Fruit and Nut

The latest IPCC report  states that it will be impossible to limit global warming to a safe level without massive change in land use and a paradigm shift in global food production towards vegetarian and vegan diets. “The consumption of healthy and sustainable diets, such as those based on coarse grains, pulses and vegetables, and nuts and seeds … presents major opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” it states.

Food security and carbon assessment for Ireland

This document examines the current food security situation in Ireland and the Irish government's business-as-usual proposals for agriculture from now till 2030, as outlined in the 2019 Climate Change Action Plan (so-called), and also some radical low carbon alternatives which would not only achieve 100% food self sufficiency in Ireland - instead of the paltry 20% of Irish food requirements currently provided by Irish agriculture - but also provide a significant carbon sink for unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions from other sectors. The document is here

A follow up study, extending the remit of the low carbon agriculture to include energy crops sufficient to meet agricultural and essential transport fuel requirements (this does NOT include cars!) will be undertaken in the near future.

Other research projects

How exactly does a country reduce its carbon footprint from around 13 tonnes per capita per annum to zero? Is such a thing even possible? And how do the emission reduction paths outlined at governmental level stand up to detailed scrutiny? If we are serious about achieving a zero carbon future, realistic assessments are needed for every sector of society.

Global warming and nuts

It seems hardly a month goes by without another climate report confirming what we at Fruit and Nut have long been saying: that the world is now on a trajectory for dangerous climate change that will impact upon billions of people during the lifetime of people alive today.

What is becoming more apparent too, is the unacceptable climate impact of livestock farming and of the meat-based diet. Put simply, there is no future for livestock farming at current levels: the climate cost is simply too high.

Climate change mitigation imperatives will require the complete reconfiguration of Irish agriculture, the ending all imports of animal feed and perhaps reducing livestock production by 90 percent.

Change must come, both in diets and in the use of land. And among the most promising alternatives to livestock production are of course nuts, which give a protein and lipid yield per acre comparable to livestock farming but without any of the climate costs.

The biggest handicap is not the weather or the soil, but lack of knowledge within the farming community. And with that in mind we urge all landowners everywhere to plant nut trees: if only a dozen trees for providing nuts for home use, in order to start building that knowledge base that will be so valuable in the future.

We've been saying this for the last twelve years, but now IS the time for agriculture to embrace nuts.

Climate Change Campaign

If meaningful reductions in GHG emissions are to be achieved, we have to take the fight to the deniers, to the organisations that willfully obstruct effects to reduce greenhous gas emissions and most of all to the state bodies that fail abjectly in their duties to inform the public what precisely climate change is going to mean: that the way of life most people take for granted is soon going to come to an end.

Additionally, we have to develop a coherent narrative for climate change mitigation and adaptation that can be offered as a blueprint for action (and as a reality-based alternative to techno-fantasies peddled by the proponents of business-as-usual).

Here at Fruit and Nut we want to play our part and are looking for volunteers to assist with this project!

Personal Requirements:

Some spare time

Based in Ireland

Reasonable understanding of climate science (don't worry if you're not Greta Thunberg!)

Confident with numbers

Good researching skills (for example able to unearth the latest reports on Arctic sea ice) or willingness to work on developing them

Able to work from home (depending on availability of accommodation the nursery may be able to offer a part time live-in option - with full board - in return for assistance with nursery activities)

If you think you might like to get involved, or would like more information, please get in touch. All enquiries will be treated with strict confidentiality

Please email climatechangecampaign (at) fruitandnut (dot) ie. Enquires should be addressed to Andi

What do we do if we think climate collapse is coming?

Recommended viewing is Deep Adaptation, a powerful and moving video featuring Jem Bendell (professor of Sustainability Leadership, University of Cumbria), here

The academic paper on which the video is based is here

Climate Crisis Timeline

For the climate crisis timelime in pdf, click here

note: a UN report released on 23/09/19 suggests that GHG emissions will not peak until at least 2030. This would put the nearest date for net zero emissions far beyond 2050. Report

In 2016 , we speculated that the earth's climate had already passed a critical tipping point, and was on a irreversible trajectory that would lead to global warming of in excess of 3C and massive impacts to the earth's ecosystem, including the parts essential to human survival.

Nothing that has happening in the intervening years has altered this view. In fact, thanks to the failure of governments everywhere to act decisively, the prospects for human survival have significantly diminished.

During July, all time temperature records were shattered across a swathe of European countries, in some cases by several degrees. Global temperatures for July were 1.2C above the pre-global warming baseline temperature, suggesting that the 1.5C threshold that the Paris international climate agreement of April 2016 sought to prevent and which climate change projections at the start of the millennia suggested would not occur for at least another 50 years, will be exceeded within as little as eight to ten years.

Meanwhile, Arctic sea ice is at an all time low for the time of year, icemelt on the Greenland icecap during July was greater than for the whole of last year, and unprecedented numbers of forest fires rage across Russia, Canada and Alaska. In Siberia alone, 2.7 million hectares of forest are ablaze (roughly equivalent in area to Belgium).

And this is only a tiny taste of what global warming will bring.