Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nicholas D Carter

@nicholasdcarter.bsky.social

5.1K followers 420 following 270 posts

📖 Food systems & disinfo researcher 🌎 Director of Environmental Science working on Game Changers 2: https://deadline.com/2023/06/uninterrupted-springhill-produce-sequel-to-he-game-changers-documentary-1235397877/ 🌱 Co-creator of iffs.earth

deadline.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · May 28

Regenerative agriculture "is limited as a climate solution. Other science-based actions for the food system, including a shift to plant-rich diets allowing for ecosystem restoration, can provide far greater decarbonization.”

www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nyu.edu/about/news-p...

Managing for climate and production goals on crop-lands - Nature Climate Change

Climate mitigation through natural climate solutions in crop-lands may be a way to reconcile climate goals with food security. However, here the authors show that some natural climate solution practic...

www.nature.com

3 56 150

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · 2d

New methane GWP* article that covers my Seeing Stars report.

www.carbonbrief.org/qa-what-the-...
@carbonbrief.org

What's still a red flag to me is the academics who championed GWP* continue to avoid calling out when it's being misused (ie. Frank using GWP* to claim Cali dairy can net cool).

Q&A: What the ‘controversial’ GWP* methane metric means for farming emissions - Carbon Brief

A controversial way of measuring how much methane warms the planet has stirred debate in recent years – particularly around assessing the climate impact of livestock farming.

www.carbonbrief.org

1 7

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · 4d

"meat industry narratives are welcomed and legitimized in much of the environmental movement (which) has contributed to public ignorance of the industry’s pollution"

www.vox.com/future-perfe... @kennytorrella.bsky.social

The climate movement’s biggest weakness

What the climate movement is getting dead wrong.

www.vox.com

2 10

Reposted by Nicholas D Carter

Emily Cassidy @enviroem.bsky.social · 5d

Simply reducing beef and lamb consumption to one serving a week -- as recommended by EAT-Lancet -- could reduce emissions by almost 3 billion tons CO2-eq. The equivalent of all of Russia's annual emissions.

Thanks to @melinawalling.bsky.social for including my thoughts in this article.

Project Drawdown @projectdrawdown.bsky.social · 5d

“People associate what they eat with identity and strict diets can scare people off, but even small changes help." - @enviroem.bsky.social

Do you agree? Let us know in the comments below! Read the full article in @apnews.com

apnews.com/article/plan...

A recipe for avoiding 15 million deaths a year and climate disaster is fixing food, scientists say

Scientists are presenting new evidence that the worst effects of climate change can’t be avoided without a major transformation of food systems.

apnews.com

1 18 23

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · 5d

As the report notes: disinformation & corporate power - with meat giants lobbying & funding biased science - remain major barriers to this shift.

Full report: www.thelancet.com/commissions-...

The EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy, sustainable, and just food systems

The 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy, sustainable, and just food systems presents new evidence-based insights on nutrition and human health, within safe and just planetary boundaries. New to this...

www.thelancet.com

1 4

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · 5d

Many solutions flagged:

Shift subsidies from meat/dairy → plant foods.

Taxes, warning labels & ad bans on unhealthy foods (esp. for kids).

Protect & promote traditional plant-based diets.

Side note: see this new broader solutions explorer: drawdown.org/explorer

Drawdown® Explorer

We know what we need to do: stop climate change as quickly as possible. Now, with the Drawdown Explorer, we know how to do it.

drawdown.org

1 3 8

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · 5d

🫘 By 2050: this shift sees –33% ruminant meat, +63% fruits/veg/nuts
💊 Cut antimicrobial use by ~42%
🌱 Labour falls <5% when offset by growth in plant foods. Likely net if considering restoration work.
📈 10-25x payoff: $200–500B cost vs $5T benefits/yr

1 1

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · 5d

Food systems are the #1 driver of environmental breakdown, public health crises & inequity, based on new EAT-Lancet report by 50+ experts in 35+ countries.

Findings:
❤️‍🩹 Prevent ~15M deaths/yr by shifting to this mostly plant-based diet
🌍 Food drives 5 of 6 breached planetary boundaries

🧵

1 3 10

Reposted by Nicholas D Carter

Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 10d

In general I think it's hard to combat scientific misinformation when some of the best research is locked behind an academic paywall, while lots of nonsense gets published free for everyone to read in predatory journals.

20 130 500

Reposted by Nicholas D Carter

Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 11d

Really proud of our team at Project Drawdown.

We just launched the biggest thing we’ve ever done — by far.

A billion times more data than anyone has ever collected before, providing localized intelligence on 150+ climate solutions.

For free.

Project Drawdown @projectdrawdown.bsky.social · 15d

Project Drawdown has always been the world’s leading guide to science-based climate solutions 🌏.

With the new Drawdown Explorer, we’re moving beyond describing solutions → to spotlighting breakthrough strategies for accelerating climate action.

14 62

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · 18d

www.reuters.com/business/wor...

www.reuters.com

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · 18d

JBS, the world’s biggest meat producer, leads deforestation & methane emissions - and now faces for more slavery-like abuses.

So Brazil’s labor minister steps in to protect... JBS, not workers.

The only logic here is to cut demand for animal-sourced foods & enforce strict accountability.

1 11

Reposted by Nicholas D Carter

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 22d

There. Is. No. Such. Thing.
Cattle ranching is among the most destructive of all the world's industries.
"Regenerative" cattle ranching is simply greenwash.

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 22d

McDonald’s said Monday it plans to invest $200 million over the next seven years to promote regenerative agriculture practices on cattle ranches.

McDonald's plans $200 million investment to promote regenerative practices on US cattle ranches

McDonald’s said Monday it plans to invest $200 million over the next seven years to promote regenerative agriculture practices on cattle ranches.

bit.ly

47 460 1.5K

Reposted by Nicholas D Carter

Annie Leymarie @annieleymarie.bsky.social · 25d

We rightly put much focus on the climate emergency but the acceletating loss of biodiversity is equally an existential crisis, and what we eat is the biggest driver. Food production also plays a major role in our breaching of other planetary boundaries.

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · 25d

Agriculture drives more biodiversity loss than any other sector, with ruminant meat causing extinction risks ~340× higher than grains by mass and ~100× higher than legumes both by mass and when adjusted for protein.

1 8 20

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · 25d

Based on this new study:

Ball, T.S., Dales, M., Eyres, A. et al. Food impacts on species extinction risks can vary by three orders of magnitude. Nat Food (2025).
doi.org/10.1038/s430...

Food impacts on species extinction risks can vary by three orders of magnitude - Nature Food

What we eat, as well as where and how it is grown, impacts species extinction risks through agricultural land use. Using a new global biodiversity impact data product, this study estimates how many sp...

doi.org

2 6

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · 25d

2 5 18

Reposted by Nicholas D Carter

Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 26d

We always get asked, "What can I *personally* do to help address climate change?"

Sadly, there hasn't been a very good answer to this question. Previous guides often treated people as monoliths, giving them a one-size-fits-all answer.

But that's changed now. Enter SHIFT.

jointheshift.earth

SHIFT

jointheshift.earth

5 51 86

Reposted by Nicholas D Carter

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · Jul 30

'Cows just replaced the methane from wild bison'

Not even close.

At their peak, wild ruminants incl. bison emitted ~15 Tg CH₄/yr

Today’s 4+ billion farmed ruminants emit over 100 Tg CH₄/yr

That’s nearly 7x more methane.

essd.copernicus.org/articles/17/...

Global Methane Budget 2000–2020

Abstract. Understanding and quantifying the global methane (CH4) budget is important for assessing realistic pathways to mitigate climate change. CH4 is the second most important human-influenced gree...

essd.copernicus.org

2 26 53

Reposted by Nicholas D Carter

Hannah Daly @hannahdaly.ie · Sep 4

I have a new column out today in The Irish Times: “Why ‘No Additional Warming’ Is a Dangerous Climate Loophole.”

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

Why ‘no additional warming’ is a dangerous climate loophole

Carbon budgets should be sent back to the climate council with clear instructions to reassess them against Paris commitments

www.irishtimes.com

4 44 130

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · Sep 3

EDF senior scientist: "Diet is just too controversial, we just don’t know viable solutions and the data isn’t conclusive." 🙄

Wow...

1 1

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · Sep 3

Methane panel starting in just over an hour.

Still time to register:

us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

1 1 7

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · Aug 31

Animal scientists like Frank here are closer to industry vets & reps than climate scientists.

They play the victim pretending they are aligned for working class farmers but are paid by the billionaire corps hurting farmers & externalizing eco & economic impacts that burden us all.

1 1 16

Reposted by Nicholas D Carter

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · Aug 28

There are coordinated livestock industry efforts to change how methane is measured leading up to COP30 in Brazil (🧵)

Join us next Wednesday, September 3rd to learn more: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

1 4 5

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · Aug 28

If you're new to this topic, our report on methane and GWP* is a good primer: changingmarkets.org/wp-content/u...

Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · Aug 28

As these independent scientists have also warned, the GWP* approach that prioritizes warming over time vs. emissions accountability is not in line with the Global Methane Pledge or the Paris Agreement:

biogenicmethane.org