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Food, timber, and climate change

October 1, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The sights of coffee plantations in California and vineyards in Britain are becoming more common as the climate changes. But behind what sounds like a success story is a sobering one: climate change is shifting the regions suitable for growing food all around the world.

According to a new study by researchers from the University of Cambridge, as crop growing shifts northwards, a squeeze will be put on the land needed to produce timber. The timber these trees produce is used to make everything from paper and cardboard to furniture and buildings.

According to the study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change, more than 25% of existing forestry land – an area equivalent in size to India – will become more suitable for agriculture by the end of the century if climate change continues unabated. Approximately 90% of this current forestry land is located in Canada, China, Russia, and the United States.

Global timber production is worth more than $1.5 trillion every year. Recent heat waves and wildfires have caused huge losses of timber forests around the world.

According to the World Bank, the value of the global food system is estimated to be roughly $8 trillion annually. Scientists expect climate change to cause some areas to become too hot for growing food, particularly in the tropics and southern Europe.

With the global demand for food and the global demand for wood both projected to double by 2050, the increasing climate change-driven competition between the two is set to be an emerging issue in the coming decades.

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Global timber supply threatened as climate change pushes cropland northwards

Do the costs of the global food system outweigh its monetary value?

Photo, posted October 24, 2018, courtesy of Bill Smith via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Plastic Recycling Isn’t Working | Earth Wise

June 13, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A recent report from several environmental organizations shows that plastic recycling rates in the U.S. have actually declined in the last several years from about 8.7% of discarded plastic to less than 6%. Meanwhile, since 1980, per capita plastic waste generation has increased 263%, totaling 218 pounds of plastic waste per person as of 2018.

Diminishing recycling rates don’t necessarily indicate a lack of interest by the public. Plastic recycling is a complicated process. There are multiple types of plastic that can’t be intermingled and there are no simple and sustainable ways to recycle many forms of plastic. On top of that, the declining recycling rate also reflects the fact that we no longer can export our plastic waste to countries like China and Turkey, which have banned U.S. waste imports.

Recycling in general is a successful practice. Paper recycling rates are around 66% as of 2020. Cardboard recycling was at 88.8% in 2020, and metal recycling rates range from 27% to 76%, depending on the type of metal. Glass recycling rates are a little over 30%. Only plastic recycling has never reached 10%, even before shipping our waste overseas and declaring it to be recycled was going on.

According to environmental organizations focused on the global plastic problem, there is no circular economy of plastics. Perhaps if truly biodegradable plastics became practical, economical, and widely utilized, the situation would be different. As things stand, the only solution is to reduce the production, use, and disposal of plastics.

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Plastics Recycling ‘Does Not Work,’ Environmentalists Stress as U.S. Recycling Rates Drop to 5%

Photo, posted May 13, 2021, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plant-Based Bottles | Earth Wise

June 30, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Single-use plastic soda and water bottles are a real problem. Every year, billions of them are produced – comprising nearly 300 million tons of plastic that mostly ends up in landfills or in the ocean. This discarded plastic ends up on remote islands, in the snow atop mountains, and in trenches in the deepest parts of ocean.

There has been increasing pressure on beverage companies to put an end to this environmental disaster, but the convenience and economy of disposable bottles is just too attractive.

These bottles are made of plastic derived from oil and once they are produced, they take decades or even centuries to decompose. Recycling them is a not-starter because it is cheaper to just make new ones.

A possible solution has emerged. A Dutch company called Avantium has found a way to take plant sugars and transform them into a plastic capable of standing up to carbonated beverages like soda and beer but that will also break down in as little as a year in a composter or 3 years if left exposed to the elements.

Coca Cola and Carlsberg are working with Avantium to develop new drink packaging based on their material that could be in stores as soon as 2023. The new packaging would be quite different from what we use today. Instead of a clear or tinted bottle, beverages would come inside a cardboard container with a liner made of plant-based plastic.

It may take a while for people to get used to the change, but we have already managed to get used to milk, juice and other liquids coming in cardboard containers instead of glass or plastic bottles. The benefits to the planet would make the effort well worthwhile.

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Plant-Based Bottles Could Degrade In One Year

Photo courtesy of Avantium.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Packaging From The Sea

August 19, 2016 By WAMC WEB

Waste due to excess packaging of the products we buy is a real problem. It is one that most of us are conscious of and more and more businesses are making efforts toward eco-friendly packaging. There is increased use of cardboard, which is recyclable. Most of us try to reduce our waste through recycling. But as we buy more things online and have a growing variety of things delivered to our homes, it is a struggle to receive the things we order in good condition and not end up with piles of packaging materials.