More Heat, Less Eat - Why Nutrition Suffers Due to Climate Change
By Georgia Cavanagh
August 2020
The implications of climate change on nutrition are often neglected in western discussions of our environmental future, and concerns about food challenges continue to focus on so-called ‘developing’ countries. However, it affects modern ‘advanced’ economies too. We should be worried. As environmental degradation escalates, it will become more and more challenging to find reliable sources of nutritious food, wherever you are in the world.
The Current Situation
Historically, mankind has struggled with nutritional diseases related to malnourishment and under-consumption. This remains the case for many nations and yet we are living in a new era of nutrition, in which more people are now dying from too many calories than too few. The excesses available in affluent nations have led to obesity becoming a pandemic, such that globally, 18% of children are overweight and nearly 7% of these are obese, whilst 40% of adults are overweight and 13% obese. The negative impacts of nutritional deficiencies can be lifelong and even fatal, increasing the risk of organ failures and of contracting a range of other diseases.
Food itself is a huge contributor to climate change, accounting for around 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. As climate change worsens, our ability to access necessary macro and micronutrients will decline, exacerbating issues of both under and overnutrition. Higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere substantially reduce nutrients such as protein, Vitamin A and folate, which are vital for healthy bodies and are already in limited supply for hundreds of millions of people.
More greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will lead to higher sea temperatures, resulting in ocean acidification and the migration of fish populations to the poles. People living in coastal areas all over the world will be directly impacted as they may struggle to replace their primary sources of protein or even their livelihoods as a result, whilst those who are reliant on imports will also be impacted. Those living along the equator, who are already the least food-secure people on earth, will have even less access to seafood. If temperatures get too hot, crop yields will quickly drop off, and heat will lead to more ground level ozone production, impairing the plant growth which is necessary to provide for an ever-increasing global population.
Climate change also means higher sea levels, more droughts and flooding, and changes to precipitation patterns. These will also have fundamental and dramatic impacts on food production. Higher sea levels also increase the likelihood of salinisation of coastal groundwater, which cannot be used for food growth. Demand for fresh groundwater only grows year on year. Humans are inherently adaptable, so of course people have already begun shifting their dietary choices depending on availability. However, in a world in which food production has been dominated by the most economic methods and which is responsive to customer demand from people living life in a hurry, the most available options in western nations are rarely, if ever, the most nutritious. For those reliant on more local food sources, options are even more limited, in terms of both supply and nutritional value.
No Quick-Fix
The western world has already come up with various solutions to nutritional issues, such as supplements, new fad diets, or the growth of the ‘wellness’ market in recent years. Nevertheless, the adoption of such solutions are restricted mainly to the middle classes in advanced economies, and offer only short-term solutions with potentially negative side-effects. Furthermore, mitigation is always preferable to recovery, and current western solutions cannot be applied comprehensively within its own nations, let alone address the global nutrition issue. Nutritionists now realise that attention to both micro and macronutrients is essential, and what is needed is a food production system that is designed with a range of populations in mind. Whilst nutritionists and global food production outlets work on fixing the issues within the current system, combating climate change is also key to reducing the potential impact of environmental destruction on global health and nutrition.
What Could I Do to Help?
Any action towards alleviating climate change will help to delay or even prevent future challenges. It is also important to pay attention to where your food comes from and buy as much as you can from local sources, if this is within your means. Knowing where your food comes from and buying items in consideration of their environmental impact (as well as their nutritional value) is a privilege, and one that should be exercised if you have the liberty to do so, not only for the environment, but for your own health.
© 2020 Climate Just Collective