Oven-Baked Mexican Quinoa Casserole
Everything is good about "Oven-Baked Mexican Quinoa Casserole" from the Vegangela blog: the great taste, the remarkably few dishes to clean up, its healthiness, and of course its vegetarian nature. In fact, it is a vegan dish, unless you put cheese and/or sour cream on it, as I'm admittedly inclined to do.
This dish could be called a remarkably healthy comfort food, or a remarkably comforting healthy food.
As you know, we are avoiding meat this month because meat production contributes to climate change. Climate change causes me great anxiety.
Other environmental problems are also awful, but on the surface, it seemed to me like they're not a cause of the climate change that is turning our planet into something different and unfriendly. Like species extinction: it's horribly sad and has repercussions for the food chain, and may be exacerbated by climate change, but doesn't itself contribute to climate change (as far as I know). Or trash everywhere: it's gross, and bad for wildlife, and even bad for human health, but it doesn't contribute to climate change....or DOES IT?
Bad news: I have learned that it does.
It turns out that plastic trash does indeed contribute to climate change. For starters, plastics are largely made from fossil fuels, and the energy needed to make plastics also largely comes from fossil fuels. By one estimate, plastics production is "responsible for approximately... slightly greater than 1% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 3% of total U.S. energy consumption" (I Daniel Posen et al 2017 Environ. Res. Lett. 12 034024).
That doesn't sound so terrible, except that we don't really need plenty of those plastics (like drinking straws, or excessive packaging), plus if the plastic doesn't get a proper disposal, then it degrades in the environment, producing more greenhouse gases. A study published last year alerts us that "the most commonly used plastics produce two greenhouse gases, methane and ethylene, when exposed to ambient solar radiation" (Sarah-Jeanne Royer et al 2018 PLOS One).
By ambient solar radiation, they mean THE SUN, laypersons! Plastics see a lot of the sun, because an estimated 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons of it enters the ocean each year (Jenna Jambeck et al 2015 Science), and most of it floats on the surface. The 150 million metric tons of plastic that currently circulate our marine environments is a problem that even Boyan Slat may not be able to solve, so you should be concerned.
In addition to reducing my meat consumption, then, I am trying to reduce plastic use too. I am pleased to report that my town is considering a considering an ordinance to encourage the use of reusable carry-out bags, prohibit the use of plastic carry-out bags, and put a $0.05 fee on paper carry-out bags for all retail businesses in South Orange. I plan to attend the Village Board of Trustees meeting tomorrow night, and hopefully get the chance to speak in favor of it.
This dish could be called a remarkably healthy comfort food, or a remarkably comforting healthy food.
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| This is a terrible picture, isn't it? You can't even see the darned casserole underneath all the avocado and cheese. Sorry. |
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| A LeCreuset dutch oven makes this dish a one-pot phenomenon |
As you know, we are avoiding meat this month because meat production contributes to climate change. Climate change causes me great anxiety.
Other environmental problems are also awful, but on the surface, it seemed to me like they're not a cause of the climate change that is turning our planet into something different and unfriendly. Like species extinction: it's horribly sad and has repercussions for the food chain, and may be exacerbated by climate change, but doesn't itself contribute to climate change (as far as I know). Or trash everywhere: it's gross, and bad for wildlife, and even bad for human health, but it doesn't contribute to climate change....or DOES IT?
Bad news: I have learned that it does.
It turns out that plastic trash does indeed contribute to climate change. For starters, plastics are largely made from fossil fuels, and the energy needed to make plastics also largely comes from fossil fuels. By one estimate, plastics production is "responsible for approximately... slightly greater than 1% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 3% of total U.S. energy consumption" (I Daniel Posen et al 2017 Environ. Res. Lett. 12 034024).
That doesn't sound so terrible, except that we don't really need plenty of those plastics (like drinking straws, or excessive packaging), plus if the plastic doesn't get a proper disposal, then it degrades in the environment, producing more greenhouse gases. A study published last year alerts us that "the most commonly used plastics produce two greenhouse gases, methane and ethylene, when exposed to ambient solar radiation" (Sarah-Jeanne Royer et al 2018 PLOS One).
By ambient solar radiation, they mean THE SUN, laypersons! Plastics see a lot of the sun, because an estimated 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons of it enters the ocean each year (Jenna Jambeck et al 2015 Science), and most of it floats on the surface. The 150 million metric tons of plastic that currently circulate our marine environments is a problem that even Boyan Slat may not be able to solve, so you should be concerned.
In addition to reducing my meat consumption, then, I am trying to reduce plastic use too. I am pleased to report that my town is considering a considering an ordinance to encourage the use of reusable carry-out bags, prohibit the use of plastic carry-out bags, and put a $0.05 fee on paper carry-out bags for all retail businesses in South Orange. I plan to attend the Village Board of Trustees meeting tomorrow night, and hopefully get the chance to speak in favor of it.
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