Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop - Deforestation And Carbon Accounting

Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop worked as a Principal Scientist with Queensland Government Natural Resources, using satellite data to monitor three decades of vegetation cover and broadscale deforestation. He left the government in 2010 to co-author the Beyond Zero Emissions’ Land Use Plan, a plan to take Australia’s land use and agriculture emissions beyond zero.

He now works pro bono with the NGO World Preservation Foundation, focusing on deforestation, land degradation and biodiversity loss. Gerard is also on the Zero Emissions Byron Land Use Advisory Panel and a Director of Replant Byron. Recently he co-authored a book for the Eating Our Way To Extinction documentary and has produced a series of explanatory videos on the climate impact of animal agriculture. Recent research includes carbon emissions from deforestation, with explanatory video.

In this episode, we dive into Gerard's latest scientific article, "Deforestation—a Call for Consistent Carbon Accounting." The article shakes up how we think about carbon emissions, arguing that the current system for measuring deforestation’s impact doesn’t tell the full story. Gerard makes a strong case for a gross accounting approach across all industries, to provide us with a clearer picture of the damage and solutions. This discussion highlights the urgent need to totally revalue the environmental harms of agriculture – in a nutshell, Gerard urges us all to eat plants and plant trees!

In this episode, we discuss:

• Gerard’s work with the Queensland Government monitoring deforestation
• Shocking stats on Australia’s clearing rates
• His involvement with the Eating Our Way to Extinction documentary and associated resources
• The work of Plant-Based Treaty
• A deep dive into Gerard’s latest paper on consistent carbon accounting
• Gross vs. net carbon accounting explained
• How the carbon cycle really works
• The overlooked value of forest drawdown potential
• The true environmental toll of animal agriculture
• Rethinking climate policy with Gerard’s insights
• A sneak peek at his upcoming research
• Translating the numbers into meaningful action

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

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