Global warming and the dumb problem of food waste
[Music]
well let’s start let’s start at the
beginning so so what is drawdown can you
just break that down for us so so
drawdown
is a point in time it’s that time
when we uh uh reduce atmospheric
concentrations
on a year-to-year basis when we
essentially when we pull out more
greenhouse gases
that we’re putting in to earth’s
atmosphere
and the proposition is really simple
when we can
reduce those concentrations of heat
trapping gases
we can essentially affect global cooling
essentially stopping global warming and
beginning
a long process of reversing it and so
that’s what drawdown is
that point in time when we can start to
really
uh reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases
well that’s interesting because we often
talk about
mitigating climate change
and you guys at drawdown are taking
quite a strong position here you’re
saying
we can reverse global warming
absolutely i mean mitigation just means
to lessen
it means to reduce the impact of and
that’s important we need to
mitigate uh the impact of climate change
and
probably more important we need to
mitigate or reduce
to less than reduce the emissions that
are going into the atmosphere to start
with
um but mitigation is only part of it and
it’s an important
step being stoned to a goal that we
actually want
what we really want to do is stop global
warming and begin to reverse it
that’s what that’s the aim that’s sort
of what i like to think of as like
the marker on the horizon
pointing us to the future that we
actually want right
there’s many pathways to get there right
and mitigation is one
one strategy it’s getting us partially
there
but if we don’t envision where we
actually want to be we’re not going to
get there
so we need to say what is it that we
want we want to stop
global warming we want to begin the
process of reversing it
we need to find and take the first steps
on that pathway
to reach that horizon point and move as
fast as we can as urgently
as safely and as equitably as we can to
get there
um but if we don’t name that as a
starting point we’re never ever going to
reach there so that that’s really what
we want to set out
with with drawdown with project drawdown
is to name
the goal name where we actually want to
be and not confuse things
not name half measures like mitigation
to a to to ensure a two degree warming
target
celsius warming target or a 1.5 degree
celsius warping target these are very
important targets
very important but again these are stop
gap measures
we want to go beyond that we want to say
okay yes let’s go there
but let’s go further yeah where do we
how do we go further than that and
create a
regenerative society and regenerative
economy
that benefits all people while at the
same time
solving the climate emergency that we’re
all facing today well and we often use
uh climate change and global warming
interchangeably
but you make a very specific distinction
between the two
can you tell us about that absolutely
and
and it’s okay first of all to use them
interchangeably because we have done
that
so often uh uh as we as we discuss and
in this discourse we’ve certainly been
using them interchangeably and to a
certain extent we can’t
um but i think that there is an
important distinction when we really
have to think about the solutions
to the problem at hand right um
climate change is essentially a symptom
a symptom of a deeper problem it’s the
earth it’s telling us what’s going wrong
uh it’s the in what’s going wrong is
actually
global warming that’s what’s causing
climate change
uh and it’s it’s affecting uh the
atmosphere it’s affecting our
uh our climate um and so we need to
address
not just the symptoms the climate change
itself but we need to
address the actual cause of the sickness
the cause
of the disease and that is emissions
themselves
emissions caused by human activity that
are entering the atmosphere
trapping heat and essentially uh it’s
like putting we’re basically putting
lots of blankets over the planet
it is experiencing a fever right it’s
getting hotter and hotter and hotter
and this is causing all of these uh
other impacts to our terrestrial systems
to our ocean systems to our biodiversity
and to human social and economic systems
and it’s and it says these are the
symptoms of that problem so
how do we actually address the problem
itself
how do we how do we address the cause of
these symptoms
and that is how do we turn off the
emissions
that are for the for as a starting point
causing the global warming
and how do we enhance those sinks those
natural uh natural carbon sinks in our
in our land
and our ocean systems that pull carbon
dioxide out of the atmosphere
and that’s a way for us to help uh
solve and help cure the illness that we
already are experiencing so how do we
turn off the emissions
turn up the uh the sinks and and really
address
the root cause of the illness itself
but we have to do that in a equitable
and safe and inclusive way with justice
at its core
because these are technologies and
practice that we profile draw down that
have a direct
effect on emissions but there’s deeper
embedded systems and structures in place
that also have to be addressed to shift
the system
from exploitation and extraction which
are in no small measure
causing and rooted in creating these
emissions uh to a restorative and
regenerative system
as i said which can address the
underlying structures themselves
and that has to be done with with with
justice and
uh inequity and inclusion at its heart
and that’s how we have how we need to be
implementing these solutions and solving
the problem itself
well and your research has led you to
100
solutions or at least priority areas
the shocking thing for me personally was
to find
food waste and food laws right at the
top of that list
as a potential solution to to impacting
emissions
you want to expand on that yes of course
so
so what we did over the course of the
last six years
uh is assemble a team of researchers
from all over the world
and we’ve mapped measured and described
real
existing technologies and practices
that when taken together as a system of
solutions
can achieve this goal of drawdown
can can help us achieve our global goals
the sustainable development goals
can help us go on this pathway towards
that future that we want
and so we’ve mapped a lot of these
solutions some of these are existing
some of the hundred that we profiled in
our first book uh
drawdown in 2017 some of them are coming
attractions these are
new emerging technologies that can come
on board and when they come on board
into the system they can
help accelerate our progress um but most
of them
uh at the time 80 solutions uh
that we published a book um uh are are
existing technologies that can uh
achieve drawdown we’ve recently in in
2020 produced the drawdown
review which is an update of all of our
research from the book in 2017
and so some of the solutions have
shifted they’ve changed in terms of
their rankings
and we have 76 solutions now in the
drawdown review
and these are really really global
solutions that are applicable in a
variety of spaces and one of the ones
that
really reach the top again so in in 2017
reducing food waste was our number three
solution
in the latest review uh it’s still
in the the top uh top three solutions we
produced two new scenarios one scenario
scenario one
is aligned with a two degree warming
target two degree warming celsius target
and the other scenario is aligned with a
1.5 degree
celsius warming target in each of these
two scenarios
uh food waste really tops the list and
in the two-degree warming target it’s a
it’s the
it’s the top the first the number one um
and then the 1.5 is
it’s again the third third solution so
but the point is these are really really
important it’s a really important uh
solution um and
uh and it’s it’s it’s kind of
if we think about uh food loss
and waste um it becomes pretty obvious
right
uh currently we we we lose or waste
about 30
or 30 to 40 percent of all food that’s
produced for human consumption
it’s not even consumed and that that
loss
in waste accounts for about eight
percent of our global greenhouse gases
and it’s kind of i have to be honest
daddy it’s one of the dumbest things
we ever can do as a species i mean
humanity is brilliant let’s get
we are a brilliant species but we do
some incredibly dumb things at times
like creating a system that’s
exploitative and extracted to start with
so the whole system can be done at times
but there’s some brilliant things that
have come out of that
don’t get us wrong um but one of the
really dumb things we could do is
um produce so much food and waste 30 to
40 percent of it
so so i think how we we need to really
when we see that
as sort of uh an opportunity to change
and to find what are the solutions to
those food loss and waste
and try to prevent that eight percent
global greenhouse gases
it becomes really clear that it’s it’s
one of the most important uh in
solutions
yeah did you say eight percent is that
about eight percent
global greenhouse gases yeah yeah okay
that is not a small amount
yeah yeah well
sorry yeah that that’s interesting
because
um you know the dominant narrative here
has been
has been that if we you know if when we
change and
well we should uh from fossil fuels to
to to to solar energy for example um
that’s the big change that the world
needs to make and you’re suggesting
something
something else here yes in addition to
that and maybe even more importantly
than that
we need to be looking at our food system
as as the big shift that the world needs
to make
in in how we live how we produce
and and and what impact will have on
emissions
yeah i i i would caution to say level of
importance
because we need them all and in fact how
we address electricity generation
is one of the most important solutions
and we need to achieve a 100
clean renewable grid as as as
urgently and as safely as possible um
and because this is the electricity
generation counts about 25
of global greenhouse gases as a whole
right but where are the other 75
coming from um and they come 24
of global greenhouse gas gases comes
from uh uh the food system itself
um about the but what we’re consuming
how we’re producing that food and what
we’re
wasting um uh and and and that 24
meat can be addressed and of course
there are other sectors as well
buildings and transportation and our
industrial processes that accounts for
the other 50
of global greenhouse gases so we need
them all it’s not a level of
what’s more or less important there are
no silver bullets
there’s no subset of these solutions
that are going to get us there
um there’s not the top 20 or top 30 or
top 40
we need all of the solutions to address
all of these areas of human
activity um but what is surprising and i
think what what you’re what you’re
addressing here
tati is that um we don’t typically think
about the food system
in uh in in the discussion around
sustainability
and the discussion around addressing uh
climate action though things have
started to change a lot in the last five
years that makes us
natural climate solutions and our food
systems are becoming more and more
prevalent in the discourse but it’s
still
not something that’s really understood
or known i mean it’s surprising to
people
all over the place and um but if you
stop and think about it for just
a minute it becomes pretty clear why
it’s such an important contributor to
greenhouse gases
uh because think about the food chain
itself
yes if we think about sorry
i was saying yes oh yes if we think
about if anything like the food chain
itself which is
how food gets to our mouths right
from production to harvesting and
processing
packaging distribution markets
consumption
and then the end of life of food we
think about that entire chain
but every crust of bread every drop of
oil that we’re producing to consume
goes through all of that and
there are there’s energy there’s labor
there’s money of course and there’s
emissions
that go along with each of those points
along the food chain
so um whether we’re producing food
and where it sadly and one of the number
one drivers of deforestation
uh and land conversion is agriculture so
producing
food for consumption contributes
emissions and then how we’re producing
it using
increasingly using industrial modern
agriculture which promotes
monocropping do you said it’s that
synthetic fertilizers and pesticides um
and and uh and tillage which uh
ultimately
turn land into a net emitter and
degrades the emitter of
of greenhouse gases and degrades the
land right
uh their emissions that happen there but
if you think that production and go
outward to processing
making that food into various other uh
food sets that we’re familiar with those
commodities into other foods that we’re
familiar with
to packaging think about all the tin the
plastic
the glass being made in factories
and they’re churning out emissions to
produce this
material that we then put food into
and then we take that food and we put it
on trucks
trains ships and
sadly with too many luxury items
on planes to travel all over the world
and even in our own in our own
communities in
our own our own regions traveling all
over the place all of that
is using as it producing emissions
combusting fossil fuels to move that
stuff around the world
yeah and i think that’s a pretty good
way to to close this discussion and
thank you so much for
the work that you do it’s it’s much
needed it it certainly clarifies
the problem but it offers the solutions
as well but my last question to you
is on a scale of one to let’s say a
hundred
uh how optimistic are you that we can
reach draw down
daddy that’s a challenging question one
to a hundred goodness well first of all
is a hundred the most optimistic 100
most optimistic i am
i would say let me think about this um
i would say i’m a solid i’m a solid 85
yeah i’m a solid 85. and and and it
depends on the optimist to achieve what
is it the two degree warming celsius
warming target 1.5
degrees celsius swimming target is it
our sustainable development goals
is it that marker on the horizon
um these are different things and
they’re different stepping stones
and i think um i’m 85 because i believe
deeply
in the brilliance of humanity i believe
in the
beautiful beauty of humanity and no
small measure it was my experience
for two months backpacking in
sub-saharan africa
that kindled this sense of
how real people
people can be so beautiful and real and
really connected to
nature and the earth and the planet and
that kindle us hope and that i could
sign everyday people
everybody i encountered that that these
kind
of solving this is possible because
because humanity is brilliant and you
see that in local communities you see
that in indigenous peoples communities
you see that
um in in the sub-saharan context in
those places that i i cherish
and and that killed me handled in me the
hope
that we can actually achieve and that’s
why if i didn’t have that i wouldn’t be
spending
the last 12 years doing everything in my
power and even my ability
to uh get us on this pathway to a
regenerative system
uh in social media small measure and i’m
so happy to be
able to speak to folks here today on
from the continent
um and uh uh i thank you for the
opportunity
i’m i’m i’m i’m more optimistic now than
ever
uh in the past and and i appreciate this
uh this chance to
chat with you all and thank you for the
world chad thank you very much