EXPOSED: Industry - The REAL cause of the climate crisis
By Sarah Muscedere
Lately, with so many changes in the world, and on a personal level, I felt a nagging urge to share new knowledge I’ve been learning whilst travelling around WA with my family over the past 6 months, immersing ourselves in nature, off-grid living and a lot of intense reading. I wanted to write this latest blog to inspire, motivate and empower positive change, because knowledge is only powerful when shared, and in life you can never solve any problem or uncover your full potential, alone.
With any great challenge in life such as global warming, we must take the time to understand it by peeling back the complex layers surrounding it, to address the reality of how industry is causing global instability across all areas of life; economical, social, environmental, in order to discover and adopt practical, achievable solutions that have nothing to do with restrictions, extra taxes, sacrifice, or a poorer quality of life, but instead focusing on harnessing the innate healing, energetic and regenerative powers of the Earth. With the added side effect if reconnecting and uplifting one another, regardless of race, age or sex.
For the next 5 minutes, we implore you to peel yourselves away from the influence of social media, Netflix, and any other distractions designed to keep us dumbed down and despondent, forget what you know, open your mind and heart, and objectively analyse the latest facts regarding the climate crisis; why and how we got here? who's really to blame? and in our next blog, how we can repair the damage that's been done?
Keeping our heads in the sand is no longer an option. It’s time for us to emerge from slumber and face the darkness head on. Acknowledging that the human race have become parasites who leach off Mother Earth, taking, taking and taking, without giving.
The term ''war on climate change'', implies we need to fight mother nature, and win - but we wont win! The only solution is to become a part of the land again, adopting new and old ways to live in harmony with Mother Nature, allowing her to heal, whilst healing ourselves in the process.
Each one of us can have a huge impact on the state of our world, it's our innate responsibility to do so! However, we can’t begin to know where to focus our energy unless we know who the real enemy is, in a story that could be the worlds greatest tragedy, or triumph. And if you think you as an individual has no power or say, you are wrong, it is always one person that changes the world, and in the wise words of St Francis Assisi, ''all the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle''. So, find your candle, light it, hold it high, but before you do,
let's dive into the darkness...
With the cost of living sky-rocketing which is degrading the affordability and accessibility to good quality healthcare, housing, education, freedom, equality, and safety, we wanted to share the link between this and global warming and industry.
Research has shown that the above areas are directly impacted by global warming - experts who have spent their lives researching this field conclude that stopping the degeneration of our planet can't be achieved without a holistic, multi-dimensional approach, whereby equality, empowerment and balance is achieved across all areas, that will make or break the fabric of our societies.
Today Edible Earth investigates the facts, not opinions or misinformation, (which evidently seems to be the foundation of modern day clickbait journalism). We have one intention and one only; to empower the reader with knowledge and solutions, inciting informed decisions about how we can live in harmony with the Earth, and one another.
THE HISTORY:
It's true that within its 4.5-billion-year history, planet Earth has experienced periods of lesser and greater warmth.
Altering over many thousands of years, these shifting temperatures have been determined by variations in Earth's orbit around the sun. While greater distances have resulted in colder cycles, shifts closer to the ball of heat have led to warmer, interglacial periods.
In the late 20th century, when scientists started looking at how temperatures have changed over time, they observed a much faster rate of planetary warming from the 1980s than had previously been recorded.
THE RESEARCH?
In 1998, researchers from the US University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona published astudyshowing the average annual global temperature over the past 1,000 years.
To work out earlier temperatures going back half a millennium before the thermometer was invented, they studied so-called proxy or natural records — measurements of ice cores, tree rings and corals.
The outcome illustrated little variation for many hundreds of years until the 20th century, when there was suddenly a sharp rise.
In 2013,researchpublished in the journalScienceanalysed even earlier temperatures, dating back 11,000 years. The conclusion was the same: our planet has warmed faster in the past century than at any time since the end of the last ice age.
The study also revealed that for the last 2,000 years Earth has actually been in a natural cooling period in terms of its position relative to the sun.
But this natural cooling has gone unregistered due to unprecedented warming caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases, the paper explains.
WHAT'S CO2 GOT TO DO WITH IT?
The greenhouse effect — a natural process that warms the Earth — is necessary to sustain life on the planet. It happens when certain gases in our atmosphere trap the heat emitted from Earth and act as the planet's very own greenhouse. The natural heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere, which include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide, are necessary to keep the Earth's surface temperature warm.
Without the greenhouse gas effect, surface temperatureswould drop 33 degrees Celsius(59.4 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) — making the planet a frozen, uninhabitable place.
For thousands of years, nature had well-regulated the concentration of these gases. But this started changing when humans began burning fossil fuels as a global means of creating energy — resulting in a sharp rise of unnatural CO2 emissions. This has interfered with the planet's atmospheric balance.
And, as a result, Earth started warming faster.
According to the WMO's State of the Global Climate 2020 report, the average temperature that year was1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) higher than pre-industrial levels. This refers to the period between 1850-1900, when fossil fuels were not widely used as a means of creating energy.
The report described increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere resulting from human activities, as"a major driver of climate change".
In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere had been280 parts per million (ppm)for several thousand years before the industrial era. By 1999, it had risen to 367 ppm, the IPCC said.
Established as a UN body in 1988, the IPCC has 195 member countries and assesses the science related to climate change. It has attributed atmospheric CO2 increase to anthropogenic (human-caused) emissions, with three-quarters of them coming from fossil fuel burning, and the rest from land use change.
In May 2021, the average global level of atmospheric CO2 hit415 ppm. The last time CO2 levels were so elevated was some 3 million years ago, when sea levels were around 30 meters (100 feet) higher andmodern humans didn't even exist.
Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said back in the late 20th century, when researchers started to look for answers to explain the warming trend, they examineddifferent factorsincluding greenhouse gases, solar energy, ocean circulation and volcanic activity.
"Only the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and industrialisation gave us a prediction that lines up with the warming we're seeing," Cook told DW.
He said the scientific community is as confident in human-caused climate change today as in the understanding of the theory of gravity.
"There are uncertainties and nuances to discuss in climate science," said Cook. "But the one thing pretty much every scientist agrees upon today is that the warming we're seeing is driven by burning fossil fuels."
THE SCEPTICS?
Less than 1% of the research papers they reviewed rejected the idea of human influence on our climate. And while 66.4% of the abstracts expressed no position on the anthropogenic factor, 32.6% endorsed it. Further analysis of the latter figure revealed a 97.1% consensus on human-caused climate change.
Critics, however, slammed the findings on the basis that the 97.1% consensus was derived from less than a third of all papers reviewed. Most, they argued, had not expressed a view.
Scientific consensus, however, can't be achieved by voting, but evolves through time as more research is done.
A more recentstudyconducted by a group of international authors confirmed that over 90% of climate scientists share the consensus that climate change is human-caused.
And a 2019analysisof 11,602 peer-reviewed articles on climate change published in the first seven months of 2019 found scientists have reached 100% agreement on anthropogenic global warming. That research was carried out by a James Lawrence Powell, an American geologist and author of 11 books on climate change and Earth science.
"If an alternative theory of what is driving climate change rather than greenhouse gases would be supported by research and evidence, such work would be groundbreaking," said Benjamin Cook. "It would be Nobel Prize-level study. But we do not see this research."
THE CAUSES - INDUSTRY
1 War Industry
The war industry contributes to greenhouse gas emissions through the production and use of weapons and military vehicles, which consume large amounts of fossil fuels. Additionally, military operations often result in the destruction of forests and wildlife habitats, further contributing to the decline of biodiversity.
The war industry redirects resources away from social and economic development programs, and into military spending.
If we reframe President Eisenhowers famous Chance of Peace speech in 1953, this is what the cost of war looks like in 2023:
a) The cost of one B-2 bomber totals a new highschool in seventy five cities, 72 solar power plants serving 4.5 million people, 36 fully equipped hospitals, and 281 electric vehicle charging stations.
b) One single F-35 Lightening Fighter costs the equivalent of 22 million bushels of wheat.
c) One Zumwalt destroyer costs the equivalent of new homes that could house more than 58,000 people.
This former five-star general was acutely familiar with the ins and out of war. In his final speech upon leaving office in 1961, he used term ''military industrial complex'' - a self justifying and self perpetuating industry with ''unwarranted influence''. It is estimated that 40% of all government corruption originates in the arms trade.
In the US today, military expenditure exceeds the combined spending of China, Saudi Arabia, India, France, Russia, UK and Germany, despite their being no clear or real military threat the United States.
When you take into consideration that the 5 largest arms-producing companies are American: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and General Dynamics, their combined market value on the New York Stock Exchange is $424 billion, there’s significant incentive to maintain and generate conflict at all times.
These are businesses after all, and the collateral damage: the inevitable wounds, trauma and death of innocent women, children and civilisations, are still not enough to stop the US and it's powerful military lobbyists from putting PROFITS before people.
In 2022, there were 164 countries with armed forces, 169 unsanctioned militia, and 32 ongoing conflicts in the world, but not ONE single country has a department for PEACE or PREVENTION.
The climate crisis undermines the security of everything, so militaries could play a key role by redirecting all of this effort, money and manpower to educate and protect, construct and build, monitor and guide, and to cooperate and collaborate, to take a proactive approach in adopting solutions needed to reduce emissions.
2 Pharmaceutical Industry
Climate related natural disasters have been rising dramatically and have been experienced by over 1.7 billion people in the past decade.
In the late nineteenth century, exceptional breakthroughs were made because medicine focused on environmental and social conditions that prevent illness, including hygiene, sewerage, sanitation, clean water and proper ventilation of factories, and the prohibition of child labour.
In 2022, the pharmaceutical industry contributed to 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions through the production and transportation of drugs, and the environmental degradation through the disposal of hazardous chemicals and waste. Additionally, they exploit workers in developing countries, who are often paid low wages and work in dangerous conditions.
The most damaging aspect of all however, is the industry's focus on PROFIT which has resulted in the loss of preventative medicine, upon which the foundation of medicine was built, whilst neglecting public health programs and the unequal distribution and affordability of life-saving drugs.
Big pharma and it's focus on symptoms, and biased research, is FAILING.
The numbers tell the story.
• In the US: 78% of adults are obese, making up over 42% of the worlds obesity numbers.
• Elevated BP has doubled between 1975 and 2015.
• More than half of all Americans have damaged blood vessels.
• Diabetes rates have risen from 108 million in 1980 to 463 millionin 2019.
• Suicidal thoughts and attempts rose 300% in kids under 18, and 200% in adults aged 18 - 34.
These health issues aren’t caused by a lack of money, only a lack of humanity. For example, the US is the 8th richest country in the world, per capita, yet it provides NO FREE healthcare for the poor, elderly, children, immigrants, and the unemployed, and over 30 million are unemployed due to affordability, and left to go bankrupt by medical bills, or die from negligence.
Compare that with Rwanda, ranked 167th poorest nation on Earth - provides UNIVERSAL healthcare a result of it's convulsive experience with genocide. It's regime is dedicated to healing it's country in as many ways as possible. The wealthiest people in the country contribute $8 a year!
Health is complete physical, social and mental wellbeing and is inseparably linked to poverty alleviation.
To address climate crisis, populations need to be motivated, engaged and active. This can't happen if people are sick, if they can't feed their children, if they lack housing and if they can't find employment.
The health crisis and climate crisis are interlinked, we cant address one without affecting the other.
3 Banking Industry
The banking industry contributes to greenhouse gas emissions through its investments in fossil fuels and other industries that contribute to global warming. Oil and gas pipelines are being laid across eco-systems, new mines have destroyed sacred ancient indigenous sites, coral reef and pristine watersheds. Coal-fired power plants are being financed throughout China, India, and numerous African countries.
Between 2016 and 2019, four major banks in Australia financed fossil-fuel projects that would cancel out the nations emissions reduction target twenty-one times over.
In the 5 years after the 2015 Paris Agreement was adopted, 35 banks from Canada, China, Europe, US and Japan lent and invested $3.8 TRILLION on fossil fuel projects - nearly half went to extracting more fossil fuel!
These degenerative investments continue not just for profit, but because most bankers are not experienced or familiar with renewable energy investments. A recent study found that out of 39 international banks, 565 bank directors had prior employment or affiliation with fossil fuel and polluting industries.
Given the returns for clean energy outweigh dirty energy, there is no reason to not adopt cleaner practices and focus on a new clean economy which will provide more jobs, cheaper living, without causing further damage.
The world is awash with money and innovation, what’s missing is the desire; the integrity and the accountability. It’s long been known that a small percentage of people are getting richer, by destroying the wealth of the planet. But the opposite is equally possible. We have the funding to reverse global warming and restore the rich forms of life residing on land and in oceans, whilst improving quality of life for all.
4 Fashion Industry
The fashion industry is responsible for 8% of total greenhouse emissions, on par with the Big Food Industry m.
Fashion has risen from a $500 billion industry in 1990, to $2.5 TRILLION in 2019, making it the 3rd largest manufacturing industry in the world, behind automobiles and technology, employing 1 out of 6 people on the planet!
Powered by coal, oil, diesel, gas, jet A fuel, and bunker crude for ships. Manufacturers use an open loo cycle meaning production waste streams go DIRECTLY into the land and water, generating 203 TRILLION pounds of waste and consuming 21 TRILLION gallons of water.
Even more shocking is the exploitation of disadvantaged people in developing countries. According to Fashion Checker NGO - Clean Clothes Campaign, 93% of the biggest clothing and sportswear brands do NOT pay a living wage. Meaning their workers can’t afford the basic necessities of life. To put this in perspective; In the 1800’s mill workers made 34cents per hour, the same wage the majority of garment workers made in 2022, more than 200 years later!
Whilst millions of people around the world suffer from hunger, homelessness and no clothing, it‘s abhorrent to learn that clothing giants like H & M had $4.3 billion of unsold clothes in 2018, and Burberry admittted to BURNING $37 MILLION of its product to prevent it being discounted.
Whilst most of us admit to being reeled into the temptations of fast cheap fashion (hello Kmart), especially when buying local and sustainable can be financially out of reach for the average family, I’ll admit that after learning about the true impact of these industries whilst researching for this blog, I vow to go one step further to support local, adopt a more minimalistic approach, and cease contributing to overconsumption and the 100 BILLION garments that are produced annually!
Fast is the problem. Consumption is the issue. Growth is the cause. Greed is the driver!
6 Big Food Industry
The $15 TRILLION food industry is the largest industry in the world. Transforming it is fundamental to regeneration and holds extraordinary opportunities for human kind.
In short, this industry is ruining the planet, our health, and is dominated by 4 multinational chemical companies - Bayer, Corveta, ChemChina and BASF - controlling 70% of seeds, fertiliser and pesticides - even more incentive to NOT change the status quo.
The 10 biggest global food companies, collectively termed Big Food, dictate which staple foods are grown and what most people eat.
This current form of farming uses monocultures to satisfy corporate customers by ensuring its products are identical in shape, colour, taste and texture, which necessitates uniformity in seeds, plants and animals.
Monocultures stress and denature the soil as it requires increasing amounts of fertilisers, herbicides, and pesticides to maintain profitable yields as soil becomes less fertile.
Burdened by stress, record debt, trade wars, climate change, and low commodity pricing (bullying from multinational buyers), the farming profession has the highest rate of suicide in the world.
On the other hand, these Big Food companies never have a bad year! In 2019 top 10 revenues exceeded $500 billion!
Whats more alarming is that the bulk of these sales come from processed, junk foods like oreos, Kraft mac and cheese, M & Ms, Doritos, Spam, Gatorade - proving our tastebuds were hacked long ago by food chemists who’s main objective is to make their food as addictive as possible. Sugar is more addictive than cocaine and reward the same dopamine and serotonin pleasure centres in the brain, its a very real biological urge and one that’s difficult to break, without the correct knowledge or alternatives.
It’s an industry as corrupt as the rest of them, with companies like Coke paying millions of dollars for “studies” to contradict peer-reviewed science. They advertise to the poorest nations to capitalise on their lack of education and money, spending twice as much on advertising to minority children than to White children.
Food companies constantly lobby governments to prohibit regulation, providing them with an income stream, however ultimately costing governments more in Medicare expenses as people become sicker everyday.
Due to droughts, overgrazing, deforestation, and industrial agriculture, more than 25% of the Earths land is degraded, which will be reflected in 2050 when an estimated 700 million homeless and hungry migrants will be looking to relocate unless we act.
Overfishing is also major threat to coral reef and marine ecosystems and can result in the decline of biodiversity and ecosystem resilience. By reducing the destruction from fishing, marine ecosystems can recover and regenerate, increasing the populations of fish and other marine species and improving overall ecosystem health.
PROTECTING just 10% of our oceans from commercial fishing, can reverse global warming via carbon sequestration, that won’t be released back into the atmosphere for millions of years.
The number one solution to human health and regenerative agriculture is to STOP purchasing ultra-processed foods and buy as locally and organically as you can. It is incomprehensible the amount of people eating junk food from vending machines in hospital, and being fed sugar lollies in the oncology waiting room during our 3 years in the system.
The more that individuals, companies, hospitals embrace real and regional food, the cheaper organic produce will become and it will incentivise farmers to adopt these regenerative practices until fossil fuel farming is phased out!
7 Political Industry
It may be the most destructive industry in the world, it controls campaigns and ads that reject, downplay and mock climate science, slowing adoption of policies and legislation that would benefit us all, because the foundation of our world is built upon dirty standards and killing the land in the ways we have touched on above.
Governments instead are using fear to weaponise global warming against us in order to further control us, whilst capitalising off our anxieties. This was seen recently during the pandemic, twisted into an opportunity to further push an agenda that places profits over the wellbeing of people, and the environment, at all costs.
It is paid to polarise, to broadcast disinformation, to burnish the image of oil and gas polluters, to create fear based ads on renewable energy on behalf of incumbent industries. It's an industry that thrives on discord, requiring conflict and opposition, relying on dehumanisation of opponents, giving the illusion that the people have a say. This is also a form of degeneration, and we can't regenerate our climate i a degenerative political climate.
Despite governments crying poor as an excuse to NOT look after its most vulnerable people in the budget, in reality, there is no lack of money.
In the US alone, $7 billion was spent on political ads during the 2020 election cycle.
Ronald Reagans funeral in 2004 cost $593 million. Pope John Paul II's funeral cost $13.2 million. Queen Elizabeths funeral reportedly cost over $10million.
The most abhorrent waste of money of all, aside from the cost of ongoing wars, is the $12 TRILLION committed to covid relief.
Did you know, that if 10% of the $12 trillion dollars were allocated to climate relief, the world would be on track to achieving the 2030 climate goal of a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emmissions.
The problem is never a lack of money, it is that money is being distributed unfairly and wasted on all the wrong things!
THE SOLUTIONS
Here, we'll look at some of the latest technologies and practices that we need to adopt on a global scale to reduce emissions, regenerate our land and increase biodiversity. We endeavour to elaborate on the solutions in our follow up blog next week.
1 Renewable Energy
One of the most significant contributors to global warming is the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. To combat this, we need to shift towards using renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydro power. These sources of energy are clean, sustainable, and produce little to no emissions, making them a crucial component of any effort to reduce our carbon footprint.
2 Regenerative Agriculture
Agriculture is another major contributor to global warming, through the use of pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals. To reduce emissions, we need to adopt sustainable agriculture practices that minimize the use of harmful chemicals and promote soil health. This includes practices such as crop rotation, cover cropping, and using compost and other organic matter to improve soil fertility.
3 Reforestation
Forests play a crucial role in regulating our climate and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Reforestation is the process of planting trees to restore degraded or deforested land, which can help to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and increase biodiversity. Additionally, forests provide habitat for wildlife and improve soil health, making them a critical component of any effort to combat global warming.
4 Green Buildings
Buildings consume a significant amount of energy and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions through the use of fossil fuels for heating, cooling, and lighting. To reduce emissions, we need to construct green buildings that are energy-efficient and use renewable energy sources. This includes the use of insulation, energy-efficient lighting and appliances, and the integration of solar panels and other renewable energy technologies.
5 Electric Vehicles
Transportation is another significant contributor to global warming, through the emission of greenhouse gases from gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles. To reduce emissions, we need to shift towards the use of electric vehicles, which produce far fewer emissions and can be powered by renewable energy sources. Additionally, electric vehicles are often more energy-efficient than their gasoline-powered counterparts, making them an important tool in the fight against global warming.
6 Mangroves and Sea Grass Farm Initiatives
Mangroves and sea grass play a crucial role in maintaining the health of coral reef ecosystems by providing habitat and food for a variety of marine species. Additionally, mangroves and sea grass are known for their ability to absorb and store large amounts of carbon dioxide, making them important carbon sinks in the fight against climate change.
Initiatives aimed at restoring and protecting mangroves and sea grass habitats can have a positive impact on coral reefs by increasing biodiversity and improving water quality. This can help to regenerate damaged coral and create more resilient marine ecosystems, better equipped to resist the impacts of climate change.
7 Animal Integration
In many traditional and indigenous cultures today and throughout history, grow livestock and crops in various combinations, to improve soil microbiology, nutrient diversity, improving nutrient cycling, soil structure and water retention and therefore increase yield, production longevity, whilst increasing carbon sequestration.
There is also the important detail of what we are feeding our cattle, which can actually DECREASE the amount of toxic methane gas into the atmosphere, which is 80 times more warming than carbon dioxide!!!
It would make sense to overhaul the entire industry feeding standard, and governments subsidise the feeding of ALL cattle Asparagopsis(the seaweed holding your sushi together). Replacing just .5 to 5% of a cows diet with this, can reduce methane created by their digestive gases by 50 - 99%, whilst also INCREASING weight gain without the use of toxic hormones and steroids! The savings on every level would far outweigh the costs.
In conclusion, combating global warming is a collective effort. By adopting technologies and practices such as renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, reforestation, green buildings, and electric vehicles, we can reduce emissions, regenerate our land, and increase biodiversity.
Will we be passive and reactive, or pro-active citizens of Earth, who put an end to the global mess we are in?
We are all faced with a pressing need to make peace with the living systems of the Earth, and ourselves. The war isn't against global warming, for it's a massive force beyond human comprehension, it is NOT the enemy - INDUSTRY IS!
