www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2195538.ece
Sitemap From The Times August 4, 2007 Walking to the shops damages planet more than going by car' Dominic Kennedy Walking does more than driving to cause global warming, a leading environmentalist has calculated. Food production is now so energy-intensive that more carbon is emitted providing a person with enough calories to walk to the shops than a car would emit over the same distance. The climate could benefit if people avoided exercise, ate less and became couch potatoes. Provided, of course, they remembered to switch off the TV rather than leaving it on standby. The sums were done by Chris Goodall, campaigning author of How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, based on the greenhouse gases created by intensive beef production.
of CO2 to the atmosphere," he said, a calculation based on the Government's official fuel emission figures. "If you walked instead, it would use about 180 calories. You'd need about 100g of beef to replace those calories, resulting in 36kg of emissions, or four times as much as driving. "The troubling fact is that taking a lot of exercise and then eating a bit more food is not good for the global atmosphere. Eating less and driving to save energy would be better." Mr Goodall, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Oxford West & Abingdon, is the latest serious thinker to turn popular myths about the environment on their head. Catching a diesel train is now twice as polluting as travelling by car for an average family, the Rail Safety and Standards Board admitted recently. Paper bags are worse for the environment than plastic because of the extra energy needed to manufacture and transport them, the Government says. Fresh research published in New Scientistlast month suggested that 1kg of meat cost the Earth 36kg in global warming gases. The figure was based on Japanese methods of industrial beef production but Mr Goodall says that farming techniques are similar throughout the West. What if, instead of beef, the walker drank a glass of milk? The average person would need to drink 420ml - three quarters of a pint - to recover the calories used in the walk. Modern dairy farming emits the equivalent of 12kg of CO2 to produce the milk, still more pollution than the car journey. Cattle farming is notorious for its perceived damage to the environment, based on what scientists politely call "methane production" from cows. The gas, released during the digestive process, is 21 times more harmful than CO2 . Organic beef is the most damaging because organic cattle emit more methane. Michael O'Leary, boss of the budget airline Ryanair, has been widely derided after he was reported to have said that global warming could be solved by massacring the world's cattle. "The way he is running around telling people they should shoot cows," Lawrence Hunt, head of Silverjet, another budget airline, told the Commons Environmental Audit Committee. "I do not think you can really have debates with somebody with that mentality." But according to Mr Goodall, Mr O'Leary may have a point.
"Associated British Foods isn't being questioned by MPs about energy. "We need to become accustomed to the idea that our food production systems are equally damaging. As the man from Ryanair says, cows generate more emissions than aircraft. Of course, this doesn't mean we should always choose to use air or car travel instead of walking. It means we need urgently to work out how to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of our foodstuffs." Simply cutting out beef, or even meat, however, would be too modest a change. The food industry is estimated to be responsible for a sixth of an individual's carbon emissions, and Britain may be the worst culprit. "This is not just about flying your beans from Kenya in the winter," Mr Goodall said. "The whole system is stuffed with energy and nitrous oxide emissions. The UK is probably the worst country in the world for this. We use an enormous amount of processed food, like ready meals, compared to most countries. Three quarters of supermarkets' energy is to refrigerate and freeze food prepared elsewhere. A chilled ready meal is a perfect example of where the energy is wasted. You make the meal, then use an enormous amount of energy to chill it and keep it chilled through warehousing and storage." "This is a route which virtually nobody, apart from a vegan, is going to follow," Mr Goodall said. But there are other ways to reduce the carbon footprint. "Don't buy anything from the supermarket," Mr Goodall said, "or anything that's travelled too far."
Shattering the great green myths -- Traditional nappies are as bad as disposables, a study by the Environment Agency found. While throwaway nappies make up 01 per cent of landfill waste, the cloth variety are a waste of energy, clean water and detergent -- Paper bags cause more global warming than plastic. They need much more space to store so require extra energy to transport them from manufacturers to shops -- Diesel trains in rural Britain are more polluting than 4x4 vehicles.
They produce less milk so their methane emissions per litre are higher -- Someone who installs a "green" lightbulb undoes a year's worth of energy-saving by buying two bags of imported veg, as so much carbon is wasted flying the food to Britain -- Trees, regarded as shields against global warming because they absorb carbon, were found by German scientists to be major producers of methane, a much more harmful greenhouse gas Sources: Defra;
Have your say Have they taken into account the carbon cost of a tripple heart bypass for all the people who take no excersise? The point is that thing which are expensive generally cost a lot in energy, and energy usually means CO2 emissions. Organic is worse than ordinary food, out of season tomatoes are worse than in season, trains are worse than cars, paper bags worse than plastic, food (energy) is worse than petrol (energy) etc. Generally speaking buying the cheapest option probably uses the least human effort and human effort correlates pretty well with energy consumption. Isn't it amazing that I don't need any beef whatsoever to walk to the store! The whole thing is that just eating beef causes millions of tonnes of greenhouse gasses that aren't necessary and keeps millions of tons of grain from the mouths of hungry people who don't even have stores to walk to. Bonnie Parker, Magnolia, Arkansas Now the greenies want us to stop eating to save the planet! The points made by Chris Goodall should be a wake up call to everyone. The latest environmentalist vogues are full of hypocracies. I am fed up with constantly being told that I am guilty of several cataclysmic crimes by the time I have had a warm shower and a cup of tea in the morning. Now you are telling me I should repent for the bacon sandwich I've just had. Demanding that every person on the planet fundamentally change their lives comes with an equally tremendous responsibility to demonstrate both why and how. Too much of the so-called science purporting to 'prove' man's negative influence on the environment is questionable; furthermore, as your article suggests too many of the proposed remedies are hastily concocted, ineffective, counter-productive or ultimately facile. Properly prove your case and develop clear-thinking remedies that have longevity and substance before telling everyone what we should do. Nick, London, We're coming inexorably to the elephant in the room. Global warming - if it exists outside the imagination of its proponents - ultimately owes its very existence to overpopulation. Twiddling with hair-brained schemes which change from day to day will do nothing to change that basic fact. Terry Dell, Weybridge, UK Surely having Children is the cause of Global warming and therefore either not having Children, or all the very most, only having one is the global solution? Adrian Guy, Devon, England Of course it's possible to reduce any argument to absurdity if you try hard enough. Supposing we all gave up walking - what about the effect on our health and the cost to the NHS of treating the extra obesity and heart disease? Likewise the extra traffic congestion and fumes from the extra car trips. Mostly they ...
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