Submitted by Climate Action Muskoka
Climate Action Muskoka (CAM) launched its ‘50% by 2030 Community Carbon Challenge’ on October 10, 2020.
Individuals, families, businesses, organizations, and schools can take the pledge and develop an action plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by eight per cent per year until the year 2030. The challenge can be taken up by seasonal and year-round residents alike.
“We must act where we can have direct influence, in our own community,” says CAM member Linda Mathers. “COVID has taught us that collective behaviour matters, that we need to take the science seriously, and that we need to act now.”
Fifty per cent by 2030 is the goal CAM is asking the District of Muskoka to assume in a Climate Emergency resolution to be brought before the full District Council on Monday, October 19.
You can sign up for the challenge on the climateactionmuskoka.org website. There you will find a user-friendly carbon calculator which has been specifically designed for this area by climate change & energy specialist Ben John of the Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve (GBBR).
The calculator will assess your building, transportation, and solid waste emissions and compare your totals with others in Ontario and Canada. Redoing the tracker annually will allow you to measure your success with reducing emissions.
An added bonus is that your anonymous data will be added to the community GHG inventory currently being conducted by the District of Muskoka, under the guidance of Kevin Boyle, the climate change initiatives co-ordinator.
If you prefer not to do the calculator right now, you can jump straight to the sections offering practical ideas for you to implement.
“We believe community engagement is vital to solving the climate crisis,” says Mathers. “We also believe that it is better to take ‘imperfect action rather than perfect inaction’!”
On the website you can also add to the list of things we can do to reduce our carbon footprint. New strategies will be added regularly as we grow our commitment to changing our behaviours in carbon reducing ways.
CAM is an inclusive, non-partisan group of citizens concerned about climate change in Muskoka who believe in working together to inspire individuals, groups, and every level of government to make the dramatic changes needed to meet this historic climate challenge.
CAM believes ‘it takes a village’ and in this spirit we invite you to join us in the 50% by 2030 Community Carbon Challenge. Visit climateactionmuskoka.org and take up the challenge. For more information write to [email protected].
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Will Moore…. I believe what you asking for is not from “peer reviewed” research (I know that this is a fashionable request). But indeed all the information you seek is available from the USDA…..you have to then convert the protein creation of various sources meat vs plant based into “protein per acre” (first step is pounds per acre…. then protein per acre). You can from their on line data also calculated calories per acre …or many other nutrient based per acre measures……But if you aren’t interested in doing the work, I can tell you from my own calculation Soybeans produce over 500,000 gram of protein per acre; chicken is 163,000 grams of protein per acre and beef is 8,330 grams of protein per acre….This is all calculated from the USDA 2017 online database.
I am a vegetarian (I don’t know if that is a bias as I am a vegetarian solely due to the above facts). So to address the implication that I read into your comment…..No we don’t need more land to feed ourselves with plant based food. In fact the opposite is true, soybean for example needs 1/3 the land base to produce the same number of calories and amount of protein as its nearest meat rival (chicken).
Janet Libke
Hi Will,
If you have access to Netflicks you might enjoy two documentaries that are showing right now, Kiss the Ground and The Biggest Little Farm.
Hi Will,
Yes, we all have to eat. We do know that the greenhouse gases created by raising beef cattle far outweighs that from growing beans and other plant based protein. To find the science please go to Drawdown.org. This should answer all your questions.
I have heard the suggestion to replace beef consumption with plant a number of times.
Please do not be offended by the following questions related to the above. I am sincerely searching for answers.
If we were to eliminate beef consumption, what amount of additional land would be required to produce the equivalent plant protein to beef protein ?
What impact would the clearing of this net new land have on the current amount of carbon absorption being done by these trees that would, presumably, need to be removed in order for the land to be cultivated.
Would these cultivation efforts occur in Canada thus providing economic spinoff or would our climate only support a small amount. This would lead to increased reliance on imports of food and potentially creating a food supply crisis.
What effect would there be in using the necessary machinery to clear and cultivate the net new land on greenhouse gas emissions. Plus the additional transportation and processing of the net new plant food source.
As a layman, I would suggest that the general public would be surprised by the overall negative effects of such an endeavor.
If someone could provide me with peer reviewed studies that would address my rather simplistic questions, I would appreciate it. I am sure that there are other considerations beyond the ones I identified.
The two fastest items which we could change to reduce carbon emissions: are to have smaller families; and to shift our dietary regime away from red meat.
It is patently unfair to even attempt to legislate the number of children a couple may have. The second item, however, could be addressed through moral suasion; and, perhaps, a protein equivalency table on the Canada Food Guide. The problem being is that the cattle in the world emit more CO2 into the atmosphere than all modes of transportation combined.
Of course, carbon recapture from the atmosphere is also possible; but it is a fledgling industry at this point in time. And keep planting trees: It is the most cost-effective carbon sink available.
Thanks very much to Climate Action Muskoka for working to address climate change. There are many steps we can take as individuals, social organizations, as business and as government. Anthropogenic (human caused) climate change is a critical threat to humanity and many other species. Fortunately, like the ozone layer crisis, we can address this problem. Coordinated, international action to decarbonize the economy must be the top order of every government. Addressing the climate crisis will be good for the economy: there are millions of jobs and a positive economic activity in decarbonizing the economy.
Good luck to all I hope you succeed and help a lot with pollution but as far as stopping global warming or climate change whatever you want to call it my feeling is that you are wasting your time you are not going to change nature and that is what your trying to do. This world has been getting slowly warmer for at least 10.000 years and I don’t think it’s going to stop now. You can blame humans for this if you want but it all started before the industrial revelation so who caused it then.