Global Warming - It's What's for Dinner

Happy Earth Day everybody! I wouldn't be much of a biology teacher if I didn't try to make everybody a little more aware of global warming, our looming ecological disaster. What's the problem? Basically, humans have been releasing, and continue to release at ever increasing rates, various greenhouse gases into the Earth's atmosphere. These gases strengthen the natural greenhouse effect responsible for keeping the Earth warm enough to support life. This means that more heat is trapped in the atmosphere which in turn heats the Earth. The consequences of global warming are far reaching and will profoundly affect all human societies over the next 100 years (and beyond). At this point the only thing we can do is reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we release into the atmosphere and hope it's enough as we've already committed ourselves to at least some degree of warming in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, reducing our emissions is hardly the trend. What's this have to do with food? Check out these tasty articles:

Treading Lighter with Low Carbon Diets - "The global food and agriculture system produces about one-third of humanity's contribution to greenhouse gases. So qu estions about food are shifting from the familiar " Is this good for me?" or "Will it make me fat?" to "Is it good for the planet?""

Killer Cow Emissions - "All told, livestock are responsible for 18% of greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide, according to the U.N. -- more than all the planes, trains and automobiles on the planet. And it's going to get a lot worse."

Currently, we are all a part of the problem. Will we change our ways before it's too late? We'll see.