Today’s Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
will be presented
in Slovenian,
with subtitles in Arabic,
Aulacese (Vietnamese),
Chinese, English,
French, German,
Indonesian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean,
Malay, Mongolian,
Persian, Portuguese,
Russian, Slovenian,
Spanish and Thai.
Greetings,
eco-wise viewers
to this week’s episode of
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
featuring environmental
advocate and chemist
Tomaž Ogrin
from the Institute
of Jožef Stefan, Slovenia,
a prominent research body
founded in 1949
and named after
the distinguished
19th-century Slovenian
physicist Jožef Stefan,
most noted for his work
on the Stefan-Bolzmann
law of black-body radiation.
Currently, the Institute
employs more than 850
researchers in the fields
of physics, chemistry,
energy utilization,
environmental science
and other areas.
Mr. Ogrin is a researcher
at the Institute
and manages a project
that provides youth
opportunities
to learn chemistry
in the laboratory.
He also oversees
a continuing education
program for professionals
in the field of chemistry
and other sciences.
Today we present excerpts
from our interview
with Mr. Ogrin who,
like many others,
is very worried by the fact
that Earth’s precious
natural resources are
being rapidly exhausted
by various destructive
industries, particularly
animal agriculture.
In our talk with him,
he suggested
possible solutions
to this challenge.
Humans do need
a necessary quantity
of water per day,
desperately need
a certain amount
of water per day and
this water must be clean.
And here with chemicals
we have destroyed many
of the water resources.
Modern civilization
has been depleting
our planet’s wealth
at an alarming rate,
putting humanity
in serious danger.
A 2010 report by the
World Watch Institute
examined the sustainability
of humankind’s
consumption patterns.
It was found that
in terms of individual use,
a European consumes an
average of 43 kilograms
of natural resources per day
and an American
up to 88 kilograms.
If all people on Earth
consumed as much
as the residents of the US
currently do
on an annual basis,
the planet could
only sustain a sixth
of its current population.
Finally, the report concluded
that in total volume,
the amount of resources
the world extracts
from the Earth daily
would fill
the Empire State Building,
a 373 meter high
skyscraper in
New York City, USA,
112 times over.
The world is
irregularly developed.
And this is a big problem
for its survival.
We need to limit
the wastefulness
of Western societies.
Another query is
the survival of
the growing population.
Here we do not have
any strategy.
And actually,
even if we run out
of energy resources,
we do not know what
will actually follow next.
Electricity is
a key component
of human development.
The International Energy
Agency estimates
1.5-billion people
in the world still
lack access to electricity,
with 85%
living in rural areas.
In the past few years
interest in green energy
has grown across the world
as carbon-based fuels
like oil are highly polluting,
with a finite amount
available on Earth.
The best are
those power plants
that directly concentrate
the Sun’s power.
Recently they have
created technology
that can capture the Sun,
the solar heat,
in a substance that melts,
normally this is a molten
salt, with a temperature
of 6-700 degrees (Celsius).
And this heats water,
boils it and that steam
drives a turbine which
produces electricity
across the generator.
This method has proved
to be the most economical.
The other
possible resources
or the other aspects
of pumping of heat
comes from the soil.
Geothermal energy is
available in many places
around the world,
everywhere, at least
in smaller quantities.
All sorts of hot bodies
emit energy and
that heats air and water.
This method is
fundamentally
not used enough.
Hydrogen is
a zero-carbon gas, and
thus can, to some degree,
help to curb climate change.
Those working on
developing hydrogen-based
cars and buses use
an internal combustion
engine or fuel cells
to power the vehicles.
If we are talking about
traffic, we should first
reduce consumption of
gasoline and diesel fuel
with a switch of gas.
Hydrogen combusting
with oxygen
produces water
and water is certainly
a clean product.
It’s not only
that we do not have
carbon dioxide anymore,
there are also
significantly less or almost
no dust particles created.
The problem lies in the fact
that there is no hydrogen
on Earth and that
it needs to be obtained and
this can be done the most
elegantly from water.
In producing hydrogen
we use energy,
so we have to
have power stations.
With the help
of electricity it is easy
to obtain hydrogen.
And we can burn
this hydrogen in engines
with internal combustion
and we get,
as we said, water.
The livestock industry
has a hugely detrimental
impact on our ecosphere.
According to a 2010
United Nations
Environment Programme
report entitled “Assessing
the Environmental Impacts
of Consumption
and Production”
animal agriculture
consumes 70% of the
global freshwater supply
and 38%
of our planet’s land.
Feeding all these
intensively raised animals
diverts millions of tons
of grains that could
otherwise be used
to sustain humanity.
In 2008, the Food and
Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations
estimated there are
over a billion people
across the world
that are malnourished.
We need to reduce
certain programs,
particularly those ones
which are taking
fertile land from us.
Because it is our nature
that we have to
feed ourselves.
And fertile soil is
our solution.
In this direction
there is a need for
a fundamental reduction
of the number of livestock.
The livestock also generate
enormous quantities
of hazardous manure
filled with nitrates,
pathogens and antibiotics
that destroy life in rivers
and streams and poison
drinking water supplies.
Livestock emissions
foul the air with 37%
of all human-caused
releases of methane,
a highly dangerous
greenhouse gas.
Factory farms also emit
hydrogen sulfide,
which can cause death
from just one inhalation
at concentrations as low
as 1,000 parts per million
and ammonia, a chief cause
of acid rain and
ecosystem acidification.
Methane is a gas
which is very similar
to natural gas.
The majority of natural gas
consists of methane.
This gas also springs up
into the atmosphere.
Its efficiency
in global warming
is 72 times more potent
than carbon dioxide.
Actually, livestock is
a huge polluter
of our atmosphere
and a major cause for
warming of the planet.
That is why
it is extremely important
that we restrict livestock
as soon as possible.
Other gases
from a (factory) farm
include ammonia,
which is at the same time
also toxic.
This one is mixed with
other waste products,
as well as nitrous oxide.
The problem is that this
gas is even more effective
at warming the atmosphere,
and it is 300 times more
troublesome and dangerous
in our atmosphere.
Likewise, in this case
we would reduce
the quantity of this gas
by reduction
of livestock breeding.
A subsequent gas, which
also arises in the field
of livestock breeding,
is H2S (hydrogen sulfide).
This is a gas which is toxic
in very small quantities.
Of course it also
springs up from industry,
however also
from livestock breeding.
Even this one contributes
a very negative impact
on the atmosphere,
above all on the health
of local residents.
Methane dissipates
from the air
after about 12 years,
whereas carbon dioxide,
another greenhouse gas,
stays in the atmosphere
for thousands of years.
Lessening the production
of human-caused methane
and other shorter-lived
greenhouse gases can help
rapidly cool our planet.
To reduce the methane
in our atmosphere,
and prevent
runaway climate change,
a worldwide shift to
the organic vegan diet
needs to occur now.
Some parts of the world,
let’s say in India
are on that path
from the beginning.
We need to
copy their concept.
That is the so-called
vegetarian diet.
The vegetarian diet
has been proved by many
expert-established indicators
to be a healthier form
of nutrition.
Not only is it healthier,
but also a human
can experience
more years (of life),
can be active
several more years,
and contribute more
with his own work.
This benefit is also
indicated in
the acquisition of land,
which previously
had livestock,
and is now available
for growing harvests
for human consumption.
And also water resources
are significantly increased
if the livestock lessens.
Quite soon,
it is necessary to convene
an international meeting
and agree on the reduction
of livestock breeding.
In Europe
we have some initiatives
in this direction.
In Ghent, Belgium,
they initiated
one day without meat.
Also in Bremen, Germany
and also in Slovenia,
we know organizations
that have already
advocated it
in their municipality that
we also should initiate
a day without meat.
To conclude
today’s program,
sustainable use
of our Earth’s resources,
particularly through
organic vegan farming
and following
a plant-based lifestyle,
is absolutely critical
at a time where our planet
has been pushed
to the brink of existence
by human activities
destroying the environment.
Our sincere thanks
Mr. Tomaž Ogrin
for increasing
public awareness about
the ecological devastation
caused by
animal agriculture
and the need to transition
to sustainable energy.
May your exemplary ideals
for the care of our planet
be known throughout
Slovenia and beyond.
For more details
on the Institute
of Jožef Stefan,
please visit
www.IJS.si
Blessed viewers,
thank you for joining us
on today’s episode
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
Coming up next is
Enlightening Entertainment
after Noteworthy News.
May all lives be filled
with peace and grace
from Heaven.