Interesting article about tradeoffs b/t solar/wind expansion & conservation, due to land requirements. It's not trivial: recent Princeton study says net-zero might require >144M acres of land dedicated to wind/solar, an area larger than California! 1/2
latimes.com/business/story…
I'd point out an additional comparison: solar is WAY more land-efficient than bioenergy. On most lands, solar would produce *100x* as much useable energy/acre vs. bioenergy. (US already dedicates >30M acres of cropland to ethanol, producing only 7% of US transport fuel.) 2/2
So yes, solar & wind require land, but are way more land-efficient than bioenergy. Bioenergy also requires productive land that could produce food or store carbon if not used for bioenergy. So let's expand solar & wind, but do so thoughtfully, balancing other land-use goals. 3/3
Sources:

Bioenergy/solar map and analysis: WRI sustainablefoodfuture.org, Chapter 7

US ethanol land use: Bloomberg bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-…

Bioenergy proportion of US transport fuel: USDA ers.usda.gov/data-products/…
(And if I could edit tweet #1, I'd make clearer I'm referring to achieving net-zero emissions for the whole country, not just for California.)

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Richard Waite

Richard Waite Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @waiterich

13 May 20
Can increasing carbon sequestration in soils—through practices broadly referred to as regenerative agriculture—be a leading climate solution? Our read of the evidence suggests that soil C sequestration has limited potential to mitigate climate change. 1/ wri.org/blog/2020/05/r…
Although regenerative agriculture has no universal definition, it is often used to describe practices aimed at promoting soil health & restoring soil organic C.

Practices include no-till, cover crops, diverse crop rotations, improved grazing, and reduced chemical inputs. 2/
There is broad agreement that regenerative agriculture practices are good for soil health and have other environmental benefits, including water retention and reduced water pollution. 3/
Read 12 tweets
22 Mar 20
Thread: Delicious dishes from Cameroon 🇨🇲 with recipes. 1/
Ndole: often referred to as Cameroon’s national dish. Made with a bitter leaf, but spinach or other green will do in a pinch. Includes peanuts and meat or fish, can be eaten with plantains or another starch. africanbites.com/ndole/ 2/
Fufu and njama njama: cornmeal (like polenta) with huckleberry leaves (again other greens can sub in) fried with tomato, onion, and hot pepper. In Cameroon I lived next to a family from the North West Region and ate this a lot. africanbites.com/njama-njama-an… 3/
Read 14 tweets
10 Dec 19
Thread: You've probably heard of peak oil (hasn't happened yet). You may have heard of peak wild fish (happened in 1990s). But are we near peak beef? @davidfickling took a look at some of the trends. Below are a few thoughts. 1/
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
@davidfickling It's clear that per capita beef consumption has peaked in places like the U.S. and Europe, where it's been declining since the 1970s (and largely replaced in diets by chicken). I discussed some of these trends here: wri.org/blog/2018/01/2… 2/
@davidfickling But globally are we near peak production & consumption? If you look at the graph below, it seems like it. However, I'm not sure that presenting beef production like a compounding bank account tells the clearest story. The denominator has grown a *lot*, thus % growth is down. 3/
Read 14 tweets
30 Oct 19
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
Read 4 tweets
24 Sep 19
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
3 May 18
Thread: let's talk a bit more about the recent study that estimated the environmental impacts of U.S. food waste--and also included the finding that healthier diets actually result in higher amounts of food waste. 1/
wapo.st/2qHrTRN?tid=ss…
First, the wasted resources are huge: an area of cropland the size of Pennsylvania (and that doesn't even count grazing land!), 4.2 trillion gallons of irrigation water, and 6 billion pounds of fertilizer each year. 1/4 of food (by weight) and 30% (by calories) wasted. Yikes! 2/
And the tradeoff expressed most simply: wasted food, by weight, grows from ~300g to >500g per capita per day as diet quality improves, because fruits and vegetables (of which more are present in a high quality diet) are also wasted more often than other foods. 3/
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!