Special Issue
The Copenhagen Climate Talks
* Video/Action of the Week: Scrap Cap & Trade, Force EPA to Crack Down on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Pollution!
* Action Update: Art for the Climate
* Climate Justice Heroes: La Via Campesina in Copenhagen
* Zero Waste for Zero Warming: More Compost, Less GHGs from Landfills
Video and Action of the Week
Scrap Cap & Trade: EPA Do Your Job!
This week, we share two great videos that explain what's gone wrong with Congress's climate change bill and why letting greenhouse gas polluters make money off their hot air, i.e., cap and trade, is a bad idea.
We urge you take action in support of EPA's recent, long overdue announcement that it will henceforth consider and regulate greenhouse gases for what they are - hazardous pollutants that represent a threat to our global climate and indeed all life on the Earth.
Watch the videos and take action
Action Updates
Art for the Climate
Thanks to all of the Organic Consumers Association activists who sent beautiful banners for use in the December 4th "Art for the Climate" action at the White House. Your work was photographed by multiple news outlets and printed in newspapers across the country.
Photos and videos of Art for the Climate
Climate Justice Heroes
La Via Campesina in Copenhagen
Excerpts from speech of Henry Saragih, general coordinator of Via Campesina at the opening session of Klimaforum:
New data that has come out clearly shows that industrial agriculture and the globalized food system are responsible for between 44 and 57% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. This figure can be broken down as follows:
(i) Agricultural activities are responsible for 11 to 15%,
(ii) Land clearing and deforestation cause an additional 15 to 18%,
(iii) Food processing, packing and transportation cause 15 to 20%, and
(iv) Decomposition of organic waste causes another 3 to 4%.
It means that our current food system is a major polluter. If we genuinely want to tackle the climate change crisis, the only way we have to go forward is to stop industrial agriculture.
Carbon trade mechanisms will only serve polluting countries and companies, and bring disaster to small farmers and indigenous peoples in developing countries.
By taking agriculture away from the big agribusiness corporations and putting it back into the hands of small farmers, we can reduce half of the global emissions of greenhouse gases. This is what we propose, and we call it Food Sovereignty.
Read the full speech
Zero Waste for Zero Warming
More Compost, Less GHGs from Landfills
When composted and returned to the soil, organic matter provides multiple benefits. It locks carbon in soil; improves the structure and workability of soils (reducing the need for fossil fuels for plowing and tilling); improves water retention (irrigation is a heavy consumer of energy); displaces energy-intensive synthetic fertilizers; and results in more rapid plant growth (which takes CO2 out of the atmosphere).
But, when organic waste ends up in landfills, the organic content (paper, yard waste and food scraps) putrefies, producing methane (CH4), a greenhouse gas 20-70 times more potent and damaging than carbon dioxide (CO2).
The Solution: Zero Waste
A far better approach is known as Zero Waste, which aims to close the loop on all material used in the economy. Under Zero Waste, each element of a source-separated waste stream is subjected to minimal treatment so that it can be reused. Clean, source-separated organics (including kitchen discards) are composted or subject to anaerobic digestion; usable goods are repaired and re-used; other materials are recycled.
Besides saving resources and money, and generating green jobs for local communities, Zero Waste produces far less pollution than so-called waste disposal techniques. It eliminates methane emissions from landfills by diverting organics; it eliminates greenhouse gas emissions from incinerators by closing them; it reduces greenhouse gas emissions from industry by replacing virgin materials with recycled materials; and it reduces greenhouse gas emissions from transport by generally keeping such materials close to the end-user.
Watch the Zero Waste Zero Warming video