One-Third of Food Wasted Globally Each Year

Global food waste is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than any country except for China and the U.S., according to a?new report?from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The report,?Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources, estimates that about one-third of all?food-1.3 billion tons-is wasted every year.Of course, the production of this food requires energy, water, chemicals and land. This means that almost 30 percent of the world’s farmland is entirely wasted-1.4 billion hectares of land per year in total-as well as 250 cubic kilometers of water, the equivalent of the annual discharge of the River Volga in Europe. According to the report, the carbon footprint of wasted food is about 3.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year-more than any country, aside from China and the U.S. The wasted food costs approximately $750 billion a year.The food wastage problem is a complicated one. In developed countries, most of the waste comes from consumers buying too much food and throwing away what they don’t eat. In less developed countries, food waste often comes from inefficient farming and inadequate storage facilities.

Fracking and Colorado Flooding Don?t Mix

A lot is being written in the state and national press about the devasting week-long rain storms have created in Colorado. The impact has been greatest along what is known locally as the Front Range, the flat land directly east of the Rocky Mountains. The city of Boulder and smaller towns such as Lyons and Jamestown have been?particularly hard hit, but no city along the front range from the Wyoming state line through Denver to Colorado?Springs has been spared. Colorado has already experience massive drought, wildfires and flooding this year. Welcome to the brave new world of?climate change. In time, the corporate press may turn to measuring the environmental damage these floods have caused wildlife and land, but it?s unlikely that they will report on the extent of the pollution to waterways and land resources flooded by?oil and gas wells.?Tanks used to store waste liquid from fracking sites have been overturn, spilling their contents into the waterways. The toxicity of the liquids stored in these tanks is largely unknown because they have been exempted from federal environmental laws, but it is likely that they will have huge negative implications for the environment. This disaster in Colorado highlights what so many of us already know – that fracking poses huge risks to our land, water, and air, and in circumstances such as this, the outcome will be especially devastating.

E.P.A. Is Expected to Set Limits on Greenhouse Gas Emissions by New Power Plants