Is lab-grown meat a solution to climate change?

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/dining/cell-cultured-meat.html

A fascinating article in The New York Times today on a topic that is only going to gain more interest. Research is pouring into animal products grown in a lab from animal stem cells. Could this be the solution we need to lessen the environmental impact of industrial meat production, relieve animal suffering and reduce animal-borne illnesses while continuing to feed mankind? Opponents say the process could be scientifically risky, creating potential allergens and untested byproducts, along with waste that might be a biohazard. Isha Datar, executive director of New Harvest, a nonprofit institute that funds research on cellular agriculture believes this new technology is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fix a broken agricultural system. "It could be as revolutionary, as the transition from hunting to farming." Only time will tell if cultured meat is here to stay, or just an expensive passing fad.

Image source: iStock

We’re going electric! India’s Electric Vehicle Policy and Projections

According to WHO, India has some of the most badly polluted cities in the world and contributing to this pollution is vehicle traffic, both diesel and petrol. The Indian Government is slowly but surely being responsive to the burden of air pollution and climate change. At COP26, Prime Minister Modi committed to an ambitious goal of achieving 100 percent use of electric vehicles by 2030. That means that all cars that run on diesel and petrol, also known as Internal Combustion Engines (ICE), will not be allowed on the roads in India. How will India get there? The Government has already taken steps towards reaching this goal but a lot more needs to be done. At COP 26, Modi also revealed a new platform for information and policies on electric vehicles called e-AMRIT. This one stop portal will eventually have information for consumers, manufacturers, investors and policy makers to understand and work together to make this goal a reality in 2030.

My family has also decided that the next car we purchase will be an electric vehicle. But many questions remain. I tried to understand some of the complicated policies that India has implemented to make the use of electric vehicles easier. In 2019, the Indian Automotive Board launched FAME Phase II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) built upon the previous Phase I of a policy with the same name. FAME Phase II committed to INR 100 billion ($1.3 billion) over three years on the demand side of electric vehicles. That is, money was spent on purchasing public transport EVs and building over 2000 charging stations in cities. On the supply side, the government is working through the National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage (NMTMBS) to improve the technology and manufacturing capability of batteries and cells for EVs. So the demand side is looking at issues such as increasing battery life, to lower the cost of owning electric vehicles.

In addition to financial subsidies given by the central government, some states in India have also put in place their own rules and subsidies to defray the cost of buying electric vehicles. Delhi, where I live, has incentivized buying EVs with matching subsidies, and waving registration fees as well as road tax on the first 1000 EVs registered in Delhi. This is making my family’s decision to purchase an electric vehicle in 2022 all the more attractive.

With all these new policies and incentives, India is making the necessary policy changes to encourage the use of EVs but a lot more needs to be done. Both China and the US are spending billions on both the demand and supply side of the electric vehicle industry and India needs to step up their commitments.

Book Review: The Climate Diet by Paul Greenberg

This short but powerful book is filled with 50 simple ways to trim your carbon footprint. It's mainly written for an American audience with American consumption patterns. The United States, as we now know, is the largest contributor to the climate problem, with a carbon footprint of 16 metric tons of CO2 per person per year. The UN suggests a global target of 3 tons. India is at 1.8 tons of CO2 per person, below the UN target but that doesn't mean that we are free from taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint.

Greenberg urges us to take small maintainable steps over a longer period of time because we know that most diets fail! He has suggestions for personal changes, as well as a blueprint for how we act to affect the policies of businesses and government. Mostly, he suggests being consistently mindful with respect to climate: a daily awareness of the crisis at hand and a daily response to that crisis. As Greenberg suggests, we should all become a"climatarian!"

Here are a handful of suggestions that resonated with me:

1. Ease up on meat and cheese. A switch to plant-based diets shaves off a ton of CO2 per year from your carbon footprint.

2. Be thoughtful with local. Buy seasonally appropriate vegetables locally!

3. Avoid flying food. Try not to buy imported food items that are shipped by air!

4. Buy your food naked. Packaging accounts for 5% of a food's carbon footprint.

5. Drink from tap. Get a filter and stop buying plastic bottles.

6. Don't emit when you gather. Ditch the destination wedding!

7. Reimagine gifts. Do we really need to buy more? Why not gift a carbon offset? Or contribute to a college fund instead.

8. Make a different kind of family plan. There's nothing wrong with single-child families. I'm an only child :-)

9. Turn your backyard into a sink. A carbon sink removes CO2 from the atmosphere. So, consider planting trees instead of a lawn.

10. If you have to drive, drive electric. My family and I are making the switch to electric. More on that later!

11. Be aware of how financial institutions, publicly traded companies, your investments etc..are perpetuating the fossil-fuel economy!

12. Fight for racial justice while fighting for climate justice. We know that "people of color disproportionately bear climate impacts, from storms to heat waves to pollution."

13. Small and local adds up to big and national. Making an impact can start with your school!

14. Pay attention to what they do, not what they say. Talk is cheap, as they say.

15. Focus on the goal rather than the difficulties. Nevertheless, she persisted!