A Conversation with Anna Lappe on Climate Change, Problems, and Solutions (VIDEO)

A Conversation with Anna Lappe on Climate Change, Problems, and Solutions (VIDEO)
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2010-06-01-DietHotPlanet.jpg The first thing one notices about Anna Lappe, author of the new book, Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do about It, she knows how to focus abstract, interrelated concepts, such as industrial agriculture, and food system, into concrete terms as they relate to climate change concerns.

Not only will agriculture be effected by rapid changes in weather conditions brought on by climate change, the food system itself (the entire process by which food reaches the end of our fork) is the largest single emitter of atmospheric greenhouse gases that drive climate change effects. Culling through the scientific literature, Lappe reports that about 31% of all carbon dioxide emissions are directly or indirectly related to the agriculture sector. Two very potent atmospheric gases, nitrous oxide and methane, are released in agriculture production, and are almost 300 times, and 25 times more active in the atmosphere, respectively (ton for ton), than carbon dioxide.

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