First they came for our gas-guzzling cars and our trips to the Caribbean.
Then climate activists wanted us to stop eating hamburgers and ban gas stoves.
It seems they are now targeting our refrigerators.
At least that is what climate researcher Nicola Twilley claims. She states that refrigerators in family kitchens are harmful to the environment.
Her new book, Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves, argues against the humble household refrigerator.
Author Nicola Twilley says the humble household fridge is leading to food stockpiling and climate-damaging waste
“You really don’t have to eat tomatoes in December,” says author Twilley.
The ‘cold chain’ storage system, where food is kept cool until it arrives at the local supermarket, is also under fire.
“Food waste is often cited as a reason to set up a cold chain,” Twilley told Bloomberg.
“The problem is that in the developed world we throw away 30 to 40 percent of our food, both in the store and at the consumer.”
According to Twilley, it has become too easy to drive to Walmart and buy groceries that fill our refrigerators. Often, the groceries just sit there, forgotten, and slowly wither away while we order pizza.
“The abundance that refrigeration has brought us has led to a lack of care and a willingness to waste,” she says.
‘There is so much food and it is so cheap that people would rather buy something else.’
This has left the average American household dependent on their refrigerator.
According to Twilley, the average American refrigerator is opened an average of 107 times per day.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, total annual food waste in the U.S. amounts to approximately 170 million tons of carbon dioxide.
This is equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of 42 coal-fired power stations.
The cold storage chain also uses refrigerated trucks and huge, cold warehouses that drain the electricity grid.
According to the book, nearly three-quarters of American food is stored in that cold chain.
According to Twilley, cold storage companies are currently the third largest industrial energy consumers.
Currently, more than 8 percent of global electricity consumption is consumed by the energy needed to run refrigeration equipment.
That means more power plants will emit heat-trapping gases, raising global temperatures and causing more storms, wildfires and droughts, UN scientists warn.
It’s going to get worse, warns the presenter of the Podcast about gastropods.
Nearly three-quarters of the food Americans eat is stored in cold storage.
Currently, more than 8 percent of global electricity consumption is consumed by the energy needed to run refrigeration equipment.
The New York Times Book Review called Twilley’s text “riveting” and “hard to put down.”
China and large parts of Africa are still building cold storage chains, meaning that many more megawatts of electricity will be consumed in the coming decades.
Twilley calls for major changes in the way Americans eat, shop and store their food.
Refrigerators are great for milk and meat, she says, but bread, potatoes or onions don’t need to be refrigerated.
Preferably buy seasonal vegetables and fruit and, if possible, keep them on the counter so that they are not forgotten.
Once they end up in that drawer at the bottom of the fridge, they’re out of sight – and out of mind.
“It’s like I only eat apples in the fall,” Twilley told the Zero podcast.
“I eat citrus fruits in the spring and berries in the summer. It’s annoying and unpleasant, but I try not to be preachy about it, but it all tastes better.”
She added: ‘You really don’t need to eat tomatoes in December, they don’t taste like anything, so just don’t.’
Twilley’s concerns are supported by the Biden administration’s climate policies.
John Kerry, the US special envoy for climate, pledged late last year to drastically cut emissions from refrigerators, air conditioners and other cooling products in the fight against man-made global warming.
Kerry signed the Global Cooling Pledge, which commits countries to reducing their cooling-related emissions by at least 68 percent below 2022 levels by 2050.