Low carb and how we are winning the fight against climate change

Not everyone can stand Al Gore or any talk about global warming. But if you do, then consider checking out this new TED talk.

Low carb and the environment

A few things are worth considering as a low-carb fan. Low carb is often claimed to be environmentally unsustainable due to an emphasis on meat, especially from cows (and their methane release). This is wrong for two reasons:

1. Low-carb, high-fat diets are not supposed to be high in meat (protein) at all. They are moderate in protein and it’s even possible to eat a vegetarian version. There’s certainly no need to eat cows at all.

2. Methane from animals is part of a carbon cycle. It is relatively rapidly broken down to carbon dioxide that is taken up by plants again. Net effect = no new added carbon to the atmosphere. This is very different from burning fossil fuels, which adds carbon to the atmosphere for millions if not hundreds of millions of years.

We could get rid of (kill) every cow on the planet and it would only delay global warming by a few years, if even that. Then the same thing would happen anyway.

What we should worry about is not animals passing gas, but the burning of fossil fuels. This is what Al Gore and any other experts without other agenda focuses on.

Winning against global warming

The exciting part of Gore’s talk is that we will eventually win the fight against climate change. It’s inevitable as renewable energy sources like sun and wind energy (and batteries) are rapidly becoming cheaper and better. Pretty soon they will be cheaper than burning fossil fuels – and then they will become the default energy source for the planet.

Add electric cars and other transportation – also coming up fast – and we have solved global warming.

It will happen. We will win. The only remaining question is this: how much will we mess up our planet before it happens? How hot will it get? It matters a great deal for our children.