Tag Archives: Carbon footprint

Let’s Get Vertical: Factory Farming

Agriculture has one hell of a footprint, occupying 37.6 percent of earth’s land area, or about 0.7 hectares (1.7 acres) per person to feed our world’s current population. “There is no activity that humankind engages in that has a bigger impact on the planet than agriculture,” Jack Bobo, Chief of Biotechnology and Textile Trade inContinue reading “Let’s Get Vertical: Factory Farming”

The Food-Miles Dilemma

In Michael Pollan’s New York Times essay, The Food Issue – An Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief , he says, “[W]hen we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases.” It would seem to be a no-brainer that local produce needs less fuel to get to marketContinue reading “The Food-Miles Dilemma”

Envirasceticism

I think Brendan O’Neil’s essay on the new enviro-asceticism is brilliant. I especially liked: Eating, drinking, playing, procreating – everything is carbon-calculated, everything is carbonised. These carbon-calculations really represent a moral judgement on our lives. They [today’s environmentalists] make everything into a potential sin, a crime against the planet. They send the very powerful messageContinue reading “Envirasceticism”

1.4 earths: sustainability and overshoot, or 6 earths and the moon for dessert

I like to think of myself as a good person of the Boy Scout variety–trustworthy, brave, kind, helpful, etc.–except without the homophobia. You probably like to think the same (of yourself, not me). Well, according to the Global Footprint Network’s “Footprint Calculator” it would take six earths if all 6.7 billion of us lived aContinue reading “1.4 earths: sustainability and overshoot, or 6 earths and the moon for dessert”

Trash Talk – Why I Won’t Buy a Kindle Anytime Soon

As a forester, I’d wondered about the claims that ebook readers such as the Amazon Kindle or the Sony PRS-700 would save trees and therefore, be better for our environment than a physical book made from like…trees. I concluded that the question, “Do ereaders save trees?” is not the right question to ask. First question,Continue reading “Trash Talk – Why I Won’t Buy a Kindle Anytime Soon”

Trash Talk – Why I Won't Buy a Kindle Anytime Soon

As a forester, I’d wondered about the claims that ebook readers such as the Amazon Kindle or the Sony PRS-700 would save trees and therefore, be better for our environment than a physical book made from like…trees. I concluded that the question, “Do ereaders save trees?” is not the right question to ask. First question,Continue reading “Trash Talk – Why I Won't Buy a Kindle Anytime Soon”