Can you cut 1 Tonne of carbon pollution out of your life?
Take the challengePeople often forget the connection between the products they consume and the environment that created it.
Dangerous climate change affects everything within our environment and in our daily lives, a lot more than many people realise.
You might need to sit down before I tell you this next part… because this also includes five of our favourite foods.
1. Fish
The ocean gives us life, providing around 50% – 70% percent of our oxygen. But our oceans are in trouble… overfishing, climate change, plastic waste and other human pressures are changing the inner workings of the “blue heart of our planet," to quote Dr. Sylvia Earle.
However, there are many things you can do to improve the state of our oceans through making more sustainable choices.
Sustainable seafood choices, for example, is a huge area where we can all make more conscious decisions. Find out more about there here: Make Safe and Sustainable Seafood Choices
2. Chocolate
A study from 2011 funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation found that even a relatively small rise in temperature could seriously impact cocoa crops. This would effect supply and the price of chocolate would rise but it would also put smaller cocoa producers in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, who make up about half of the world's chocolate supply, out of business (many of these small producers are fair trade certified too).
3. Peanuts
It doesn't matter whether you like peanut butter crunchy or smooth, it's all under threat from climate change. Peanut crops like specific rain patterns so as droughts and flash floods become more normal peanuts are at risk . Last year a drought effecting peanut farms in the US caused peanut butter prices to spike.
4. Coffee
Are you one of the millions who wake up every morning and start your day by drinking a cup of coffee? Whether you make it at home, or buy it at a coffee shop (in a re-usable coffee mug of course), peoples daily brew might be greatly effected by climate change in the near future. An increase in warming-induced rain events has already cut crop yields—for instance, production in India declined by 30 percent between 2002 and 2011. For more information on this topic read: Daily brew: The impact of climate change on coffee
5. Wine
Wine country may be moving north or closing up shop altogether. Recent studies predict wine production will fall by two thirds in the world's premier wine regions because of climate change, by 2050.
The UK Guardian explains,
"The study forecasts sharp declines in wine production from Bordeaux and Rhone regions in France, Tuscany in Italy and Napa Valley in California and Chile by 2050, as a warming climate makes it harder to grow grapes in traditional wine country."
"The future was also bleak for wine growing areas of Australia, with a 74% drop in production by 2050."
Take action
There is no single solution to climate change, but everybody can take action in their daily lives to start reducing the effects of human induced climate change. Be part of our movement.
