One of the news items that caught my attention this morning, while having a cup of coffee in this cold spring morning, was the disruption of public transport in Melbourne CBD as part of the global Extinction Rebellion movement. It’s been going on for over a week causing massive inconvenience to the motorists and the public. Sure, we are all getting more concerned about the changing climate across the globe and about the impact of alarming increase in carbon emissions from high industrial emissions.

 

It was only last month that the world leaders converged in Paris for the Climate action summit, flying their private jets from all parts of the world burning massive amounts of aviation fuel and thus collectively contributing to the already worst situation of our polluted atmosphere. The sad part is that all these exercises were to exhort the global citizens to reduce carbon emissions and to adopt carbon neutral of carbon aware lifestyle!! As if the public are not aware of any adverse effects of greenhouse effects around us….

 

Yes it is true, the weather is unpredictable with each passing year, rapidly lowering ground water tables, unseasonal rains, debilitating droughts, flash floods, melting arctic ice shelves, rising sea levels engulfing island nations like Maldives, Polynesian islands. These nations are facing the reality of being wiped out from the face of the earth before the turn of next century…..it’s not a threat anymore it’s a clear and present danger. The progress we made in the last 200 years in the industry sector has leapfrogged us into the doomsday situation of today. What can we do now? This was my thought on this chilly but sunny spring morning!! Halfway through the spring season it still feels like winter, am sure even the nature itself is confused about how to be!!

I just couldn’t help thinking of my life back in India more than 3 decades ago helping to run my family business of timber trading. Part of the business was to cull massive eastern forests of Kerala. I have seen hectares of ancient trees been mercilessly chopped down and the logs being loaded on to waiting trucks. With in 3 to 4 days the entire hills of green trees were left bare. The scale of destruction affected me and got me thinking. I could also see that there were no efforts from the government or the public to repopulate the land by planting trees. By the end of 80’s I decided timber business was not for me as my conscience got in my way and I left the family business to search for other opportunities.

I believe the real reason for these drastic changes in climate are not just the carbon emissions, though it is one among the many reasons, but it could also be due to the massive deforestation of the last few decades. To understand the climate change, one must understand the Carbon cycle of our planet earth. To explain carbon cycle in simple terms, the plants take carbon dioxide from the air and use it to make food. Animals then eat the food and carbon is stored in their bodies or released as CO2 through respiration.

If you really look at the statistics of deforestation according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an estimated 18 million acres (7.3 million hectares) of forest, which is roughly the size of the country of Panama, are lost each year. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why we have such carbon build up in the atmosphere in these last few decades considering the growth of industrial revolution. For those who are interested here it is – In 1700, before the widespread use of fossil fuels, the world had a population of 670 million people. By 2011 the world’s population had reached 6.7 billion, a 10-fold increase in a mere 300 years.

In the billions of years of its existence the earth has gong through periods of ice ages and warmer spells. It’s not just science fiction as it has been proved by geological analysis of ice shelves and millions of years’ worth of rock layers. If one carefully analyses the history of earth it’s so easy to infer that nature has its own way of balancing it out. Nature is a self-healing entity. No matter how brilliant we humans think we are or how dominant we think we are as a species, by driving many other species into extinction with sheer domination, we are only fooling ourselves. Nature will take its course and it will balance out it’s imbalance that are prevailing now. Mother nature will eventually prevail, and all this chaos will be brought back to order. I strongly believe in that from my many observations and my decades long research on the subject.

In the meantime, we can plant for more trees and stop altering the nature to allow it to exist the way it existed for the billions of years before us. Let us not protest and disrupt traffic, which will cause more carbon emissions by slowing down the traffic and thus burning more fossil fuel. Let us all make conscious choices to reduce the impact on nature by our own actions. Then only changes on a massive scale can happen….It starts from me and you….

Now it’s time to rein in my thoughts on climate change, the weather and everything that is distracting me from my cooking…I was getting a bit peckish too. So, for this cold morning I have decided to make a cloud bread. This no carb cloud bread is not only light on carbs and keto friendly, but they are light on calories too. And even if low carb is your focus, calories are still important. These cloud breads are just perfect for pretty much any sandwich. So, if you wonder whether a good no carb bread exists, then wonder no more. This keto cloud bread recipe is your answer.

Am sure you will enjoy this recipe. Until next time….happy cooking folks!!

Ingredients

3 large Egg (whites and yolks separated)
3 tbsp Cream cheese
1/4 tsp Baking powder
1/8 tsp Sea salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 150 deg C or 300 deg Fahrenheit(fan forced)

Mix the cream cheese, egg yolks and sea salt to a smooth consistency.

In a separate bowl mix the egg whites and the baking powder till soft peaks form. Combine the egg whites with the cream cheese mixture by folding in gently. Do this in parts to keep the final mix soft and fluffy. After all the mixture are well incorporated spread it on a baking tray lined with parchment paper into 6 equal portions. Bake for 10 -12 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool completely and then store the bread in a resealable food pouch overnight and it will be perfect for consumption the next day. Make sure you separate the breads with parchment paper so that they don’t stick to each other.

About the Author

George Samuel is a food entrepreneur, currently working on a low-carb food startup business in Melbourne Australia. He has 30 years of experience as Project Manager in the IT and Telecomm sector. Food is his passion and he has appeared on Victorian Channel 31 delivering cookery shows for Black and White digital media in 2012. He is passionate about clean eating and whole foods and is also a big advocate of sugar free living. His mission is to help people to live a disease-free lifestyle.

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