I'm note sure about the move to plant based diets. As with all solutions, the solution itself has an impact. I heard in a radio discussion on this subject that the soil has its own 'life' - which as gardeners you all know. The intensive forms of agriculture can and do lead to soil depletion - google 'depletion of soil quality' and then look at the scholarly articles. What the overall impact would be for 7+billion people to move to plant based really, really needs to be looked at and assessed. What we don't need is for governments to jump on a politically popular bandwagon, just to find in 20...30...40 years different problems surface.
Interesting that all the onus mentioned here is on anyone else but not us
America
China
India
Russia
Brazil
Beige people with children
The problem is that with throwing hands up at "over population" these howls effectively shift required action across the continents and decades. There is no faster way to dismiss ones own responsibility (personal, societal, communal, national).
I think we have a duty to the planet which extends beyond the limit of our own life span. We are the planets guardians, and supposedly its most intelligent residents. Our responsibility extends to all the other creatures living on it.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
No animals, no dung spreading, we will have artificial fertilisers. This Earth will be a dried up barren land in the future, reminds me of the old Planet of the Apes films.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I think punkdoc has put it all in perspective: we have a responsibility to the future, even if we won't be here to see it. And it isn't just about population growth, or completely doing away with meat - it is a balance to be struck, and we can all play a part by cutting down on the meat we consume (and being more aware of the source of the meat, such as local, grass-fed etc where possible) and looking to take responsibility as individuals. It has happened and is happening with plastic - highlighted by Sir David Attenborough, we are now more conscious of the need to amend our behaviour. No-one can save the planet on their own. But then, a journey starts with one small step that leads to an ultimate destination. If we care that the destination ought to be improving our world, then we can surely make those small steps?
I didn't see where it catered for rotation or some way to stop degradation though. So maybe the arable usage figures are understated by a factor?
Don't you think that most people were aware of the issues before it reached the headlines, but saw it in a different way? We have a throwaway society - and manufacturers can't build stuff to last - as things are now changing tooooooo fast.
You all have some form of electronic device as you are here - how many models do you own or have you owned of any given device? Three phones? A few laptops? How many radios? How many TVs?
Things, things and more things and I'm as bad as anyone else. A radio in every room. Three old phones in the drawer. Umpteen chargers for devices I no longer have (why not just one universal chargers - think of the saving in that alone).
If you go back 100 years, the horse/ox were the dominant beasts of burden (and had been since...well, since man settled and farmed) - and they caused their own issues (horse manure in big cities was a major, major issue) - but then things started to change ('things' had been generally static for 1000's of years - horse for transport, carts, swords, open fires). Technology fathered technology and computerisation has speeded everything up 1000 fold. Horse and carts 150 years back - people didn't travel - my great great grandparents probably never moved more than 20 miles from the place of their birth - then the car threw open travel to the populace - even the poorest in our society. So if horse manure was a problem, when personal transport was used by the better off - why did no one think that the 'excrement' of a car would not pose a problem when it was used by the whole population?
Everything is cause and effect. We are seeing an effect. But to change the effect needs thought - or else you simply run the risk of creating another effect that is worse than the original. Pile of horse manure anyone?
The future is insect based protein scientists can make it taste like meat, yum yum!
surely insects are technically meat?
No, because we eat the entire insect. Meat is muscle, doesn't include bones and tendons.
I stand corrected. I remember sitting on a long coach trip in Cambodia and a child happily tucking into a big bag of deep fried crickets. I tried one once at a night market in Chiang Rai . I'd not get into a fight to have another, but it tasted ok.
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When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
We are the planets guardians, and supposedly its most intelligent residents. Our responsibility extends to all the other creatures living on it.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
This Earth will be a dried up barren land in the future, reminds me of the old Planet of the Apes films.
It has happened and is happening with plastic - highlighted by Sir David Attenborough, we are now more conscious of the need to amend our behaviour.
No-one can save the planet on their own. But then, a journey starts with one small step that leads to an ultimate destination.
If we care that the destination ought to be improving our world, then we can surely make those small steps?
I remember sitting on a long coach trip in Cambodia and a child happily tucking into a big bag of deep fried crickets. I tried one once at a night market in Chiang Rai . I'd not get into a fight to have another, but it tasted ok.