countries and cover 400 million hectares or 3% of the world’s surface.

Major overall findings

• Peatlands are the most efficient terrestrial ecosystems in storing carbon. While covering only 3% of the World’s land area, their peat contains as much carbon as all terrestrial biomass, twice as much as all global forest biomass, and about the same as in the atmosphere.

• Peatlands are the most important long-term carbon store in the terrestrial biosphere. They sequester and store atmospheric carbon for thousands of years.

• Peatlands are critical for biodiversity conservation. They support many specialised species and unique ecosystem types, and can provide a refuge for species that are expelled from non-peatland areas affected by degradation and climate change.

• Peatlands play a key role in water resource management, storing a significant proportion of global freshwater resources. Peatland degradation can disrupt water supplies and decrease flood control benefits.

• Degradation of peatlands is a major and growing source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions from peatland drainage, fires and exploitation are estimated to currently be equivalent to at least 3,000 million tonnes per annum or equivalent to more than 10% of the global fossil fuel emissions.

• Peatland degradation affects millions of people around the world. Drainage and fires in SE Asian peat swamp forests jeopardise the health and livelihoods of millions of people in several countries in the region. The destruction of mountain peatlands in Africa, Asia and Latin America threatens the water and food supply for large rural and urban populations.

• Climate change impacts are already visible through the melting of permafrost peatlands and desertification of steppe peatlands. In the future, impacts of climate change on peatlands are predicted to significantly increase. Coastal, tropical and mountain peatlands are all expected to be particularly vulnerable.

• Conservation, restoration and wise use of peatlands are essential and very cost-effective measures for long term climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as biodiversity conservation.

• Optimising water management in peatlands (i.e. reducing drainage) is the single highest priority to combat CO2 emissions from oxidation and fires as well as address peatland degradation and biodiversity conservation.

• There is in most countries an urgent need to strengthen awareness, understanding and capacity to manage peatlands- to address peatland degradation, biodiversity conservation and climate change.

- Assessment on Peatlands, Biodiversity and Climate Change via the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Press Release, Dec 11 2007

Tons are suspected to be metric tonnes due to the kilograms used in other parts of the article despite the tons spelling.

World population of 6.6 billion was used to get some per capita statistics not mentioned in source article.

I don’t know what is a sufficient amount of grain per person, but the more important issue is properly distributing this resource. Despite less food being available per person than in 1986, far less if you factor in the biofuels demands because the world didn’t have that resource withdrawal to any significant extent in 1986, there is no big famine in the much more evident media these days than was in the 1980s when there seemed to have been a famine in Africa for most of the second half of the decade.

Despite growing harvests, several factors are actually decreasing the amount of grain available per person as food, which peaked at 376 kilograms in 1986:

• Industrial livestock production requires large amounts of grain, particularly corn. Grain, in conjunction with soybeans, provides the primary source of livestock feed: in total, roughly one third (35 percent) of the world’s grain becomes feed.
• Ethanol and other fuels now consume 17 percent of the world’s grain harvest. Worldwide, the amount of course grains (a group that includes corn, barley, sorghum, and other grains fed mainly to animals) converted to energy jumped 15 percent in 2007 to 255 million tons, although this is small compared with the 627 million tons devoted to livestock feed. The 255 million tons is course grains only, not all grains.
• In recent decades, annual growth in grain production has at best matched each year’s population growth.

The low stocks and strong demand combined to push prices of all cereals to new highs in 2007. At harvest time, the U.S. corn export price was up about 70 percent from the previous year, while the U.S. hard wheat price averaged 65 percent more than a year earlier.

Other key trends in the Vital Signs Grain Update include:

• At 784 million tons, the record 2007 corn harvest was buoyed by growing use of the grain to produce biofuels, which prompted farmers in the United States, Brazil, and Argentina to plant more land for corn. The U.S. alone is responsible for over 40 percent of the global corn harvest and half of world exports.
• The global rice harvest was up slightly to 633 million tons, while wheat also increased modestly (by 2 percent) to 605 million tons.
• Corn, wheat, and rice account for about 85 percent of the global grain harvest by weight, with sorghum, millet, barley, oats, and other less common grains rounding out the total.

Comments in italics by Envirostats author.

- Worldwatch Institute, Dec 12 2007