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Showing posts from September, 2013

Livestock is the globe's primary contributor of human-caused greenhouse gas

As the IPCC rolls out its climate appraisal, the overall impact of industrial animal farming bears thinking about. The FAO's last livestock report, a 2006 assessment titled Livestock's Long Shadow, found that farms breeding chickens, pigs, and cows for meat and dairy products, produced a disconcerting 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Despite being called into question, that figure strengthened the case for vegetarianism: it was shown to be higher than the greenhouse gas discharge from cars and planes combined. The latest FAO study lowers that number to 14.5%. and... ...when it comes to livestock, reducing emissions isn't the only challenge. "Around 30% of global biodiversity loss can be attributed to livestock production, such as the spread of pasture land or turning over forests and savannahs…to feed production." There's also the role that consumers play in driving unsustainable industries—a feature that was beyond the scope of its current repor

Grön och röd

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At this time of the year in Sweden there is: lingonberry,  to make jam  that it is used in the Swedish food; apples; nice grass; wooden houses in the forest; walks in the middle of the trees; moss and me!

Mercury and fish consumption

It suggests that women who might become pregnant, women who are pregnant or are breastfeeding and young children should not eat more than one small portion (less than 100 g) per week of large predatory fish, such as swordfish, shark, marlin and pike.  If they do eat a portion of this fish, they should not eat any other fish during the same week.  Nor should they eat tuna more than twice per week. What more can we do?  The largest source of mercury emissions into the environment is from coal combustion. Join with your neighbors to reduce fossil-fuel based energy consumption by moving to clean energy generation and consumption.  Portugal has one of the highest seafood consumption per capita in the world. But there is no advice from Portuguese authorities. Could be important to diversify the fish, at least. ...and maybe to reduce the seafood consumption!? Maybe...given the fact that we live in a world growing population and a limited resources planet.

Sardine Life Cycle Assessment: done!

Environmental assessment of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) purse seine fishery in Portugal with LCA methodology including biological impact categories The assessment of the Portuguese purse seine fishery resulted in no difference regarding fuel use between large and small vessels, but differences were found between years.  The stock has declined, and it has produced below maximum sustainable yield.  By-catch and discard data were missing but may be substantial.  Even being difficult to quantify, fishery impact categories complement the environmental results with biological information and precaution is need in relation to the stock management.  The sardine carbon footprint from Portuguese purse seine was lower than that of other commercial species reported in. Yupiii. I´m very happy. Thank you all that help to make this study possible. Especially to SV and FZ for their endless support, and fishermen and colleagues for their enormous gratitude and inspiration. Now I just need