• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Repsol Abandons Plan to Ship Canadian LNG to Europe March 17, 2023
Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska March 14, 2023
U.S. Solar Developers Scramble after Silicon Valley Bank Collapse March 14, 2023
$30.9B Price Tag Makes Trans Mountain Pipeline a ‘Catastrophic Boondoggle’ March 14, 2023
UN Buys Tanker, But Funding Gap Could Scuttle Plan to Salvage Oil from ‘Floating Time Bomb’ March 9, 2023
Next
Prev

Scientists, Doctors, Investors Unified on Need to Rethink Global Diet

February 6, 2019
Reading time: 3 minutes

ebruil/Flickr

ebruil/Flickr

43
SHARES
 

Scientists anxious about food insecurity, medical professionals concerned about rising rates of obesity, and investors frustrated by a fast food industry that remains careless of its emissions represent a growing chorus urging rapid and profound change to the global diet and food production systems.

In a study published last week, researchers from the University of Tasmania measured an alarming uptick in the frequency of climate change-induced threats to food production, reports InsideClimate News. The study authors “identified nearly 230 food production shocks, in 134 countries, from 1961 to 2013, and said the frequency of crop production shocks driven by extreme weather had been increasing steadily.”

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
Subscribe

Such incidents “threaten to destabilize the global food supply and drive up global hunger rates, which have started to tick up in recent years,” InsideClimate notes.

In their study’s abstract, the authors urge that “in a more shock-prone and interconnected world, bold food policy and social protection mechanisms that help people anticipate, cope with, and recover from losses will be central to sustainability.”

Medical professionals participating in two separate commissions recently convened by the UK medical journal The Lancet are on a similar wavelength.

“Made up of more than 40 experts from 14 countries,” writes ICN, the Lancet Commission on Obesity rapidly “reframed its mission to address the pandemics of obesity, malnutrition, and climate change—or what it called ‘the triple-burden challenges of The Global Syndemic’.”

“We decided we have to look at this with a systems approach,” said Vivica Kraak, a professor of food and nutrition policy at Virginia Tech who contributed to the commission’s recent report. “It’s not people’s fault. The environments they live in foster overconsumption and unsustainable choices.”

After determining that “malnutrition, obesity, and other diet-related conditions are the leading cause of poor health globally and that climate change will amplify them,” InsideClimate notes, the report’s authors are “arguing for an international treaty to address global diets and climate change, similar to a landmark 2005 global treaty that aimed to cut tobacco use.”

As with tobacco use in the past, their report observes, “powerful commercial interests” continue to drive unhealthy eating habits. The report draws clear parallels between the ongoing lack of political will to address climate change and the fact that “the enormous health and economic burdens caused by obesity are not seen as urgent enough to generate the public demand or political will to implement the recommendations of expert bodies for effective action.”

With that dangerous nexus of corporate greed, political cowardice, and climate change in mind, the Lancet’s other recent report on climate change and diet “called for a ‘comprehensive shift’ in global diets, including cutting meat consumption roughly in half, and for governments to factor sustainability into their dietary guidance,” ICN adds.

Another community calling for a “comprehensive shift” in how the world eats—in this case, how its (fast) food is produced—is a collection of 80 investor groups representing more than $6.5 trillion in assets that recently “called on six of the largest fast food companies, including McDonald’s and the corporate owners of KFC and Pizza Hut, to set targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from their meat and dairy supply chains,” writes reporter Georgina Gustin.

“Food production, globally, is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions, largely from meat and dairy production,” Gustin notes. Yet Ceres senior director Brooke Barton contends that this high-emitting sector has no low-carbon plan whatsoever.



in Ending Emissions, Environmental Justice, Food Security & Agriculture, Health & Safety, International, International Agencies & Studies, Supply Chains & Consumption

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

U.S. Bureau of Land Management/flickr
Oil & Gas

Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska

March 14, 2023
134
EcoAnalytics
Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion

Canadians Want Strong Emissions Cap Regulations, Not More Missed Targets

March 14, 2023
141
Behrat/Wikimedia Commons
Clean Electricity Grid

Hawaii Firm Turns Home Water Heaters into Grid Batteries

March 14, 2023
477

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr

U.S. Solar Developers Scramble after Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

March 14, 2023
488
Environmental Defence Canada/flickr

Repsol Abandons Plan to Ship Canadian LNG to Europe

March 18, 2023
257
NTSB

Ohio Train Derailment, Toxic Chemical Spill Renews Fears Over Canada-U.S. Rail Safety

March 8, 2023
1.4k
Joshua Doubek/Wikipedia

No New Jobs Came from Alberta’s $4B ‘Job Creation’ Tax Cut for Big Oil

October 6, 2022
855
Behrat/Wikimedia Commons

Hawaii Firm Turns Home Water Heaters into Grid Batteries

March 14, 2023
477
Rebecca Bollwitt/flickr

Fossils Stay ‘Oily’, Gibsons Sues Big Oil, U.S. Clean Energy Booms, EU Pushes Fossil Phaseout, and Fukushima Disaster was ‘No Accident’

March 14, 2023
218

Recent Posts

U.S. Bureau of Land Management/flickr

Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska

March 14, 2023
134
EcoAnalytics

Canadians Want Strong Emissions Cap Regulations, Not More Missed Targets

March 14, 2023
141
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board/flickr

$30.9B Price Tag Makes Trans Mountain Pipeline a ‘Catastrophic Boondoggle’

March 14, 2023
260
Raysonho/wikimedia commons

Purolator Pledges $1B to Electrify Last-Mile Delivery

March 14, 2023
91
United Nations

UN Buys Tanker, But Funding Gap Could Scuttle Plan to Salvage Oil from ‘Floating Time Bomb’

March 10, 2023
99
Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

Biden Cuts Fossil Subsidies, But Oil and Gas Still Lines Up for Billions

March 10, 2023
192
Next Post
http://www.offgridquest.com/extra/a-fully-transparent-solar-cell-that-coul

Edmonton Company’s New Technology Turns Windows Into Transparent Solar Panels

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}