"Τρώτε
περισσότερα φυτά για καλύτερη υγεία & για ανάταση του κλίματος της
Γης"
Ερευνητές στην
Μ. Βρετανία εξέδωσαν πόνημα ερευνητικό που καταδεικνύει αναμφίβολα το γεγονός
οτι το να ενστερνιστεί οιοσδήποτε ενα φυτοφαγικό τρόπο ζωής δεν ωφελεί άμεσα
τον εαυτό του και τους γύρω του αλλά και το οικοσύστημα στο οποίο είμαστε
πάροικοι, παρεπίδημοι και ξένοι..
Η έρευνα
δείχνει ότι οι εκπομπές διοξειδίου άνθρακα μπορούν να ελαττωθούν έως και 40% !
Οι ρύποι
παγκοσμίως πρόκειται να φτάσουν έως το 2050 από τους 2.20 γιγατόνους σε 4.10
γιγατόνους και αυτό λέει αρκετά για το πόσο σοφοί οφείλουμε να γίνουμε σε
μάλλον μικρότερο χρονικό διάστημα από όσο μας αρμόζει πλέον..
Η έρευνα
τίθεται παρακάτω στα Αγγλικά δημοσιευμένη στο Scientific American
Με εκτίμηση,
Δρ.Μουρουτης
Κων/νος
Eat More Plants to Improve Health, Combat Climate Change
U.K. researchers find changed diets could
substantially cut greenhouse gas pollution and benefit health
By Brittany Patterson and ClimateWire | May 8,
2015
A large body of research has found switching to
an
entirely vegetarian diet would make a huge
difference on the carbon footprint
of our food system.
Cut back on the beef, dairy, sweets and savory
snacks, but feel free to munch away on more fruits, vegetables and cereals, if
you’d like a more climate-friendly and healthy diet, according to recent
research conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The changes—which the authors note are ultimately
“relatively minor” and “realistic”—could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40
percent. It should be noted the studies were focused in the United Kingdom.
It may seem straightforward, but James Milner, a
lecturer in the department of social and environmental health research at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and one of the co-authors of the
research, said the goal of this work was not to ask “what if” questions related
to changes in diets and how that could affect emissions, but instead map
current consumer behavior to determine where changes could be made that
wouldn’t be radically different.
For example, a large body of research has found
switching to an entirely vegetarian diet would make a huge difference on the
carbon footprint of our food system—the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food
Security research program reports that if the global population were to reduce
or cut its meat intake, it would halve the cost of mitigation actions needed to
stabilize carbon dioxide levels to 450 parts per million by midcentury—but for
many people that is not in the cards.
“This is interesting but in reality most people
somewhere like the U.K. simply don’t want to become vegetarian,” Milner said in
an email.
Even if the average U.K. citizen were to fall in
line with dietary guidelines set forth by the World Health Organization (which
most do not), the study estimates there would be a 17 percent reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions.
For those not concerned about the parts per
million of CO2 produced by the food they buy, a second paper using the same
data calculated the health impacts of altering diets and concluded a switch to
WHO guidelines would save almost 7 million years of lives lost prematurely in
the United Kingdom over the next three decades.
On an individual level, the average life
expectancy would increase about 12 months for men and four months for women.
“We wanted to model the health impacts because
this would help us to understand the trade-offs between benefits for public
health, benefits for the environment, and the likely public acceptability of
the modeled diets as we progressively reduced the emissions,” Milner said.
The researchers collected data from 1,571 food
diaries completed by adults for four days in the United Kingdom to model the
average diet and tweak it to still be appetizing but reduce emissions. On the
health side, researchers modeled the outcomes from dietary changes on stroke,
type 2 diabetes, heart disease, diet-related cancers and life expectancy.
Milner said the most surprising part of the
research was how substantial the benefits to both health and emissions could
be, without making radical changes to diets.
Healthier diets cut developed country CO2
emissions
While eating more fruits, vegetables and cereal
is the main takeaway, the researchers did find some fruits and vegetables were
more emissions-friendly than others. For example, tomatoes are fairly
emissions-intensive, the study notes.
“One thing which was interesting was that to
achieve really large GHG emission reductions, it’s better to make up your total
fruit and vegetable consumption with a greater proportion of vegetables,”
Milner said, but added that’s because most vegetables tend to be associated
with lower emissions. “We also found a health benefit associated with this.
However, it’s important to note that this results is only based on
averages—there is a lot of variation within each group [fruits and vegetables].
I certainly wouldn’t want to suggest that people shouldn’t eat fruit!”
Another significant opportunity to effect change
on food-system-related greenhouse gas emissions is to decrease food waste.
More than 30 percent of all food-related
emissions in the United States are from uneaten food and spoiled food being
tossed out, said Gregory Keoleian, director of the Center for Sustainable
Systems at the University of Michigan.
see also:
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Mind & Brain: Too Much Praise PromotesNarcissism |
Technology: Inventions: 70 Years That Changed theWorld, 1845–1915 |
More Science: June 2015 Book Reviews Roundup
In a study released last year in the Journal of
Industrial Ecology, Keoleian and his colleague Martin Heller quantified the
emissions of the American diet. They found the current American diet produces
about 5 kilograms of CO2 per day, and 28 percent of that is due to wasted food.
“For food waste, it’s about our consumer
behavior,” Keoleian said. “Don’t order more than you eat, prepare meals at home
according to what your needs are, when you’re shopping don’t overbuy.”
Americans also eat too many calories, and if they
are reduced, the emissions burden of our diets decreases, as well.
Keoleian and Heller found if Americans shifted to
following the Agriculture Department’s dietary guidelines, they would consume
less meat—good for emissions—but would drink more milk than they do
currently—bad for emissions.
“Those kind of offset each other,” he added. The
authors did find switching to a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet would result in a 33
percent decrease in emissions. Vegan diets are 53 percent more efficient.
‘Westernized’ diets in poor countries raise CO2
emissions
Also important to the food emissions sphere is
the growing trend of “westernizing” diets in low- and middle-income countries.
As incomes rise, people are spending more money on adding animal protein,
sugars and processed foods into their diets, which are emissions-intensive.
A study released last November in the journal
Nature estimated there will be an 80 percent increase in annual emissions
globally just related to this shift in food production.
By 2050, the rise in disposable income will
increase emissions from 2.27 gigatons today to 4.10 gigatons globally.
With climate change, food security and
sustainability for a growing population is one of the most critical challenges
facing the planet, Keoleian said, and an area where changes to the food system
can have quantifiable emissions impacts.
“We need to be more efficient in how we
manufacture products and grow food,” he said. “But consumers also have a role
in terms of their choices.”
One challenge to changing dietary choices is
finding effective ways to do it. Milner said it wasn’t a focus of the U.K.
research, but an important area.
He said there are many mechanisms through which
dietary changes can be garnered, like through public awareness campaigns, food
processing regulations, portion size changes and tax policy, but he hopes by
linking the health benefits to dietary changes, the public might take notice.
“Hopefully, research like ours demonstrates the
benefits of linking public health and sustainability agendas, rather than
considering each separately,” he said.
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from
Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
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