Planet Sensitivity: Engaging new keywords to portray this changing planet
There can be a multitude of reasons our planet is changing, and certain keywords help us look at it better
On the eve of global guidelines on climate change and a race towards achieving net-zero emissions, I wanted to take a closer look at the planet from our consumption patterns and overexploitation.
A change of keywords
Throughout our understanding of this planet and global warming and climate change, the keywords always were related to trees, reforestation, plantation. The attention was on flora and much less on fauna. But what the present keywords are as of now are ecosystem, interconnectedness, species. As if we have gone one step further in our realization that species and the ecosystem they are in, as a whole, matter a lot to tackle climate change. Nature documentaries are now recording this amazing change in their outlook of how we look at our planet.
Do superfoods deserve all the hype they claim
We now seem to have a better awareness of our diet pattern and consumption and what goes in and what stays out of it. Or the recent focus on health especially, as we have catapulted the entire humanity into a global pandemic. Anything that relates to good health is kind of over-marketed, and we have fallen prey to that.
The attention was on flora, and much less on fauna
Superfood and their increasing sales have proven this fact. Inclusion of seeds, quinoa, exotic berries and their utilization throughout the year have kind of put a stress particularly on their indigenous cultivation and the rising demands seem to have pressured the lands they are cultivated in.
We don’t think of anything seasonally, we want them to be available throughout the year. Basically what was or could have been present in our diets as micronutrients are purchased and consumed and thanks to their well-advertised facts, we kind of have created this artificial demand that if it goes out like fast fashion could produce lots of barren lands that can or cannot be reused in the near future.
Over farming of any kind is depleting the ecosystems and it is not often easy to restore them
What happens is while going for large-scale production we don’t just give pressure on the land and its people but also the wildlife associated with the area. They often get driven out or their numbers decrease. Similar to what’s happening with the fishing industry right now. Because there is such a huge demand for fishes while procuring exotic fish meats, a lot of other marine animals are getting killed (read: bycatch) because we are also competing with their food source. Over-farming of any kind is depleting the ecosystems, and it is not often easy to restore them.
Can depleted ecosystems be rebuilt?
Read at https://www.bonnchallenge.org/ which is trying to bring back depleted landscapes into restoration. They have already replanted over 200 million hectares and are trying to aim for somewhere near half a billion. But again factors like a potential biochemical release from trees or how much are these newly planted ones effective as against the ones getting destroyed matter.
This is where the ecosystems that are linked to these small areas come into the equation. Similar to these are coral reefs that host a variety of different species of fishes, getting destroyed by global bleaching events due to a rise in the water temperatures by 1–2 °C.
Every species has some part to play in the well-being of a demographical region. Humans as well, so when small intermediate species get less(in number) what happens is their prey species overpopulate, and finally get wiped out, because of no food. And before they do get extinct there is a significant amount of time when their overpopulation harms the direct environment.
Marine plant cover absorbs nearly a quarter of CO2 generated by humans and fossil fuels, and marine animals are linked to keeping levels of blue carbon low. Their eventual decrease can alternately affect the carbon levels that we are trying to mitigate.
We are at a time when climate change is outrunning evolution. So we must understand the level of impact our activities directly have on the planet. There are a lot of talks going on about how we can make greener investments, towards greener economies. How attaining small goals towards low carbon can be possible in obtaining net-zero emissions in the near future. This inter-disciplinary approach towards understanding climate change through trial and error needs to be looked upon.
If I had to take something from Seaspiracy, it was this: eliminating fish from our diets is not a solution and should not even be in our options because looking at a problem disguised as a solution never really helped us solve any problems.
