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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Carbon cost of Christmas dinner

A carbon footprint equivalent to 6,000 car journeys around the world will be produced by the UK tucking into Christmas dinner, researchers say.

It is claimed the UK's love of the traditional turkey dinner will generate 51,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Academics calculated the production, processing and transportation costs of the festive ingredients.

The Manchester researchers estimate a dinner for eight generates 20kg (44lbs) of carbon dioxide emissions.

They arrived at the total emissions figure by assuming one third of the UK population eats a typical Christmas meal.

Methane emissions

Project leader professor Adisa Azapagic, from the University of Manchester, said: "Food production and processing are responsible for three quarters of the total carbon footprint, with the largest proportion - 60% - being related to the life cycle of the turkey.

"All stages in the supply chain have been considered, including raising the turkey, growing the vegetables, food storage, consumer shopping, cooking the meal at home and waste management.

"This includes the emissions of carbon dioxide due to energy consumption along the turkey supply chain and the emissions of methane and nitrous oxide generated due to the agricultural activities to raise the turkey."

The cranberry sauce alone, normally imported from North America, contributes half the carbon footprint related to transport.

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Oh, who cares? These people need to get a job; they have too much time on their hands. I will feast on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. And I won’t feel one bit guilty about it. Please join me with relish as we stamp our individual, momentary carbon footprints on the face of the earth.

The above story is one-sided and part of the truth. It leaves out so much—well life itself. All life is carbon based. Carbon based life is passed up higher and higher in the food chain. At every step in that chain, life has a carbon footprint. Carbon footprints are recycled and reused. When we consume the carbon based life called turkey, we recycle carbon in one way, for example, as carbon dioxide, which becomes a feast for vegetation.

The cycle starts over as oat plants consume carbon dioxide to make grains of oats for the turkey to eat so we have a meal for next Christmas. Vegetation isn’t interested in oxygen for itself, but it uses carbon dioxide for itself and gives off oxygen for us. Human-caused-global-warming-doomsayers don’t ever want to balance the carbon equation because that would kill their fear-mongering.

So while you are feasting on Christmas and releasing carbon dioxide, remember the wind will blow your carbon dioxide so the trees can have a feast. Eat up and rejoice without guilt. And who cares if the Goracle feels guilty!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

who cares? These people need to get a job; they have too much time on their hands.

But...but...but...WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!

Don't you know that by forgoing your greedy, gluttonous, holiday pie-hole stuffing you could contribute to providing the CO2 necessary to make another LiveEarth or conference on global warming possible?

Do you know how much awareness is raised when global warming disciples burn tons of CO2 to get together and raise awareness?

Enjoy your meal, earth killer.

Elephant Herd said...

I'm sure Gaia will survive my feasting. Afterall, I am feasting during the "climate change" phase of "global warming." By the time the "global warming" phase of "global warming" returns next spring in the northern hemisphere, all the extra CO2 will have been blown to the southern hemisphere and consumed by the hungry trees just prior to them entering the "climate change" phase of "global warming."

And to boot, I have raised awareness of the "climate change" phase of "global warming." And I have done it without all the fanfare and enormous carbon footprint of a Bali conference in the "global warming" phase of "global warming."