Jones launches new online tool for estimating long-term climate change from today's actions
The climate change debate typically divides Americans into two camps: Hot and cold.
I’m starting my own camp: Hungry.
Climate change guru Andrew Jones presented his group’s new online tool, climateinteractive.org, on Tuesday at the Savannah International Clean Energy Conference. The website is built around a computer simulation tool that helps users visual the impacts of energy decisions on long-term climate.
Basically, it shows what cutting the use of energy sources like coal and oil or increasing the use of natural gas and nuclear would mean in terms of reducing the earth’s temperature.
Play around with the site for a while and its plain to see that stemming the warming will require a comprehensive approach. Less fossil fuels, more clean energy and slowing population growth all make a difference, although not a huge one. They need to be done in combination with energy efficiency and lower emissions initiatives as well as drops in “other gas emissions.”
The “other gases” are methane and nitrous oxide. A chief source of methane and nitrous oxide are cows: Methane from their passing gas; and nitrous oxide from their manure.
And the main way to cut those gases is … fewer cows. And fewer cows, Jones said, means “more vegetarian diets.”
In other words, to slow climate change we all need to quit asking “Where’s the beef?”
