Food drink What can I do about climate modification?

” The minute of crisis has actually come” in efforts to tackle environment change, Sir David Attenborough has alerted.

He spoke as BBC News introduced a year of special protection on worldwide warming.

Here are our responses to a range of readers’ questions.

Food drink What are the most essential things individuals can do? – Maureen Watt, Livingston, Scotland

Environment change will need to be taken on by federal governments worldwide, through measures like the 2005 Kyoto Procedure. This brought countries together for the very first time in a single arrangement on dealing with environment change.

However everybody has a carbon footprint. This is the amount of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide – which adds to worldwide warming – released into the environment by people’s actions.

This can be reduced in a number of ways. According to a recent report by a group of global researchers, transportation is responsible for 34%of a family’s carbon footprint in high-income nations like the UK. The report calls for a significant program of investment in the rail and bus network, with lower ticket rates and financial investment in safer biking.

Home heating provides another difficulty and chance. It is accountable for 21%of a household’s carbon footprint.

This could be cut by rejecting the thermostat, having better-insulated homes and changing to low-carbon heating systems.

Food drink Is the basic issue human overpopulation? – David Bassett, Locks Heath, Hants

According to the United Nations, the present world population has to do with 7.7 billion and could reach 9.7 billion in 2050.

This population development drives higher demand for food, higher energy intake and more competition for resources. And it increases the production of the gases that trigger worldwide warming.

And a recent significant study, by a global group of 11,000 researchers, concluded that the world requires to stabilise its population.

The study has brought in quite a deal of controversy, but its authors state such action is required if the world is to prevent what they call “a catastrophic hazard” from environment change.

Food drink Is a plant-based diet plan among the best actions you can take? – Sophie Hill, Astwood Bank, Worcs

It is estimated that 26%of global emissions originate from food and majority of this from animal products.

This is because producing food from animals uses more resources than food from plants. Cows and sheep likewise produce methane – a greenhouse gas.

According to a 2019 report by UN experts, changing to a plant-based diet can help combat environment change.

They said that more individuals could be fed utilizing less land if people reduced eating meat. However they stopped short of encouraging people to become vegan or vegetarian.

And a University of Oxford research study discovered that if everyone in the world cut meat and dairy from their diet, there could be a 49?crease in greenhouse gas emissions from food production.

Food drink What can we do about other, bigger countries not adopting green practices? – Christina Dudley, Beenham, Berks

China and the United States are the world’s biggest emitters of CO2, accountable for 16 megatonnes between them a year.

In regards to emissions per head of population, the image is different. The US is still near the top, with 15.53 tonnes. However the UK (5.99 tonnes) is just somewhat behind China (6.59 tonnes).

So what can a smaller country, like the UK, do to apply pressure for modification?

On an individual level, customers might choose to look for out “green” items and boycott ones from more contaminating parts of the world, states Alyssa Gilbert, environment policy director at Imperial College London.

There is also a chance for the UK to come up with innovative ideas that larger nations might embrace, Ms Gilbert recommends.

” As a country we are small and nimble, so we can pilot concepts around technology and policy in the hope that we can export them to other nations”, she states.

At government level, the UK can also use diplomacy, as well as worldwide aid, to bring about modification.

Food drink Why are we not recording and using the greenhouse gases currently in our atmosphere? – Jonathan Miller, Cornwall

Carbon capture, to eliminate and store greenhouse gases, already takes place naturally. All plants and trees take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and groundwater.

So, planting trees is viewed as a crucial weapon in the battle against worldwide warming.

The UK’s Committee on Environment Modification (CCC) states substantial rises in tree planting “need to happen rapidly” if other targets to cut carbon are not fulfilled.

It says 30,000 hectares of woodland must be planted every year, more than double the new trees planted in 2018.

The UK federal government states it is committed to planting 11 million trees by 2022.

In February 2019, the Drax power station in North Yorkshire, became the very first in Europe to record co2 (CO2) from wood-burning.

Another approach, presently being offered by a company in Switzerland, is to pull carbon dioxide straight from the air This gas can then be cost other purposes, like being utilized to grow vegetables in hi-tech greenhouses.

However schemes like these are, yet, relatively few and small.

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