Dear Teachers, there are no pensions in hurricanes. Divest retirement funds invested in fossil fuels | Opinion Susan Van Dolsen and Shayok Mukhopadhyay, Special to the USA TODAY Network
We are climate activists and long-time residents of Westchester County. We fight investment funds that destabilize the Earth’s climate. We fear the impact of climate change not only on our lives, but on the lives of our children and all young people who will bear the consequences of today’s investments. The year of the pandemic has made our fears real and immediate to an extent we had not imagined possible. We have been reminded with utmost cruelty that we live in a fragile world, where lives and livelihoods can be lost with shocking speed.
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Cattle (like sheep, deer, and other grazing animals) are endowed with the ability to convert grasses, which we humans cannot digest, into flesh that we are able to digest. They can do this because, unlike humans, who possess only one stomach, they are ruminants, which is to say that they possess a rumen, a 45-or-so gallon fermentation tank in which resident bacteria convert cellulose into protein and fats.
In the US, however, about 97% of the cattle raised for beef spend the latter portion of their lives in feedlots, where they’re fed corn and other grains that humans
could eat and they convert it into meat quite inefficiently. Since it takes anywhere from, depending on who is doing the calculation and what they include, four to (according to some estimates) as many as 20 pounds of grain to make a pound of feedlot-derived beef, we actually get far less food out than we put in. What we’ve created is effectively a protein factory in reverse.
The Trump White House questioned the value of foreign aid and neglected policies related to helping low-income countries. But US aid had already needed improvement.
Devon County Council are seeking opinions on its Carbon Plan
- Credit: Getty Images
Devon County Council leader John Hart writes for this title
Not many of us will look back on 2020 with any affection. But I want to look forward.
I’m an optimist and, as far as Covid-19 is concerned, we can have some hope with the roll-out of the vaccination programme.
But this week I want to consider another vital subject where I can report on some very positive progress in our county.
Before the pandemic, global warming was dominating the news agenda. And in Devon, work on reducing our carbon emissions has been proceeding apace – despite the coronavirus.