A new global warming? As if one wasn’t enough. No, Global Warming 2 is not a new problem. It’s a new way of thinking about an old problem. It’s humanity waking up in time to put out the fire, just as it starts to blaze.

[This article is still being worked on – I’ve been procrastinating so long so I thought actually posting it might get my ass into gear. It’s part of an new effort to make Whirled Peas full of only the best content and ideas I can offer.]

In Global Warming 1 the problem is underestimated but somehow we still feel disempowered. The things we can’t help are blown out of proportion and ways we can really help are ignored. Global Warming 1 is oversimplified and hides really dangerous problems. It gives us impossible solutions that we rely on governments to commit to. We are limited, powerless and hopeless.

The future’s not what it used to be. Our whole concept of Global Warming needs replacing. We need an update, a refresh. Change is happening faster, hotter, higher. With Global Warming 2, there are things we can do about it now.

The problems with Global Warming 1…

GW1 has won a Nobel prize but it won’t save us. In addition to the ongoing addition of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere, the largest greenhouse gas sinks threaten to become sources. Think the arctic tundra, tropical forests and the ocean itself. The line between a greenhouse gas source and a sink is invisibly thin. The northern permafrost and lakes are already releasing methane in unknown but huge quantities. We are significantly changing the ecosystem of the ocean. Global warming and deforestation are both affecting the worlds largest and oldest forests. The point at which they will cease to cope is unknown. 

GW1 warns of small but uncomfortable rises in sea level and temperature. “It’s mostly the third world which will be affected”. “Be a good citizen, be as green as you can and we’ll see if it’s good enough”. Worst case scenario? “Don’t go there.” With GW1 as our guide, we’re going there.  

Oversimplification: CO2e Unequal

GW1 makes light of some climate heavyweights. Greenhouse gasses have hitherto been measured against carbon dioxide : ‘carbon equivalent’. Another greenhouse gas, methane, is typically measured as having a warming potential 25 times greater than carbon dioxide. This is a dangerously conservative estimate.

Methane is a more serious problem. It is powerful yet short-lived and our climate is balanced with a little of it. It warms faster than carbon but we’re adding it much faster than carbon. Its atmospheric concentration has more than doubled in 200 years and it’s higher than it’s been for half a million years. It is not an issue to skip over (but there is a viable solution, see ‘Global Warming 2 below). 

Inaccessible Solutions

The solutions offered in GW1 are inaccessible. Firstly there’s transport. Most people live in cities where bike riding is impractical at best and suicidal at worst. These people are not going to ride a bike in the absence of bike lanes and sadly most new roads look just like old roads: they aren’t cyclist friendly. Busses are mostly unreliable and uncomfortable and as great as it is that more people use them, bus companies struggle with peak hour demand, making them less effective just when people need them. Hybrid cars are an even more elusive solution for obvious reasons. Secondly there’s green energy. When it is available it costs more. And it’s not that green.

The solutions that GW1 provide all require that we wait for governments and/or markets to catch up with our concern. When we realise that isn’t happening, we feel there’s not much point being concerned since there’s nothing we can do.

Enter Global Warming 2

GW2 acknowledges reality and with knowledge comes power.

Everyone eats – and coincidentally the unhealthy aspects of our diets also contribute heavily to global warming. GW1 forgets to mention this and its most popular protagonists continue to (all but) ignore this. A large amount of wastage and unnecessary environmental stress is integrated in animal food. The majority of cereals, soybeans and grains produced go to animals. 70% of our agricultural land is dedicated to animals. Every step of the process involves wastage and huge greenhouse gas emissions, including deforestation (carbon), fertilization (nitrous oxide). Thus right under our noses we have our practical, effective and accessible solution to global warming – avoid animal foods, as much as possible. You’ve heard of food miles but you can reduce your emissions more by partaking in McCartney’s “Meat free Mondays” than by becoming a full time locavore.

Knowing about methane opens a personal, accessible and immediate solution. We can cut these emissions today without significantly changing our world. Methane is short lived so we might escape the climate changes that current methane levels point to. It’s already been established that the climate footprint of a vegan is miniscule compared with that of a typical western omnivore, while their chances of developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes type 2 are much less. Studies have shown that eating a plant-based diet is the most effective individual action to reduce greenhouse gas emission. It’s far more important than eating locally, it’s far more important than how you get to work.

So why wasn’t this information in your hands long ago? No one believed you’d care enough to change your food. No one wanted to be the first to tell you. Well, almost no one. The president of the Australian Conservation Foundation Ian Lowe, the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, and the original global warming prophet Dr. James Hansen of NASA have all spoken to media on the topic.

Be assured, Global Warming 1 will get us nowhere as a concept. Nowhere we would like to imagine anyway. If we want to a future we need to take action. To take action we need to take responsibility for the ways we all upset the environment and eating copiously unhealthy amounts of meat are killing both us and the world around us.