"Meat industry greenwashing has a new weapon: University scientists"
A long article, I'm not going to extract quotes, it's worth reading.
#BigMeat #BigDairy #animalIndustry #misinformation #disinformation #industryFunding #greenwashing #climate #climateChange #ghgs #profitability #sustainability #corporateFunding #corporateResearch #industryResearch #Mitloehner #ClearCenter #farming #farmers
The meat and dairy industry is not 'climate neutral', despite some eye-catching claims
Getting into the dirty dealings of meat industry apologetics:
context:
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The term “climate neutral” was first coined by policy makers to refer to net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases. These gases were measured using a long-established scale that represents their warming effect over a 100-year period, expressed in CO₂ equivalents – this is the so-called “global warming potential” or GWP100 and it was used in the preparation of the Paris agreement.
But GWP100 is still imperfect because while most methane is in the atmosphere for only a couple of decades, carbon dioxide can linger for centuries. That’s why in 2018 some academics introduced a new metric called GWP* to better represent the warming impact over time.
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meat industry science accounting shenanigans:
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But the reports we examine have used GWP* to subtly shift the meaning of the term climate neutral from net-zero emissions to net-zero additional warming, where “additional” refers to warming on top of that already caused by the livestock sector, not warming compared to if the sector stopped entirely. This means a historically high emitter such as the beef industry can get off easily.
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The analogy I would make is slapping someone (or some other form of violence that doesn't leave a clear mark). They're trying to claim that they're not attacking the atmosphere because slap damage doesn't last long... while they continue the slapping frenzy.
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Using GWP*, a livestock sector with high but declining methane emissions can claim to be climate neutral since it adds less additional methane to the atmosphere – and therefore less additional warming – each year. This is referred to in some of these studies as a “cooling effect”, which is misleading since it’s not cooling the atmosphere, only warming it slightly less. These studies also fail to make clear that, like methane itself, this “cooling” effect of methane reductions is temporary. And the level at which they stabilise will likely still be high enough to cause significant warming.
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So if you see such papers, remember:
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GWP* certainly has merit when applied at the global level. However, even the scientists who developed it agree it shouldn’t be used to assess a particular region or sector such as livestock.
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#meatBased #meatIndustry #bullshit #Mitloehner #GHG #climate #meatEating #methane #GWP #greenwashing
(2022 reminder) "How the livestock industry funds the ‘greenhouse gas guru’
Documents reveal how the CLEAR Center at UC Davis, a research institute run by Frank Mitloehner, has become central to the agricultural sector’s PR and lobbying efforts"
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But now, a major new Unearthed investigation has revealed that the centre’s links to the meat and dairy industries are much deeper and more ingrained than previously known. More than 100 pages of correspondence between the CLEAR Center and its agribusiness supporters – obtained by Unearthed under Freedom of Information laws – reveal how the centre’s structure was agreed through a memorandum of understanding between UC Davis and an offshoot of the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) – a trade body whose members include some of the world’s biggest livestock and feed producers. The documents show how, under the terms set out in this agreement, industry groups have committed millions of dollars of funding for CLEAR’s work, and the centre has committed to maintaining an “advisory board” of 12 of its agribusiness funders, to provide “input and advice” on the “research and communications priorities of the industry”.
The documents also show that the centre’s industry backers considered its greatest benefit to be its ability – as an apparently independent, academically credible voice – to make a positive case to the wider world about meat and dairy’s environmental impact.
This communications role is the focus of CLEAR’s briefings to its agribusiness donors. In these briefings, CLEAR charts a campaign to have the industry’s climate footprint revised and outlines research designed to undermine plant-based alternatives to meat products; it also celebrates its role in the pushback against EAT-Lancet as an early success for the centre, crediting Mitloehner with launching “a massive campaign” that, alongside the #yes2meat social media message, “was successful in swaying undecided audiences away from the EAT-Lancet report.”
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https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2022/10/31/frank-mitloehner-uc-davis-climate-funding/
#greenwashing #meat #CLEAR #Mitloehner #beef #industry #lobby #bullshit #climate #environment #sustainability
VeganPizza69 ⓋⒶ
