Pyeongchang 2018: What’s on the Menu

I’m currently in S. Korea and wrote a post over at Brighter Green about the preparations underway for the Winter Olympics in 2018, and promotions, like this highway billboard sign, for Korean Beef during the games. The post also touches upon some other issues related to animal agriculture and climate change:

The strains of industrial animal agriculture continue to show. In Anheung in Gangwon-do, where tens of thousands of pigs were buried alive, water supplies have become contaminated. The government is currently installing tunnels and pipes to transport water from a different region to each home in this area.

In the summer of 2012, the heat wave has led to the death of over 830,000 farm animals in Korea, mostly chickens. The recent drought in the U.S. has also affected Korea. With decrease in production of U.S. crops used in animal feed, there has been less available for export, and prices for animal feed are soaring in Korea. The cost of beef in Korea, interestingly though, has been going down because farmers can no longer afford to feed their animals, so they are selling them off. There’s currently a surplus on the market, driving the price of beef down.

What will the next few years leading up to 2018 bring in terms of climate and agriculture?  Read more.

Low Lying Islands on High Moral Ground

Over at Brighter Green, I wrote this post on the film, The Island President, former President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, and his defunct political magazine Sangu:

Last week, I had a chance to see The Island President, a film by Jon Shenk about Mohammed Nasheed, the former President of the Maldives, and his fight for climate justice. Shenk followed Nasheed from his election in 2008, which overthrew 30 years of dictatorship under Maumoon Abdul Gayoon, through the COP 15 climate change talks in Copenhagen in 2009. There, he was an impassioned advocate for the future of his country, a low-lying archipelago, vulnerable sea level rise.“What is the point of having a democracy, if you don’t have a country,” Nasheed asked, launching his battle to instill the reality of climate change to his fellow heads of state. Nasheed reminds us that Male, the capital of the Maldives, is no higher Manhattan. “What happens to the Maldives today is going to happen to everyone else tomorrow.” Continue reading