Planet: Critical What's Really Warming the Planet | Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop
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Jul 10, 2025 Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop, a scientist for the World Preservation Foundation and former Principal Scientist with Queensland Government Natural Resources, sheds light on the surprising truth about global heating. He argues that animal agriculture may actually be a bigger contributor to climate change than fossil fuels, highlighting flaws in current emissions accounting methods. The discussion also covers the urgent need for improved metrics to measure methane emissions, the significance of reforestation, and the benefits of shifting towards plant-based diets as part of sustainable climate solutions.
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Inconsistent Emissions Accounting
- The IPCC calculates fossil fuel emissions as gross but animal agriculture emissions as net, causing misleading comparisons.
- When using the same gross method, animal agriculture emerges as the leading climate change driver.
Methane's Warming Underestimated
- Methane's warming impact is underestimated by spreading it over 100 years despite most warming occurring in the first 10 years.
- Using effective radiative forcing, methane causes three times more warming than the IPCC's GWP100 metric shows.
Use Gross Emissions Accounting
- Treating fossil fuel and biosphere carbon consistently is essential; using gross emissions is preferred.
- Net accounting obscures the real damage from deforestation and risks biodiversity due to different timescales of emissions and regrowth.