Meat, dairy and rice production will bust 1.
5C climate target, shows study
Level 3: Advanced
1
Warmer
a. Would you change your diet to help the planet? What would you change? Why? Give reasons
for your answer.
2
Key words
a. Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text.
associated consistent consumption curbs disproportionate
dominant emissions equivalent incompatible model
projected surpasses sustain threshold urgency
1. Things, usually gases, that go into the air are called .
2. is how much someone eats, drinks, or smokes.
3. information has been calculated to find out how big something will
be in the future using information that is available now.
4. A person or thing that is more important, powerful, or successful than others of the same type is
.
5. When people, things, or ideas are , there is a connection
between them.
6. To something, you must provide the right conditions so something
can happen or exist.
7. If something is not with something else, those two things can’t
exist together.
8. A is the level or limit when something different happens.
9. When you need to deal with something quickly, there is an to do it.
10. Things with the same size, value, importance, or meaning as others are
.
11. A data shows the relationships and connections within
the information.
12. When something goes beyond its expectations, it them.
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Meat, dairy and rice production will bust 1.5C climate target, shows study
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13. If something is with something else, those ideas, systems or
machines cannot work together because of the differences between them.
14. When a rule limits or stops something, it it.
15. If something is , it is bigger or smaller than it should be in
comparison to something else.
b. Choose five of the words from task a and write five personalised sentences using them.
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Meat, dairy and rice production will bust 1.5C climate target, shows study
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Emissions from food system 7 “We have to make the goal of sustaining our
alone will drive the world past global population consistent with a climate-safe
future,” she said.
target, unless high-methane
foods are tackled 8 The contribution of global food production to
the climate crisis is complex because it involves
Damian Carrington several important greenhouse gases, all of
06 March, 2023 which have different abilities to trap heat and
stay in the atmosphere for different amounts
1 Emissions from the food system alone will drive of time. Previous studies have converted the
the world past 1.5C of global heating, unless impact of methane and other gases into an
high-methane foods are tackled. equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (CO2)
2 Climate-heating emissions from food over 100 years, but this underplayed the high
production, dominated by meat, dairy and rice, potency of methane over shorter timescales.
will by themselves break the key international 9 The research, published in the journal Nature
target of 1.5C if it is not controlled, a detailed Climate Change, treated each greenhouse gas
study has shown. separately for 94 key types of food, enabling
3 The analysis estimated that if today’s level of their impact on climate over time to be better
food emissions continued, they would result understood. Feeding this emissions data into
in at least 0.7C of global heating by the end a widely used climate model showed that
of the century, on top of the 1C rise already the continuation of today’s food production
seen. This means emissions from food alone, would lead to a rise of 0.7C by 2100 if global
ignoring the huge impact of fossil fuels, would population growth was low, and a 0.9C rise if
push the world past the 1.5C limit. population growth was high.
4 The study showed that 75 per cent of this 10 “As we had already reached more than 1C
food-related heating was driven by foods warming above pre-industrial levels by 2021,
that are high sources of methane, i.e. those this additional warming from food production
coming from livestock such as cattle, and rice alone is enough to surpass the 1.5C global
paddy fields. However, the scientists said the warming target,” the scientists concluded.
temperature rise could be cut by 55 per cent “Our analysis clearly demonstrates that
by cutting meat consumption in rich countries current dietary production and consumption
to medically recommended levels, reducing patterns are incompatible with sustaining a
emissions from livestock and their manure, and growing population while pursuing a secure
using renewable energy in the food system. climate future.”
5 Previous studies have shown the huge impact 11 Food-related temperature rise could be curbed,
of food production on the environment, the researchers said. If people adopted the
particularly meat and dairy, but the new study healthy diet recommended by Harvard Medical
provides estimates of the temperature rises School, which allows a single serving of red
their emissions could cause. These could be meat a week, the rise could be cut by 0.2C.
a significant underestimate, however, as the Such a diet would mean a big cut in meat
study assumed animal product consumption eating in rich nations but could mean an
would remain level in the future but it was increase in some poorer countries.
projected to rise by 70 per cent by 2050. 12 Cutting methane emissions from cattle using
6 “Methane has this really dominant role in certain types of feed and better management
driving the warming associated with the of manure could avoid another 0.2C, the
food systems,” said Catherine Ivanovich, at researchers said, while switching to green
Columbia University in the US, who led the energy in the food system would cut 0.15C.
research. “Sustaining the pattern of food Ivanovich said the emissions-reductions
production we have today is not consistent options included in the study were those
with keeping the 1.5C temperature threshold. possible today but that future technological
That places a lot of urgency on reducing the advances might be able to reduce
emissions, especially from the high-methane emissions further.
food groups.”
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Meat, dairy and rice production will bust 1.5C climate target, shows study
Level 3: Advanced
13 “We already know that livestock production
has a disproportionate contribution to climate
change – even using traditional metrics, in
2021, we showed that 57 per cent of emissions
from the food system arises from animal
agriculture,” said Prof Pete Smith, at the
University of Aberdeen, UK. “This very neat
study uses a simple climate model to show the
disproportionate impact of methane emissions
from agriculture on temperature increases and
throws light on the importance of reducing
methane emissions from the food system.”
14 Only a third of the world’s countries have
included policies to cut emissions from
agriculture in the climate plans they have
submitted under the UN Paris Agreement.
The researchers said their work was aimed
at increasing the understanding of the impact
of global food consumption on future global
heating. Ivanovich also said policies to cut
emissions had to protect access to food and
livelihoods for vulnerable populations.
© Guardian News and Media 2023
First published in The Guardian, 06/03/2023
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Meat, dairy and rice production will bust 1.5C climate target, shows study
Level 3: Advanced
3
Comprehension check
a. Answer the questions using information from the article.
1. What will increase global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius?
2. What three areas of food production cause the most emissions?
3. If food emissions stay the same, how much hotter will the world be by the end of the century?
4. What is the name of the gas driving most of this change?
5. What three actions scientists say would cut the temperature rise by 55 per cent?
6. What is the difference between this new study and previous ones?
7. Why are greenhouse gases dangerous for the environment?
8. How much would the rise be cut if people ate just one serving of red meat per week?
9. What percentage of emissions comes from animal agriculture?
10. What proportion of countries have policies to cut emissions in agriculture?
4
Key language
a. Use the prefixes in the word pool to make words from the article. One prefix is used twice.
pre dis under re in
1. played
2. compatible
3. -industrial
4. proportionate
5. newable
6. estimate
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Meat, dairy and rice production will bust 1.5C climate target, shows study
Level 3: Advanced
b. What does each prefix mean? Match the prefix to its definition. Two prefixes have the
same meaning.
1. pre- a. again
2. in- b. not enough
3. re- c. not
4. dis- d. before
5. under-
5
Discussion
a. Discuss these statements.
• “Eating meat once a week is a sustainable solution to the food emissions problem.”
• “We should not change what we eat because someone will invent technology to fix the emissions
problem for us.”
• “More countries should adopt policies to cut emissions from agriculture.”
6 In your own words
a. Use an internet search engine to learn more about how climate change and food
are connected.
• In what ways are they connected?
• What changes can people or governments make to fix this?
b. Report your findings to the class.
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