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The California based company, Impossible Foods, is on a mission to create tasty alternatives for all animal-based food by 2035 and so are several others — all in the name of feeding the growing population across that globe that relies on fish as its main source of protein. Following the success of the meatless burger,The New York Times reports that Impossible Foods is now branching into the creation of ‘fishless’ fish — they are experimenting with techniques such as using plant-based recipes and ingredients as well as employing laboratory techniques to “grow” fish from cells. For Impossible Foods, much of the focus is trained on recreating the ‘fish flavor’ using biochemistry and the same protein ‘heme’ that was used for the meatless burger.
Why This Matters: The capture, production, and distribution of animal-based foods have a huge, negative impact on the environment, whether it is through carbon emissions or overfishing. According to Bruce Friedrich form the Good Food Institute, “The commercial fishing industry is stripping oceans and destroying aquatic ecosystems in a way that makes the plundering of the Amazon rain forest seem like small potatoes.” Impossible Food and other alternative food brands, such as Good Catch Tuna and Beyond Meat, are attempting to reconfigure the food industry towards more sustainable and eco-friendly goals.Their success, however, is dependent on whether individuals will recognize the severity of our situation and be willing to try alternatives. But it has worked for meat, so here’s hoping people don’t find fishless fish too fishy.
Environmental Impact of Animal-Based Foods.
Total emissions from global livestock are 7.1 gigatons of CO2 equivalents per year, representing 14.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Livestock is the single largest human-caused source of non-CO2 greenhouse gases, producing 44% and 53% of methane and nitrous oxide emissions.
About 44 percent of livestock emissions are in the form of methane.
Over the course of a few decades, rampant fishing activities have led to 90 percent of fish stocks being either fully fished or overfished.
Meanwhile billions of people rely on seafood as their main source of protein.
Meatless Means Business: Impossible Food’s meatless burger made a big splash in the food market. Its usage of the protein heme, which the company produces itself from yeast fermentation, makes the ‘meatlessness’ of the burger almost impossible to taste.
The success of this protein-based meat has made Impossible Foods into a $2 billion valued company and has enabled the product to break into other global food brands, such as the Impossible Whopper now sold in Burger Kind and Qdoba’s announced offering of Impossible meat.
Impossible Foods is now looking to expand into Asia, whose food market accounts for more than 46 percent of the globe’s meat consumption. In Hong Kong, the average person consumes a daily average of meat equivalent to 2 pieces of 10-oz steak.
Choppy Waters Ahead: Despite the success of the meatless burger, there is speculation over how well other plant-based animal foods will catch on. Much of the attractiveness to consumers regarding Impossible’s meatless meat was the associated health benefits, like reducing one’s chances of cancer or heart disease. The same cannot be said for real fish though, which is healthy in itself. The success of ‘fishless’ fish depends wholly on the environmental consciousness of the consumer and their stance on overfishing.
On Tuesday, according to the Brunswick News, dozens of short-fin pilot whales emerged in the surf close to shore on St. Simons Island, Georgia and repeatedly attempted to beach themselves, as local citizens and then marine mammal stranding experts pushed them back in the water. Unfortunately, the Associated Press reported that at least three of the whales were so harmed by the ordeal that they did not survive the night, but by the end of the day Wednesday, the remaining whales in the pod were reportedly making their way back into deeper waters offshore where they ordinarily remain.
Why This Matters: Strandings like this are a rare event. Pilot whales are extremely intelligent and social creatures and when they beach they do it in large groups leading to mass deaths. Thanks to the quick work of Georgia beachgoers and lifeguards who jumped into action and as well as local animal rescue volunteers, dozens of pilot whales were saved. It is great to see such empathy for these animals — local folks could have just let them beach but instead chose to act.
Why Did They Try To Beach Themselves?
Clay George of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources explained what likely happened to the Associated Press. He said these whales were likely extremely confused — they’re not used to seeing a sea bed under them because they typically swim in deeper water beyond the continental shelf. Why they were so confused is a mystery — but there has been some research surrounding past mass strandings.
According to research published in The Royal Society’s Proceedings B journal earlier this year, beaked whales (pilot whales are a type of them), in particular, are so distressed by the military using sonar in training exercises that they will beach themselves or dive to extreme depths resulting in decompression sickness.
The U.S. military does conduct undersea sonar training exercises near the Georgia coast.
Yet another possible explanation is that healthy whales following sick whales into shore and then become stranded themselves because they struggle to remain near the dying whale — whales and dolphins are known to have strong social bonds.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources spokesman Rick Lavender told the AP that the pod of whales remained offshore Wednesday afternoon and that the state had a boat with conservationists from National Marine Mammal Foundation following the whales and that a helicopter also was searching for more stranded whales but found none.
H/T to Raleigh and Stephanie, our partners at the St. Simons Land Trust, for this good news story!
Yesterday, Senate Democrats determined to work around Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s unwillingness to legislate on the climate crisis, held their first hearing highlighting the work to combat climate change being undertaken by mayors across the U.S. The Democrats, according to the Committee’s Chair, Senator Brian Schatz from Hawaii, who told Chris Hayes on MSNBC last night that they want to “lay the predicate for action in 2021” and build “a coalition of working people” in support of climate action because “It is long past time to act.”
Why This Matters: The Senate last seriously considered climate legislation TEN years ago. And yet this is an existential crisis, whose impacts can be seen all around us from sea to shining sea — from rampant wildfires in “baking” Alaska and California that has burned cities and forests to the ground, to severe flooding in the midwest ruining billions of dollars in agricultural products, to hurricanes that that have killed thousands of Americans and left hundreds of thousands as climate refugees in our own country. It is long past time to act, but until the Congress — House AND Senate — act, at the very least they can prepare. Most laws take years to pass, so starting now is not just filling time — it is critical to eventual legislative success. And in fairness, there is some legislation slowly its way through the Senate to make the U.S. less dependent on fossil fuels, but there is nothing on the scale of what is needed currently under consideration by the Republican-controlled Senate. So let’s get ready in the hopes that the Congress will finally be able to act in 2021.
What Are Mayors Doing About the Climate Crisis?
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms talked about Clean Energy Atlanta in which the city is committed to transitioning to 100 percent clean energy by 2035 — both for municipal operations and by all residents, noting that Georgia is projected to see an increase in “dangerous heat days” from an average of 20 days a year today to more than 90 by 2050.
Mayor Melvin Carter of St. Paul, Minnesota highlighted the city’s effort to create a sustainable, energy-efficient demonstration neighborhood on a 122-acre site that once housed a Ford production plant that will generate 80% less carbon emissions than those built to code in 2005; and most homes will be powered, heated, and cooled with renewable energy.
The Senate Democrats Intend to Look At Numerous Climate Issues.
Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois highlighted environmental justice issues at the hearing today (see below), and in future hearings will work to better understand all the national security implications of the climate crisis.
Similarly, Senators Tina Smith of Minnesota and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin will delve into how climate change is negatively impacting farmers.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island seems to be focused on the issue of dark money and its link to climate change inaction in Congress.
You’ve probably noticed your friends and celebrities posting pictures on social media as the “old” version of themselves using the FaceApp, an app that can make realistic transformations of faces using uploaded pictures. However, some teens and young adults were quick to make the point that by the time they’re old it won’t matter what they look like if the planet isn’t habitable. Opinion contributor, Maura Quintwould rather see an app that shows what our faces will look like when unabated climate change makes an undeniable impact on our planet.
Why This Matters: In the past year we’ve seen a youth climate movement take hold that makes the very point that the generations who are responsible for not taking bold action on climate action are also the same ones who won’t be around to witness the worst ramifications of a warming planet. Climate change has even caused Millennials to consider not having children because they’re unsure of the planet that their offspring will inherit. Young activists like Greta Thunberg have said that lawmakers have stolen the future of younger generations, and looking at it from that lense perhaps makes a FaceApp-enhanced selfie a little less amusing, data theft aside.
When people think of carbon emissions they probably think of cars and power plants but you’d probably be surprised to learn that video streaming is becoming an increasing source of GHG emissions as our Netflix and Youtube addictions grow. A study lead by the French think tank The Shift Project discovered that 1% of all global carbon emissions, or 300 million annual tons of CO2, can be attributed solely to online video streaming. This is the carbon equivalent to Spain’s total annual emissions – the 12th biggest polluter in the world.
Powering the Digital Age: Over the past couple of years, online and mobile video usage has exploded.
Currently, about 60% of all online traffic is dedicated to video streaming. This number is only expected to increase as the energy consumption of digital technologies grows by 9% every year.
Netflix and Prime video alone make up 34% of these emissions, with pornography videos coming in a close second at 27%.
This surge in demand for internet-based streaming and streaming platforms has made data centers – the factories of the information age – one of the “largest sources of new electricity demand globally,” according to a Greenpeace report. This has fueled greater demand for coal, oil, and gas – energy sources that are causing the climate crisis (this is especially a problem here locally in Virginia).
Why This Matters: Since streaming is here to stay so it’s up to consumers to be aware, for streaming platforms to green their services and for governments to ensure that the platforms are investing in change. Changes to platform interfaces, like the removal of autoplay, could reduce the number of videos streamed and result in 550,000 fewer tons of emissions. Regulations on technologies that limit the amount of data accessible to users or the way services are designed could lead to the more sustainable management of our digital infrastructure. The transition to renewable energy in powering our numerous data centers would reduce reliance on fossil fuels and allow us to watch Stranger Things with less guilt.
The Green New Deal has been labeled as an ultra-liberal (even socialist) policy proposal that has no shot of winning over voters in more conservative districts. However, in the past week, the resolution has picked up three important Christian endorsements. As the Huffington Post reportedthe Unitarian Universalist Association passed a resolution at its general assembly in late June endorsing the Green New Deal, then days later, the national deliberative body of the United Church of Christ, a mainline Protestant sect with nearly 825,000 adherents and close to 4,900 congregations across the United States endorsed the resolution as well as the Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, a youth organization within one of Protestantism’s most traditionally conservative denominations, which praised the Green New Deal’s “biblical principles.”
The Politics: Evangelical Christians are generally known for their conservative politics but a growing faction of young Evangelicals and standing up for political action on climate change. There’s something to talking about the Green New Deal in the context of a Christian policy as the resolution focuses on helping the poor, healing the sick and ensuring that the Earth Christians believe God gave to mankind is protected for future generations. Talking about the GND in this context could help Democrats engage voters they previously have not been able to reach.
Shifting Perspectives: The Huffington Post also noted that the number of actual Christian climate change deniers has plummeted over the past four years as mounting natural disasters, increasingly grave scientific forecasts and a rapidly growing political movement erase doubt over the cause of planetary changes. In fact, according to Yale, Americans Christians are increasingly supporting regulations that limit the emissions of coal-fired power plants in an effort to curb climate change.
Why This Matters: Approximately 70% of the U.S. population identifies as Christian and Christian clergy have played important roles in progressive movements. When the Pope put out his climate encyclical other religious leaders also voiced their support for climate action but on the whole, Laudato Si didn’t instill sizeable action on climate change. This is perhaps because people respond best to leaders and authorities that they personally know and trust and if clergy members begin addressing the climate crisis in local parishes it can have a big impact on how their parishioners view the issue of climate change–shifting it from a contentious political issue to an urgent problem that needs to be addressed in order to protect God’s creation.
Loggerhead turtles have laid a record number of nests this year on the East Coast of the U.S. from North Carolina to Florida — more than 12,200, smashing the previous record by nearly a thousand nests in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. And while just the nest numbers alone bode well for the future of the threatened loggerheads, scientists also consider the nests themselves a key indicator of the health of the population now — the numbers have increased dramatically in the last 15 years. In 2004 there were only 400 nests on the Georgia coast (the low point since counting began) but this year scientists expect to see 10 times that number by the end of nesting season. What this really shows is that when people care about protecting nature, it can and will come back. Our Endangered Species Act works — if we let it. As we consider the UN’s warning of an extinction crisis, we now know there are things we can do — we just have to have the will to do them. #30×30 #CampaignForNature
Tessa Jenkins, turtle volunteer Photo: Danny Klain
The Camp Fire burns a home in Paradise, CA. Photo: Noah Berger, AP
By Monica Medina and Alexandra Patel
A study just published in the Journal Earth’s Future found that as a result of California’s increasingly long and dry summers caused by climate change, the state overall has experienced in the last 50 years a 500% increase in the amount of land burned in fires. While non-forest areas have not experienced a huge increase in fires in those areas, forested areas have seen an 800% increase in areas that have burned. The researchers found that these trends are likely to continue to increase as temperatures continue to rise and rainfall decreases into the autumn.
Why This Matters: The Camp Fire incident was the deadliest and most destructive fire in Californian history. It was the sixth deadliest fire in the United States and hit the top of the world’s costliest natural disasters in 2018. The total damage has been estimated at $16.5 billion. To state the obvious, huge wildfires in California are the new normal because forested areas are increasingly becoming tinderboxes and no amount of culling of the deadwood will change that. What can be done, however, is to prepare for the fires by improving warning and response systems, decreasing the risk from electric wires, keeping new residential development away from dry forested areas, and educating the public about how to minimize fire risks caused by accidents and carelessness. In addition, educating the public in other states about the role of greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans in fueling climate change will help to move the U.S. more rapidly to carbon neutrality. In the short run, however, Calfornia’s summer forest fire epidemic is likely to continue.
Every Degree Of Warming Makes It Worse.
The researchers looked at the data over the last fifty years and found that every degree of warming causes a larger area to burn than the previous degree of warming. Park Williams, a climate scientist at Columbia University and an author of the paper, spoke to Robinson Meyer of The Atlantic and explained that “[e]very additional increment in heat in the environment speeds up evaporation, dries out soil, and parches trees and vegetation, turning them into ready fuel for a blaze.”
The researchers looked at the data over the last fifty years and found that every degree of warming causes a larger area to burn than the previous degree of warming.
As a result, even if Northern California gets lots of rain in the winter, the increasingly warm summers essentially overpower that in the forested areas.
Hope for Paradise: The Camp Fire caused nearly the total destruction of the town of Paradise, California. Now almost a year later, despite efforts to rebuild the community, more than 90 percent of its residents have yet to return. On Monday, the city of Paradise issued its first Certificate of Occupancy for a rebuilt home to the Sinclair family, CNN reports. Along with all of the Sinclair family’s home and possessions, 13,972 homes, 528 businesses and 4,293 other buildings were destroyed or damaged during the Camp Fire. More than just constructing a new house, this family and others are still trying to restore the community as a whole.
Yesterday the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (known for their efforts to make apparel more sustainable) announced new guidelines to make denim more sustainable with the goal of making jeans last longer, ensuring that they can be remade into new jeans at the end of their use, and are made in ways which are better for the environment and the people that make them. Brands like Gap, H&M, Lee, Mud Jeans, Tommy Hilfiger, and Reformation have signed on to use these new circular principles for manufacturing more sustainable denim.
The guidelines include the following suggestions:
– Designing so that a pair of jeans can withstand at least 30 washes
– Garment includes clear product care information on labels
– Contains at least 98 percent cellulose fibers made from regenerative, organic or transitional farming methods
– Does not use hazardous chemicals, conventional electroplating, stone finishing, sandblasting, or potassium permanganate in finishing
– Does not contain metal rivets (or keeps these to a minimum)
– Jeans are easy to disassemble for recycling
– Information easily available regarding each component of the garment
As Treehugger explained, jeans that comply can use the Jeans Redesign logo, which “will be reassessed annually, based on compliance with reporting requirements.”
Why This Matters: The fashion industry is rife with pollution, climate, and human rights abuses–in fact the fashion industry’s carbon impact is higher than that of the airline industry. Jeans are one of the most popular apparel items and cost an exorbitantly high environmental price to produce thus starting with making denim more sustainable can serve as a blueprint for other textiles. Greening the fashion industry will require a colossal effort but important initial initiatives can demonstrate what’s possible when it comes to the sustainable manufacturing of clothing. Look out for the Jeans Redesign logo next time you’re shopping for a pair of jeans.
As has happened every year since 2002 starting in mid-July, a sizeable and harmful algal bloom has now formed in the Western Basin of Lake Erie, and NOAA on Monday issued a bulletin that the bloom “extends from Maumee Bay up to 13 miles north along the Michigan coast, and up to 15 miles east along the Ohio coast. Surface scum has been observed offshore of the Michigan coast.” NOAA warned everyone out on the water or the beach in this area not to swim and to keep pets out as well anywhere where the green-colored scum is forming. If you or your pet does come into contact, be sure to wash off right away and don’t let your pet lick the exposed fur.
Why This Matters: Health advisories like this one are now all too familiar to the residents of the Western Basin, and disrupt recreational swimmers, boaters and fishers. Fortunately, the bloom is not toxic, yet. While the algal bloom has been consistent in the last fifteen years, there has only been a severe outbreak during a couple of summers. But, according to NOAA and researchers at Bowling Green State University studying the problem, the necessary conditions are present for a severe one to occur. Plus, the drinking water coming from the Lake is being treated with extra chemicals to prevent illness. If the algal blooms enter the drinking water supply in sufficient amounts, such as during extreme outbreaks, NOAA warns that they can cause liver and kidney damage, or life-threatening bouts of gastroenteritis, aka ‘stomach flu’ (especially for children and the elderly). That is why it is important that NOAA works closely with local authorities to keep the public safe — especially because in recent years, likely due to climate change, the algal bloom has extended longer into the fall — thus increasing the opportunity for the blooms to turn toxic.
NOAA Forecast This Algal Bloom.
Earlier this year NOAA issued the following forecast: “This year’s bloom is expected to measure 7.5 on the severity index, but could range between 6 and 9. An index above 5 indicates blooms having greater impact. The severity index is based on bloom’s biomass – the amount of algae – over a sustained period. The largest blooms occurred in 2011, with a severity index of 10, and 2015, at 10.5. Last year’s bloom had a severity index of 3.6, while 2017’s was 8.0.”
According to researchers, the Western Basin is generally the only portion of Lake Erie that is impacted due to it being the most shallow part of the lake, which causes water temperatures to be greater there than in other parts.
The bloom is caused, according to The Weather Network, by “a combination of warm waters, sunshine and an abundant supply of nutrients thanks to phosphorus from commercial agricultural runoff, sewage, and industry that gets washed into the lake water.”
NOAA is now able to forecast for up to five days in advance how the harmful algal bloom is likely to shift and spread in the lake — which represents a significant improvement for the local residents and city water managers. And they are testing on a daily basis to ensure that they know if the bloom becomes more severe and toxic.
That makes it easier to warn the public and to ensure the drinking water supply remains safe.
To Find A Safe Place To Recreate: You can check out the State of Ohio’s Beachguard website here.
The 2015 toxic algal bloom in Lake Erie Photo: NASA
Food
