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, 4 tweets, 3 min read
Hi @UN - great to see some advice on food-related climate action, but the best 2 rules of thumb to reduce diet-related emissions (in high-income countries) are minimizing food waste and eating a plant-rich diet: wri.org/blog/2017/10/t…. 1/
@UN ~6% of global food GHGs from transport, so local food is not a leading climate strategy. science.sciencemag.org/content/360/63…

Re: organic, higher land use (lower yields) means GHGs can actually increase; halting deforestation while feeding 10B is a key challenge. advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/3/e1… 2/2
@UN h/t @_HannahRitchie
@UN And now, for the usual caveats:

1) Local & organic can be great for other reasons - not everything is about climate;
2) Need to reduce emissions from fossil fuels AND food/land to stay w/in 1.5C;
3) Individual climate actions are terrific but must complement system-wide changes.
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Richard Waite
@waiterich
While everyone’s tweeting about regenerative grazing in the US, a reminder that there’s enormous opportunity to boost pasture productivity across the tropics AND improve soil health AND reduce emissions per kilo of meat/milk AND reduce pressure on forests.
npr.org/2019/03/13/702…
Globally, the challenge is to welcome billions more to the middle class while halting ag expansion into forests & greatly cutting GHGs. A shift to less land-efficient US beef production systems would necessitate even larger productivity gains elsewhere and/or larger diet shifts.
This is why when assessing climate benefits of regenerative grazing we can’t just look at “methane up minus C sequestration down.” Yield of meat per acre vs. conventional beef is important too, in the context of growing global demand for beef. google.com/amp/s/www.poli…
Read 3 tweets
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Richard Waite
@waiterich
It's #ClimateWeek2019, so let's have a THREAD about carbon opportunity costs, since we can't keep warming below 2°C (let alone 1.5°) without halting deforestation - and probably reforesting large areas. How we produce and consume food has a large bearing on what's possible. 1/
In recent years, agriculture and associated land-use change have been responsible for roughly a quarter of total annual GHG emissions from all sectors. The data below are from 2010 (Source: sustainablefoodfuture.org). 2/
Those numbers above are from GHG emissions in a recent year. But massive amounts of former forest land have already been cleared for agriculture, which currently occupies nearly half of the world's vegetated lands. And agriculture remains the leading driver of deforestation. 3/
Read 25 tweets
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Richard Waite
@waiterich
Why agricultural productivity matters: If the 🌎 does not increase yields & boost productivity, to feed 9-10 billion people by 2050 with expected levels of consumption would require clearing another *3 billion* hectares of forests, which is most of the world's remaining forests.
Why consumption matters: even if 🌎 boosts ag productivity at historical rates, ag/land sector is likely to emit 15 GtCO2e by 2050 at projected consumption patterns, putting Paris climate goals out of reach. So improving ag, reducing food waste, shifting diets etc. all important.
Source for charts (and much more for your reading pleasure): sustainablefoodfuture.org.
Read 3 tweets

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Steve Faktor
@ideafaktory
With brand new epilogue: Dear Greta.

#climate #climatechange ideafaktory.com/cannibal/
#ClimateChange thread

The most sober & pragmatic analysis I've seen is from Citi, showing the benefits of clean solutions outweigh costs.

But that's the business side.

Sadly, the political rhetoric is now unhinged, exaggerated, irresponsible hysteria.

theguardian.com/environment/cl…
1) Greta says "people are dying". Not exactly. Deaths from natural disasters have plummeted over past 100 years.

2) Greta says capitalism is the problem when its driven down pollution by subbing gas for oil/coal, driven innovation lowering solar, wind, battery & other alt costs.
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Dr. Daniel Grossman
@DrDGrossman
Hi @MeghanMcCain. I am an OB/GYN, abortion provider & researcher. I'd like to clarify some facts: 65 countries allow abortion at this stage in cases of fetal malformations or anomalies. (tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…) The US doesn't have access to early abortion like many countries do.
From your tweet, you suggest that you don't want the US to be a global outlier on abortion policy. Did you know that 78% of high-income countries provide public funding for abortion, making the US an outlier? contraceptionjournal.org/article/S0010-…
There are many reasons why patients have abortions after 20 weeks; complications happen as the pregnancy progresses, my patient's health is impacted, and we perform tests to make sure the fetus is healthy. This is why this decision is made based on medical advice, not politics.
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Dr Kim Nicholas
@KA_Nicholas
#climate twitter! I want to donate 10% of my 2019 income where it will do the most good to reduce emissions. Would love to hear your take on the most effective orgs (in this thread or private DM). Thanks! Ping @drvox @KHayhoe @Fisher_DanaR @AmyAHarder @LeehiYona @EricHolthaus
As I replied to @EricHolthaus- I'm aware of and inspired by @givingwhatwecan & @GiveWell work on global health/poverty; I personally want to support climate mitigation. I realize there's no one right answer, depends on theory of change etc; curious to hear different perspectives.
Esp. in climate arena where impact could be on different possible levels (eg X tons avoided from cookstoves vs Y tons #fossil CO2 kept in the ground vs systemic political or economic change)- curious to hear diverse range of theory of change or evidence of effectiveness.
Read 11 tweets
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Joseph Curtin
@jmcurtin
1. Thread:

Riots in France, 2nd rejection of carbon tax in Washington State, and u-turns in Germany and Ireland, all since Oct:

Are carbon taxes are dead, and we should look to plan B on climate?

My piece here: thetimes.co.uk/edition/irelan…

Or: josephcurtin.com/single-post/20…
2. Climate dumbassess have been lining up to dance on carbon pricing's grave.

@WSJ_Online ’s Ed Board were among the 1st to sound the death knell, arguing that nothing better reveals “the disconnect between ordinary voters and an aloof political class”: wsj.com/articles/the-g…
3. Even the orange elephant in the room was using these developments to stick the knife in:
Read 27 tweets
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Patrick Galey
@patrickgaley
Just returned from Bangkok, where nations made little progress towards finalising the Paris agreement on climate change that aims to limit global temperature rises over the next 80 years.

It was my first @UN #climate change rodeo and there were a few things I wasn't aware of
Under Paris, countries agreed to a fairly detailed set of promises to keep global temperature rises under 2C by 2100.

It was the first time all nations - both developed and developing economies - signed up to the same set of climate rules. But they weren't binding
Parties gave themselves in effect 3 years to come up with a text agreed by everyone, ratified, and translated into national law on a state-by-state basis. The idea is the accord isn't legally binding, but the rulebook it provides could be on a national level
Read 23 tweets
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Adam Butterworth
@aidanbutty
Great to see the latest big paper from @Cambridge_CEU @DPHPC out in @TheLancet investigating the associations of alcohol consumption with cardiovascular disease, mortality and life expectancy: thelancet.com/journals/lance… 1/N
Limits in alcohol guidelines vary widely around the world and previous studies have suggested J-shaped associations of alcohol intake with CVD, leading to the popular notion that moderate drinking is "good for the heart" 2/
We studied 600,000 people without CVD from 83 studies in the ERFC, EPIC-CVD and @uk_biobank who were all 'current drinkers' at baseline (to minimise biases from including ex/never drinkers). 40K deaths and 40K CVD events were recorded. 3/
Read 12 tweets

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