19. Why you should worry about what we feed animals and thoughts on ocean as a source of solutions to climate change
Antibiotics. If you live in a country with average income of $8 per day or more (what many would refer to as a “developed” country), you probably never had to think too much about antimicrobials. They are available and powerful medications to help fight off bacterial infections, keep animals safe and even protect some plants. But are they really? It’s because of approaches like this that antibiotic use had become so widespread over the past 50 years that many (if not most) doctors prescribe them for even mild infections and pretty much all farmed animals destined for food production are fed with such medications — especially because they are often crammed in spaces way too small for comfort, where diseases could decimate their populations in no time. Bacteria are not stagnant though, and they are evolving to become resistant against the commonly used antibiotics. To make matters worse, new antibiotic development is not moving nearly at the speed of bacterial evolution, risking an unprecedented disaster in the shape of pandemics and global food chain collapse.
Global trends in antimicrobial resistance in animals in low- and middle-income countries — medium difficulty read. Van Boeckel et al. describe how the global increase in demand for animal-based protein drives high-scale animal farming methods, which are only possible due to widespread adoption of antibiotics fed to all the livestock. The main item of research was an analysis of emerging hotspots of antibiotic resistance around the world, and the findings are rather worrisome. Between 2000 and 2018, the proportion of bactericidal medicines with resistance above 50% increased more than 2x for chickens (to 0.41) and pigs (to 0.34.) The authors describe potential prevention methods as well as consequences of inaction, including how widespread antimicrobial resistance in animals could cascade through dying animals to ruined farmers’ livelihoods and destroyed sources for people depending on animal protein. Common pathogens, like E. Coli or Salmonella already show increased resistance for a broad spectrum of antibiotics (which I hope to describe with actual examples soon), and while the focus of the article is on low- and middle-income countries, these problems have potential to affect everyone around the globe. Unless significant actions are taken, including changes in policy, animal farming and, perhaps, customer habits, we are facing a crisis with an unprecedented impact, when both humans and animals can be killed by the same pathogens against which we have no good weapons. Antimicrobial resistance is one of the threats showing the need to practice one health approach — healthy environment, healthy animals and healthy people are all needed for sustainable wellbeing of our kind. The article is unfortunately paywalled, though a full text is available on ResearchGate.
A different looming threat to humanity, although one given much more attention (though, unfortunately, comparably inadequate level of engagement so far) is global warming. Increasing mean temperatures around the planet, fueled by high greenhouse gas emissions, are already impacting lives worldwide. One common victims often mentioned in debates about the effects of climate change are oceans, with destroyed habitats for plenty of sealife, changing PH and lowered ability to absorb CO2. However, oceans can also be powerful sources of solutions that can be utilized to meet the necessary improvements specified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The High Level Panel for Sustainable Ocean Economy, comprised of leaders of 14 countries and the UN, produced a report outlining ocean-based climate actions that could be implemented starting today and bring significant impact in the fight against global warming.
The ocean is key to achieving climate and societal goals — medium-easy read. Hoegh-Guldberg et al. provide a distilled summary of science-based approaches to utilizing the oceans power to dramatically slow down global warming, based on the HLP report mentioned above. There are 5 areas in which the authors look for improvements: renewables, shipping and transportation, shifting diets, seabed carbon storage and protection and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems. The specific goals vary, from increasing sea-based power sources (like tidal power plants), through policies reducing emissions of new ships, to promoting “low-carbon seafoods”, to investments in technologies for pumping and storing CO2 under the sea floor. They are all very ambitious, and not always as precise as one may wish, but they do provide a good overview of what is being though of. What is more, certain actions provide synergistic benefits across multiple areas: for example introducing strictly protected coastal zones could benefit the fauna and flora, improve neighboring fisheries as well as provide opportunities for seabed storage. Yet, I have to admit the arguments do not strike me as researched well enough to make some of the bold claims in the text. For example “low-carbon sea protein sources” are still much more costly than plant-based alternatives, and since they also require cultural shifts in pushing people to change their diets, the investment seems shortsighted and counterintuitive. I could not, unfortunately, find the references on these claims, but I would be interested in seeing the sponsors for such research. Similarly tidal power plants can only be efficient in certain areas where the water-level change is significant enough to capture significant amounts of energy. While certainly valuable, I would have to see more studies behind mentioned proposals to get fully onboard with these suggestions. Nevertheless, this policy forum (as well as the report itself) are definitely worth reading to gain perspective and some understanding of the current state of science with regards to using oceans in meeting climate goals.
