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Frozen Pot Stickers Are Hastening The World's Demise
By
Gabrielle Sierra
Published Jul 27, 2014
Modified Jul 27, 2014
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By
Gabrielle Sierra
Published Jul 27, 2014
Modified Jul 27, 2014
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Your favorite doughy midnight snack may be a contributing factor to world annihilation. A fascinating article in this week's Times Magazine shows how China's rapidly expanding network of freezers is having a huge impact on global warming.
The world's number one carbon emitter (We're Number Two!) is experiencing the boom in commercial and residential refrigeration the United States saw some decades ago, but on a much larger scale.
This [refrigeration] is not simply transforming how Chinese people grow, distribute and consume food. It also stands to become a formidable new factor in climate change; cooling is already responsible for 15 percent of all electricity consumption worldwide, and leaks of chemical refrigerants are a major source of greenhouse-gas pollution. Of all the shifts in lifestyle that threaten the planet right now, perhaps not one is as important as the changing way that Chinese people eat.
Artificial refrigeration contributes to greenhouse gas emissions through both the generation of power and the chemicals used in the process. Leaks and improper disposal can also greatly impact climate change. According to IBISWorld, frozen dumplings accounted for 47 percent of China's total frozen food industry revenue in 2013.
In 2007 China had 250 million cubic feet of refrigerated storage capacity, and is estimated to have 20 times that amount by 2017.
In summation: we are all screwed, everything we do and eat is bad even if we think it is good, and you should all feel personally responsible for our eventual destruction of the planet. Embrace it. Eat some bacon on a stick and call it a day.
Tagged
china
dumplings
global warming
pot stickers
Gabrielle Sierra
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