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Food and Water Impact of Climate Change
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Impact of Climate Change:
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Over 800 colleges and universities, K-12 schools, civic organizations and religious groups are participating in Focus the Nation, potentially the largest simultaneous teach-in in history. (READ MORE) |
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"Water
and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends,
have become global garbage cans." |
[Jacques Cousteau (1920-1997),
French scientist
and pioneer of marine conservation] |
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| Lake Chad (Sudan) |
| http://earthshots.usgs.gov/LakeChad/LakeChad |
| Right on the edge of the
world's largest, driest desert-- the Sahara-- there lies a large
freshwater lake. Lake Chad borders four countries in West Africa:
Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. Lake Chad was once the sixth-largest
lake in the world, but persistent drought since the 1960s shrank
it to about a tenth its former size. (U.S. Geological Survey
website) |
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| Study: "Global
warming could affect quality of life" |
By Felicia Mello, Boston
Globe (July 11, 2007)
Put away your sled, get out the inhaler and forget about that
lobster pie. A new report by some of the region's top climate
scientists forecasts widespread changes in New Englanders' quality
of life over the next century if global warming continues at
its current pace. |
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| United Nations Environment Programme: Climate Change |
| http://www.unep.org/themes/climatechange/ |
| Climate change is one of
the most critical global challenges of our time. Recent events
have emphatically demonstrated our growing vulnerability to climate
change. Climate change impacts will range from affecting agriculture-
further endangering food security-, sea-level rise and the accelerated
erosion of coastal zones, increasing intensity of natural disasters,
species extinction and the spread of vector-borne diseases. |
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Diet |
| Article: Vegetarian Is The New Prius |
| http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/pages/page.cfm?page_id=153 |
By Kathy Freston, the Huffington
Post (January 20, 2007)
President Herbert Hoover promised "a chicken in every pot
and a car in every garage." With warnings about global warming
reaching feverish levels, many are having second thoughts about
all those cars. It seems they should instead be worrying about
the chickens.
Last month, the United Nations published a report on livestock
and the environment with a stunning conclusion: "The livestock
sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant
contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every
scale from local to global." It turns out that raising animals
for food is a primary cause of land degradation, air pollution,
water shortage, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, and not
least of all, global warming. |
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| The True Cost of Food: Discussion |
| http://www.truecostoffood.org/truecostoffood/leaders.asp |
The Sierra Club Sustainable
Consumption Committee Mission: To encourage people to think about
the environmental impacts of their consumption choices by providing
specific information.
This campaign and this guide seek to provoke thought and discussion
about the effects of our food choices. We are not attempting
to cover the topic comprehensively or to prescribe Sierra Club
policy, rather we seek to promote more informed choices about
how the way we eat affects our planet and our quality of life. Discussion
guide [PDF] |
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| FAO’s Newsroom |
| http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html |
| Report about livestock
as a major threat to environment. Article includes links
to the original documents (29 November 2006). Central statement: “The livestock sector generates
more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18
percent – than transport. It is also a major source
of land and water degradation.” |
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| Video: Sustainable Restaurant “Carpe Diem” |
| http://www.green.tv/carpe_diem |
| Carpe Diem is designed to be powered by sunlight, uses only
renewable materials for its furniture, specializes in locally-produced
food and employs a host of energy-saving features. |
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