The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 26 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Webber: US food cold chain outspends Switzerland and Sweden's total energy
“We use more energy for our cold chain than countries like Switzerland and Sweden use combined for all purposes.”
Webber: Shipping wine from France to NY uses less energy than California
“Wine from France delivered by ship to New York is less energy intensive than the closer wine in California moved there by truck.”
Webber: Dietary choices impact the environment far more than food miles
“The transportation miles Tends to get the most attention, but actually is not as important. A great study came out of Carnegie Mellon over a decade ago, looking at sort of these food miles, and they're, the conclusion they had was that food choices, meaning th…”
Webber: Multi-paddock cattle grazing can achieve net-negative carbon life cycles
“There are some analyses just actually they will be carbon negative on life cycle because what the cattle do if it's not too concentrated will improve the soil health and take CO two out of the atmosphere.”
Webber: The US spends nine energy units per food unit ingested
“So the food we need to ingest in the United States is about one quad of energy a year, and we consume about a hundred quads of energy over the course of a year. One quad of that is in the food we eat, but there's another, say, nine quads of energy to grow and …”
Webber: Consumers waste less meat than produce primarily because of price
“The good news of the meat world is that we tend to waste less meat because it's so expensive. We tend to waste other things that are Sort of less expensive fruits and vegetables that don't have good shelf life”
Webber: Hundreds of millions of tons of manure could supply biomethane
“We have especially hundreds of millions of tons of manure that we could turn into biomethane as opposed to just leaving it as an environmental hotspot, a liability.”
Webber: US water heating uses more energy than Switzerland and Sweden combined
“That four percent of national energy consumption in water heating is bigger than what Switzerland and Sweden use for all purposes combined in a year.”
Webber: 40% of US water withdrawals cool power plants
“And about 40% of all the water withdrawals in the United States every day are just to cool power plants.”
Webber: Nuclear, carbon capture, and bioenergy are highly water-intensive
“Traditional nuclear, 19 seventies nuclear with big water cooling, very water intensive. Carbon capture systems are very water intensive. Bioenergy crops are very water intensive.”
Webber: Dietary fats share roughly the same energy density as fossil fuels
“Material, especially like the lipids and fats are kind of the same energy density as fossil fuels, which is really incredible.”
Webber: Global photosynthesis averages 0.3% efficiency, peaking at 10%
“The global photosynthetic mean is like.3% efficient, and really good crops in really healthy areas, and the ecosystem might be as high as a few percent, maybe eight or 10% in some places, and this is far shy of the efficiency of like an electric motor.”
Webber: The US food system consumes up to 15% of national energy
“Different people do the analysis and come up with anywhere between like eight and 15% of national annual energy consumption is for the food system.”
Webber: Cold chain and cooking consume 40% of food system energy
“And then another, like, 40% of the food system's energy requirements, or like four percent of national energy consumption, is in the cold chain and in the cooking.”
Webber: Wealthy nations throw away up to 50% of edible food
“That food waste number is something like 30 to 50% of the edible food in the United States is thrown away. Typical numbers say 40%. Similar numbers in, say, the UK and other rich countries”
Webber: Corn-based ethanol currently displaces 10% of US gasoline consumption
“Like, there are other ways to displace 10% of our gasoline consumption, which is about where we are with corn-based ethanol.”
Webber: Extreme Texas heat is forcing ranchers to sell underweight cattle
“We're having massive agricultural losses in Texas right now from the heat wave and drought. They can't get the feed for the cattle, so they take cattle to market before they're at full weight, so they get less money.”
Webber: The Netherlands is the world's second-largest food exporter by value
“The Netherlands is, I think, the number two exporter of food by value around the world, because they grow a lot of high-value crops, flowers, and fruits and vegetables in an indoor setting.”
Webber: About 13% of US energy consumption goes to water and steam
“If you look at the United States as an example, we use about a hundred quads of energy, a hundred quadrillion BTU of energy. BTU is a British thermal unit of energy. About 13% of that energy is for water and steam.”
Webber: About a third of US energy boils water in power plants
“It's like a third of our energy consumption in the United States just goes to boil water to make steam in power plants.”
Webber: Agriculture is the top net water consumer, ahead of cities and power
“If you look at consumption, how much water is consumed, agriculture is the biggest consumer, and then cities, then the power sector.”
Webber: Water inputs cost only $0.50 to $1 per barrel of oil
“The water bill for energy is not substantial. Usually the water is cheap. So if you're producing oil and gas, the amount of extra money you pay for water, it's something you notice. It might be 50 cents a barrel or a dollar a barrel, something like that, but t…”
Webber: Water-scarce regions already use desalination despite high electricity costs
“We don't have to wait for the far future for desalination. It's already happening today in Israel and In parts of California, and inland Texas, and Israel, and Australia. So places that are water scarce already do some desalination. Even if the electricity is …”
Webber: French nuclear plants curtailed output due to drought in 2022
“You cannot get the water you need to cool your nuclear power plants in France so they are dialing back or turning off.”
Webber: Texas 2021 storm left 14 million under boil-water notices
“And we had that in Texas where we first had a power outage, ten million people without power, but then we had fourteen million people under a boil water notification, Because the water wasn't safe to drink because the water and wastewater treatment plants didn…”