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Farming the frozen north

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Agriculture is the primary cause of land-based biodiversity loss.  As the global population grows, agricultural production needs to keep pace.  Estimates are that production needs to double by 2050.  How this can be accomplished without doing further harm to the environment and biodiversity is extremely challenging.

Climate change adds further complications to the challenge.  As the climate warms in the middle latitudes, agricultural zones may need to shift northward to regions which have evolved to have more suitable climates.  This represents a very real threat to the wilderness areas of Canada, Russia, and Scandinavia.  These places represent a significant fraction of the world’s wilderness areas outside of Antarctica.

According to researchers at the University of Exeter in the UK, if the forces driving climate change are not diminished, over the next 40 years warming temperatures are expected to make more than 1 million square miles newly suitable for growing crops.  As cropland goes barren in areas that have warmed too much, northern wilderness could be turned over to farming.  The vital integrity of these valuable areas could be irreversibly lost.

The study, published in the journal Current Biology, also says that climate change will shrink the variety of crops that can be grown on 72% of the land that is currently farmed worldwide.  Given this situation along with the rising global population, it is essential that land be used more efficiently.  We can feed a larger population from the farmland we already have, but people need to reduce meat consumption, cut food waste, and grow crops suited to their local climate.

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Warming Could Make Northern Wilderness Ripe for Farming, Study Finds

Photo, posted September 7, 2016, courtesy of Scott via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Onshore Algae Farms | Earth Wise

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According to some estimates, food production will need to increase by 50% by 2050 in order to feed a projected global population of 10 billion people.  How can this be achieved?  

One solution, according to researchers at Cornell University, could be to grow nutritious and protein-dense microalgae in seawater-fed onshore aquaculture systems.

According to the research, which was recently published in the journal Oceanography, growing algae onshore could close a projected gap in society’s future nutritional demands while also improving environmental sustainability.  

Climate change, environmental degradation, limited arable land, and lack of freshwater will all constrain the amount of food that can be grown in the coming decades.  Wild fish stocks are already heavily exploited, and there are limits to how much finfish, shellfish, and seaweed aquaculture can be produced in the coastal ocean. 

As a result, the researchers argue for expanding algae production in onshore aquaculture facilities.  The research team’s models found that the best locations for onshore algae farming facilities are along the coasts of the Global South, including desert environments. 

Algae can grow as much as ten times faster than traditional crops.  Algae can also be produced in a manner that is more efficient than agriculture in its use of nutrients.  In addition to its high protein content, algae also provides nutrients lacking in vegetarian diets, such as essential amino acids, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Algae could become the breadbasket of the Global South.

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Onshore algae farms could feed the world sustainably

Photo, posted June 17, 2011, courtesy of NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Unhealthy Air | Earth Wise

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According to the World Health Organization, almost the entire global population – 99% in fact – breathes air that exceeds WHO air quality limits and threatens their health.

Air quality is of great concern everywhere.  Over 6,000 cities in 117 countries monitor air quality, but the people living in those cities are still breathing unhealthy levels of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. The WHO is citing these findings as a compelling reason to curb fossil fuel use and to take other steps to reduce air pollution levels. 

There is growing number of studies of the damage air pollution does to the human body.  Even low levels of many air pollutants can cause significant harm.  Particulate matter – especially so-called PM2.5 – is capable of penetrating deep into the lungs and entering the bloodstream, contributing to cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory problems. 

Nitrogen dioxide is associated with respiratory diseases – especially asthma – and leads to respiratory symptoms, hospital admissions, and visits to emergency rooms.

The WHO is calling to governments around the world to take additional steps to improve air quality including adopting stricter air quality standards, supporting the transition to clean household energy sources, implementing stricter vehicle emission standards, reducing the use of incineration, and many other actions.

According to the WHO, cities in high-income countries fare better in terms of air quality, but very few places avoid unhealthy air entirely.   Seven million deaths a year are linked to unhealthy air quality.  It is a global crisis that cannot be ignored.

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Billions of people still breathe unhealthy air: new WHO data

Photo, posted December 1, 2021, courtesy of Ron Reiring via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Conseguir un medicamento en las farmacias extranjeras no puede ser más difícil que la compra nocturna de alimentos. Si no se requiere una receta en línea para la compra de medicamentos, se puede comprar libremente, incluso no sólo en las farmacias, sino también en los supermercados, dijo un abogado y director general del grupo de consultoría vvCube Vadim Tkachenko.

Poverty And Climate Change

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According to the World Health Organization, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 extra deaths per year between 2030 and 2050.  But climate change does not affect everyone the same.  In fact, the poorest people on the planet, who are often the least to blame for climate change, typically bear the worst of the impact.

Wealthier people and countries have more resources to shield themselves from the impacts of climate change.  For example, higher incomes allow people to purchase air conditioning as temperatures rise,  food as food prices soar, and homes in safer places.  Wealthy nations can also compensate citizens when climate change harms livelihoods. 

According to new research, people with lower incomes are exposed to heat waves for longer periods of time compared to those with higher incomes due to a combination of factors including location and access to heat adaptations like air conditioning.  This inequality is expected to increase as temperatures rise. 

The study, which was published in the AGU journal Earth’s Future, found that lower income populations face a 40% higher exposure to heat waves than people with higher incomes.  By the end of the century, the poorest 25% of the global population will be exposed to heat waves at a rate equivalent to the rest of the population combined.

On the other hand, the highest-income quarter of the population will experience comparatively little change in exposure to heat waves as their ability to keep up with climate change is generally greater.

The research team hopes its findings will prompt innovations into affordable cooling solutions for the world’s most vulnerable population. 

Climate change and poverty are, and will remain, inextricably linked. 

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Poorest people bear growing burden of heat waves as temperatures rise

Photo, posted October 27, 2019, courtesy of Jack via Flickr.

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COVID-19 And The Wildlife Trade | Earth Wise

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Historically, many diseases have jumped from animals to people with serious consequences for the human host.  In fact, coronaviruses alone have caused outbreaks in humans three times in the past 20 years:  SARS, MERS, and COVID-19.  The majority of human pathogens that caused substantial damage to human health and economies during the past three decades have originated from wildlife or livestock.

According to a team of researchers from the University of Göttingen and other international institutions, more epidemics from animal hosts are inevitable unless urgent action is taken.  In order to help  protect against future pandemics, which could be even more severe than the current one, the researchers published a series of suggestions for governments to consider in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

The research team calls for governments around the world to establish effective legislation to do three things:  address the wildlife trade, protect habitats, and reduce the interaction between people, wildlife, and livestock. 

The wildlife trade and habitat fragmentation both facilitate disease outbreaks by increasing the potential for contact between humans and animals. Animals in wildlife markets are often kept in crowded and unsanitary conditions, which creates fertile breeding grounds for pathogens to jump to humans. Animals and humans are also forced closer together when natural habitats are cleared or otherwise fragmented in order to meet the various needs of a growing global population.  

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, China, Vietnam, and South Korea have introduced regulations to better manage the wildlife trade as well as support wildlife conservation.  According to the researchers, these actions serve as examples for other countries to consider.  The status quo isn’t good enough. 

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COVID-19 highlights risks of wildlife trade

Photo, posted August 23, 2010, courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region via Flickr. Photo credit: Rosie Walunas/USFWS.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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