Have I mentioned what Climourette Syndrome is yet? It’s similar to Tourette Syndrome as portrayed on TV, where, instead of blurring out naughty words on a constant basis, Warmists constantly add “climate change” to everything that happens, including real issues. Case in point
(UK Independent) As you scoop out your Halloween pumpkin this week, spare a thought for its contents, a new campaign group is urging, as its founder laments that all too often the squash ends up in the bin rather than on the plate.
Traditionally far bigger in the US than the UK, Halloween has soared in popularity on this side of the pond in recent years, to the point where two in five Britons now buy a pumpkin at this time of the year, according to new figures.
But while US pumpkin buyers enjoy turning their fruit into a tasty dish, their UK counterparts have been far more reluctant to cook the scooped-out insides, with only a third choosing to do so, according to research from the Pumpkin Rescue campaign.
As a result, 18,000 tons of perfectly edible squash is tipped straight into the bin every Halloween – weighing the same as 1,500 double decker buses.
Now, this actually makes a good point about the waste of a food product, using it simply for decoration (I actually stopped using real pumpkins decades ago. Messy, a pain, and wasteful. I have an electric). Unfortunately
UK households throw away more than 7m tonnes of food and drink each year, equating to £60 a month for the average family, Mr Restorick says. Not only does this represent a waste of money, but the food emits harmful greenhouses gases when sent to landfill, which contributes to climate change, he adds.
Climourettes. They just can’t help themselves.
In a nearly 1000 word piece, here’s the sum total extent of concern about climate change: “Not only does this represent a waste of money, but the food emits harmful greenhouses gases when sent to landfill, which contributes to climate change, he adds.”
Every phrase in the sentence is absolutely true, but as I’ve said before, offers little context. Does pumpkin waste in the landfill contribute 5% of greenhouse gases or 0.00005%. The 0.00005% value is the far more likely.
Does pumpkin waste contribute to global warming? Yes. Significantly? Very, very unlikely.
The lazy authors of this kind of tripe need to do some research. 18,000 tons of waste of which most is water… let’s say 10% is carbon based solids, so 1,800 tons of largely complex carbohydrates to be oxidized to CO2. Fully composted would have yielded about 5000 tons of CO2. 5000/8,000,000,000 = 0.00006% of total CO2/year. And that’s probably a gross overestimate. It assumes the waste is completely composted, and that 10% by mass is oxidizable organic compounds. It’s not nothing, but we should look elsewhere to reduce CO2 emissions.
Come to think of it, it probably doesn’t matter whether you eat or compost the pumpkins. This is rapid turnover of the carbon cycle – the plants take CO2 out the atmosphere during the summer and release the same amount or less CO2 whether they are eaten or composted.
When we burn gigatons of coal, oil and gas suddenly releasing gigatons of CO2, we’re moving carbon that had been trapped for hundreds of millions of years and rapidly adding it to the atmosphere.