Energy Secretary Steven Chu: Meat And Agriculture Are Worse For The Climate Than Power Generation
NOBEL WINNING PHYSICIST & ENERGY SECRETARY STEVEN CHU: 'Let me say it again: agriculture and land-use generates more greenhouse gas emissions than power generation'.
JEFF MCMAHON: ‘The world has focused first on energy in its effort to stop greenhouse gas emissions, but former Energy Secretary Steven Chu puts agriculture at the top of his list of climate challenges—particularly animal agriculture.
The Nobel Prize winning physicist surveyed the world’s carbon-polluting industries in a lecture at the University of Chicago, and he started with meat and dairy. “If cattle and dairy cows were a country, they would have more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire EU 28,” said Chu, who recently assumed the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “Just something to think about.”
Chu lumped the greenhouse gas emissions from meat and dairy with other agricultural practices, such as fertilizer, and land-use changes, such as deforestation and soil disruption. He weighted the resulting greenhouse gases for lifetime and potency, showing that emissions from agriculture are a bigger problem than emissions from energy.
“Let me say it again: agriculture and land-use generates more greenhouse gas emissions than power generation”.. Chu is not the first to suggest that experts underestimate the climate impact of animal agriculture. Experts typically attribute about 15 percent of the world’s carbon emissions to livestock, but the Worldwatch Institute audited that number in 2009 and found uncounted emissions that bring the livestock contribution to 51 percent. The answer, to Chu, is biotechnology. He profiled fake meat—highlighting the brands Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat—and a symbiotic fertilizer technology’. SOURCE…
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