For dinner I prepared myself a chicken burger with rice.

My chicken burgers came in cardboard packaging which requires pulp to produce. Pulp is made from wood fibres and is processed with chemicals and heavy machinery. Sodium sulphide is one of the main chemicals used to create pulp using the Kraft process invented by Carl F. Dahl in 1879. Sodium sulphide is produced in the process by using coal (as its primary element is carbon) and sodium sulphate as the reactants. The resultant product is a pulp that has superior strength in comparison to other methods and is thus used for cardboard. Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel; however, its extraction can be harmful to the environment by contaminating ground water and polluting the air. In 2008 the World Health Organization determined that coal pollution causes approximately one million deaths around the world per year.

The Braunkohlebagger Nr. 288 is a 13 000 tonne bucket coal excavator. It is 96m high, 115m long, and 45m wide. This is a photo of it making a 22km journey from Hambach to Garzweiler.

A photo of 3 coal power plants in Germany. Known as Frimmersdorf, Neurath and Niederaußem. Niederaußem has the worlds highest cooling tower at 200m tall. The excavator above services these mining pits.

Rice is harvested in various parts of the world with the highest output in the Asian countries such as China and Indonesia; however, some of these high producing countries import rice as well to satisfy the demand. Most harvesting is done by hand as labour is cheaper than capital. However, harvesters are used in appropriate areas which require fossil fuels to operate.  Developing countries tend to use more labour intensive methods and in result are less dependent on fossil fuels to complete their harvest. The vast majority of rice is grown in oversea countries which requires its transportation via plane, rail, cargo ship, and truck over long distances. The transportation industry is entirely dependent on fossil fuels and is a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

Rice paddy being harvested by a Bangladesh family, all of the work is done by hand.

The Triple E cargo ship is capable of transporting 18 000 20ft containers at a time. Some cargo ships burn over 10 000 litres of fuel per hour! The Triple E is more fuel efficient and burns about 1/3 the fuel per container compared to the average cargo ship.