Climate Change with No Pictures

I attended the Climate Change Documented talk by Dennis Dimick, Executive Director of National Geographic Magazine. The talk felt very similar to the film An Inconvenient Truth. First he explained the greenhouse effect, followed by the presentation of data which showed how the current levels of carbon dioxide and temperature levels are much higher than past natural cycles of the Earth, and ending with possible solutions to the problem.

Dimick presented a very interesting look of how human actions contribute to carbon dioxide emissions. He did this not by talking about cars, or coal factories, or the ever increasing consumption of energy. Instead, he used cheeseburgers. He presented the work of one National Geographic correspondent who looked at the greenhouse emissions caused by cheeseburgers. It's not something we really consider when thinking about global warming, but it just goes to show how every aspect of our lives is contributing a little more to global warming.

So first Dimick stated the number of cheeseburgers consumed by the average American every week, which I don't remember, but I think it might have been at least 2. He then went through the process of producing and making one cheeseburger. It starts with the cows, which have to be feed quite a bit, and which produce a lot of methane from natural processes :) . It then continues with the processing of the beef, and the transportation of the beef to the burger place. On top of that you have the processing of the cheese, and the transportation of the cheese and the burger fixings. Finally, there is the energy consumption while cooking and preparing the cheeseburgers before they are served to the customer. In the end, it was concluded that the carbon footprint of cheeseburgers is very high when compared to other processes, more than one would ever imagine.

The second half of the talk discussed potential solutions to the problem. One of the most important points, which was repeated several times, is that it's not enough to reduce current carbon dioxide emissions. Instead, solutions must be taken which can reduce the current carbon dioxide levels to previous average levels. He a bath tub example, saying that the tub is currently half full, and if the rate of water coming in to the bath tub is the same as the rate of water coming out of the tub, then we will never reduce the current carbon dioxide levels. The rate of water coming out of the tub needs to be increased via carbon sequestration methods, and only then will we be able to return the planet to reasonable carbon dioxide levels.

The talk concluded by a discussion of how it is not just a matter of finding a universal solution that will fix the problem. Instead, it is a matter of taken a variety of approaches and combining them. For example, wind power alone will not solve the problem, but combining it with solar power, and cars which get better gas mileage, and using energy efficient bulbs, etc.

Overall, it was a good talk. Talks related to global warming tend to be very interesting, and really make you aware of the problems we and future generations might face unless we change. However, I think the people who usually show up to these kinds of talks are people who are already aware and believe that change is necessary in order to address the problem of global warming. So in the end the message does not reach audiences which really need to hear it.