Changing global climate has been posing severe challenges for
healthy living. An international research report published in the Lancet journal
recently warns about the looming “threat of the changing climate that can wipe
out the health progress over the past 50 years”.
The report broaches on the direct and
indirect effects of climate changes on the health. Direct effects refers to increase
in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like heat waves,
floods, drought and storms whose impact is enormous on health. The worst ever
death toll recorded in India and Pakistan due to the severe heat wave this year
fall under this category. Indirect impacts of climate changes include the changes
in the infection patterns, effects of emissions, uncertainty regarding
availability of food leading to malnutrition. Health effects also include those
related to involuntary migration of people forcing them to leave the affected
regions in search of better living conditions. This reduces social stability
would indirectly affect the health.
The compendium, a collaborative effort of number of European
and Chinese Climate Scientists, Environmental Scientists, Social Scientists,
Medical and Health scholars, Energy policy experts, engineers and others have
cautioned that major gains accrued in human health might be frittered away by
the changes in climate. It elucidates the role of emissions in stunting
positive health benefits and advised countries to cut down fossil fuel
consumption to lower the incidence of respiratory diseases. This is congruent
to the alarming levels of pollution in the capital city of Delhi where children
are becoming more susceptible to life-threatening respiratory diseases. It also
advised nations to reduce the consumption of red meat which is not
environmentally friendly and strictly recommended a change in dietary habits.
Another major threat to global health in recent years has been the increased
incidence of conflict.
It also proposed to initiate a new independent global action
plan “Countdown to 2030: Climate Change and Health Action.” The objectives of
the plan will be carried out by an organisation that monitors the link between
health status and affect of climate change and to UN every two years. Lancet
Commission report further emphasises the need for strong international
consensus to create a global economy wherein carbon emissions are reduced. This
in turn would improve the health status. The report has a great bearing on the
talks in climate change on global health with regard to UN Climate Change
Conference, COP 21 to be held in Paris from 30th November to 11th
December 2015.
Research indicates that change in the dietary habits has a
great impact on the climate change. Though the statement is little intriguing,
scientific study and resource utilisation pattern clearly suggested that plant
based diet is more healthy and environmental friendly than meat diet. Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reports also expounded that changing dietary
habits in the past few decades have contributed to current environmental degradation
and resource stress.
In recent times due to rise in income levels people are
increasingly turning towards high energy food sources like animal sources
especially meat. While it took a century for Europe to reach a stage where
every meal has meat a similar change could be witnessed in majority of Asian
countries within a generation. People are now switching to meat based meal.
Obtaining proteins from meat is far more resource intensive than from plants as
they use more cropland, water and energy. Their transportation to slaughter
houses and processing of the meat are high energy intensive processes. Hence
consumption of meat depletes more natural resources and consequently puts great
pressure on food production systems, damages ecosystem and triggers climate
change. Meat production is 10 times more water intensive than plant- calories.
It is estimated that 15,415 litres of water is need to produce a kilogram of beef.
In other words nearly 30 plant calories are needed to produce one calorie of
meat.
Due to sharp increase in the global population there is a
growing demand for food grains. Currently 36% of the calories produced by World
crops are utilised as animal feed and only 12% of calories contribute to human
diet. The population of the livestock is 14 billion as compared to human
population of 7.2 billion and their environmental foot print is much higher.
Livestock accounts for 14.5% of the Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions. Live stock
production consumes three times more water resources than agriculture
accounting for 71% of World water consumption. Livestock production occupies
about 30% of Earth’s land surface. Moreover, extensive rearing of livestock
over a period of time resulted in the biodiversity loss and extinction of other
wild animals.
Incidence of various diseases like
diabetes, heart attacks, strokes etc increased with regular consumption of
meat. Obesity has become a chronic problem in all meat eating nations. On an
average while the consumption of meat in India is 3.2 kilograms it is 125.4
kilograms in US, the second largest meat consuming nation after Luxembourg.
Worryingly the demand for meat is projected to increase by 50 % by 2025 with
Asian countries accounting for a large part of it.
Higher demand for meat will be
catastrophic for environment. To meet the increasing demand meat suppliers
would resort to feeding the livestock with food grains rather than grass. This
in turn would put great pressure on the food grains, natural resources and
environment. Livestock are injected with hormones to trigger growth and as a
prophylactic measure fed with antibiotics to curtail spread of diseases. In
fact most of the deadly diseases of recent origin infecting humans are mostly
Zoonotic (originated from animals). The disposal of livestock wastes largely
results in contamination of water and oil with antibiotic residues and other
high metal elements.
While the burden of changing to
animal based diet on environment and health is extensively studied and
documented, the message has failed to reach the intended subjects. With the
World glaring at the imminent natural resources crunch, increasing global
temperatures, burgeoning population and increasing demand for food grains and
ever increasing health complications- it is high time that people change their
dietary habits.
It is advisable to rely more on plant
based diets for their calorific needs to reduce pressure on natural resources
and environment. To this end, government and civil society should take the
responsibility of spreading this message of promoting healthier plant based
diet.
Interestingly, a recent research
indicated that if crops are not diverted towards animal feeds and for bio fuel
production an extra four billion people can be fed. Meat consumption actually
releases more GHG’s than the cars annually. According to FAO report, beef
production on average needs 28 times more land, 11 times more water than all
other livestock categories and produces five times more GHG and six times more
reactive nitrogen. While it is difficult for people to become vegetarian
completely, they can choose other meat alternatives like chicken or sea food
which is less resource- intensive.
Thus adopting a healthy plant based
diet with minimal meat consumption would not only help in conservation of
resources and minimising global warming but also helps in stemming the
incidence of various life style diseases. If emission of green house gases can
be minimised extreme climate changes can be averted and global health too can
be conserved. Switch to a balanced diet to save our planet.
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