Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop - Agriculture & Climate Change

Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop is a former Principal Scientist with the Queensland Government Natural Resources, where he spent three decades using satellite data to monitor vegetation cover and deforestation. Since leaving that position, he has co-authored the Beyond Zero Emissions’ Land Use Plan, worked with the NGO World Preservation Foundation, and serves as Director of Replant Byron. We had the privilege of closing out our last season with a chat with this incredible human, and we’re thrilled to welcome Gerard back for an update on his latest groundbreaking research!

In this episode, we explore Gerard’s latest paper, Increased Transparency in Accounting Conventions Could Benefit Climate Policy. He breaks down three major shifts in climate science and emissions accounting that challenge conventional thinking about what drives climate change—revealing that agriculture, particularly animal agriculture, is the leading cause of present-day warming.

This is a paradigm-shifting conversation, so grab your pen and notepaper (you’ll want to take notes, trust us!), and check out Gerard’s brief explainer video here.

In this episode, we discuss:

• A recap of Gerard’s previous research on the need for consistent carbon accounting
• Contentious gases and how we measure them – Global Warming Potential vs Effective Radiative Forcing
• The impact of cooling aerosols from fossil fuel emissions and why they complicate climate calculations.
• How we have undervalued the impact of deforestation, underestimated methane’s impact, and failed to account for cooling emissions.
• A game-changing revelation: updated metrics show agriculture is responsible for 60% of today’s global warming—with animal agriculture alone accounting for 53%.
• The overlooked power of natural drawdown—how nature has looked after us right from the start
• Why these improved methodologies haven’t been widely applied before, and what’s been standing in the way
• The expected response from the animal agriculture industry and how to navigate the greenwashing.
• The bigger picture: what role does animal agriculture play in humanity’s future?

Join us as we unpack the science, the solutions, and why a major shift in climate policy is needed—now more than ever!

To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

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