The Switch up

     When it comes to growing and changing things about yourself willingly sets you off on an adventure for you to figure things out for yourself. Diet appears to be out of the very things that we throughout our lives seem to shift for one reason or another. With so many different diets out there, it can be confusing to see which one can best fit you. What is not confusing is the way we are going along with the way we feed ourselves is not good for the planet and maybe a switch-up is in order. While reducing food waste and recycling can help mitigate damage, our food system as a whole creates greenhouse emissions that also contribute to global warming. Since the USA backed out of the Paris Act and our future is uncertain it may be up to us real people to do something about this issue ourselves with Diet switching. The switch can help ease the pressures of having a "normal" diet in the environment (30% Growth in global milk production from 2005 to 2015). The Key is not to switch up all at once, taking steps seems to be the best way to convert to a more sustainable feeding lifestyle. My first step, MILK

     People can choose milk alternatives for reasons such as allergy, intolerance, vegan diet, and personal preference which are good enough reasons for anyone. How about the reason that the Dairy and meat industry with its industrial-scale operations housing thousands of cattle, the dairy industry is responsible for different types of environmental pollution, including significant emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change(and the high levels of methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide emissions it generates). Me knowing this is going on, I might have to step up in my own dietary way to make a change. Just look at how we must take care of the whole cow, 144 GALLONS of Water are used to produce 1 gallon of milk in the US. More than 93% of that water is used to grow feed for dairy cattle.

    The growing demand for dairy and dairy products alike is yet another reason that we might need to convert to find other alternative options to replace some of our most used dairy options with a more sustainable option before Global warming and what ever comes after that for us. I'll check some of them out, gotta start somewhere with this switch

Biodiversity vs Climate Change

In 2022 the United Nations adopted the Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). The goal of Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is to “set an ambitious path to a world living in harmony with nature by 2050” but this strategy could also help reduce global temperatures from rising. By protecting the environment, we are also protecting our livelihood as a species. But if there are more areas that are unprotected from environmental harm than protected areas, unpredictable threats will continue to arise. For a worldwide effort to work there needs to be a form of communication that everyone can connect to and use together. We can set all the plans and goals that we want but without large scale efforts from the CBD the world’s biodiversity will continue to be drastically threatened.

The main reason I think the KM-GBF will help combat global warming is the inclusion of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP). This is very important to the world’s ecology because the only way to improve the world’s biodiversity is through a worldwide effort. Provided in the recommendations from the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Indicators on the KMGBF framework is a networking system called GBiOS. The United Nation’s Convention on Biological Diversity recognizes the need for a coordinated system of connection to monitor any global biodiversity progress. Described in the KMGBF; “A GBiOS is conceived as an international network supporting coordination and cooperation among national biodiversity observation networks.” (pg. 8 CBD, 2024). This system will help countries to share science -based data with other countries and create reliable data for future research.

The Kunming-Montreal framework and coordinated monitoring programs will be used to collect data and observations worldwide. One of intentions of the KMGBF is to conserve 30% of the world’s lands, waters, and seas by the year 2030. To achieve harmony with nature there must be a global effort in holding ourselves accountable and assisting other parties whenever possible. From 2011–2020 the previous biodiversity plans known as the Aichi Target did not meet the financial or communicative efforts that were established in the old plan. And unfortunately, at the last COP meeting of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, Colombia in November 2024, only 44 out of 196 signatory parties created new biodiversity plans. We cannot expect global warming to get any better if there is not a global effort to reduce the threat.