Today marks the 51st anniversary of Earth Day, with this year’s theme being ‘Restore Our Earth’. This theme challenges us all to focus on natural processes, emerging green technologies and innovative thinking, in order to restore the world’s ecosystem. We have focused on five distinct issues that currently need to be seriously addressed in order to restore our earth and push us towards a better world.

Climate Change

The Arctic is crucial for many reasons. Not just because it is home to the polar bear, and four million people, but also because it helps keep our world’s climate in balance. The Arctic helps circulate the world’s oceans currents, moving gold and warm water around the globe. Arctic seas also bounce some of the sun’s rays back into space, helping regulate the Earth’s temperatures

Arctic wildlife has evolved over thousands of years to cope with polar environments – but conditions are changing faster than most can adapt to. The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as the global average, causing the ice that polar bears depend on to melt away. As the ice breaks up, the animals are forced to roam for longer distances or on shore, where they struggle to find food and feed their cubs. Loss of sea ice also threatens the bear’s main prey, seals, which need the ice to raise their young.

Scientists say some populations of polar bears have already reached their survival limits as the Arctic seas shrink. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has already listed polar bears as vulnerable to extinction, with climate change a major factor in their decline. Under a high greenhouse gas emission scenario, it is likely that all but a few polar bear populations will collapse by 2100.

Dr Andrew Derocher, a polar bear researcher at the University of Alberta has commented that polar bear populations can be very susceptible to drastic year-to-year changes in conditions. “One of the big conservation challenges is that one or two bad years can take a population that is healthy and push it not really low levels.”

Deforestation

The earth is covered in forests which hosts a wide and diverse community of plants and organisms. Forests cover 31% of the land area on our planet, and about 80% of the world’s biodiversity is housed in this forest ecosystem. But forests are disappearing at an alarming rate. Between 1990 and 2016, it as estimated by World Bank that the world lost 502,000 square miles (1.3 million square kilometres) of forest – an area larger than South Africa. Deforestation is one of the leading causes of climate change and species extinction.

According to a 2015 study in Nature journal, since humans started cutting down forests, 46% of trees have been felled. About 17% of the Amazonian rainforest have been destroyed over the past 50 years and losses continue to rise. Trees are critical to our ecosystem as they not only absorb carbon dioxide that we exhale, but also the heat trapping greenhouse gases that human activities emit.

Deforestation can lead to a direct loss of wildlife habitat as well as general degradation of their habitat. The removal of trees and other types of vegetation reduces available food, shelter and breeding habitat and creates limited habitat fragments. Animals may also encounter dangerous situations such as increased human-wildlife as their habitat continues to decrease in size. This may lead to a higher rate of predation and poaching, as well as the invasion of exotic plant and animal species into the remaining forest habitat.

The most affected group of animals are those that are endemic to a specific area or ecosystem, which is directly or closely linked with the forest – animals that have adapted only to that specific habitat. They are often found in remote and isolated areas, like on islands, or deep in the rainforest. These animals fill a single niche found in an ecosystem. Sometimes the niche is so specialised that through deforestation, the animals are unable to move or adapt to a new region, almost inevitably causing their extinction.

Below is a list of just some of the creatures that may soon be extinct due to massive deforestation: -

•  Mountain Gorilla: Critically endangered found primarily in the mountains of Rwanda in Central Africa. Only about 900 of this species remain today.

• The Javan Rhinoceros: Critically endangered and one of the rarest on earth. There are about 60 of these animals surviving in Ujung Kulon National Park in Java, Indonesia.

• The Bornean Orangutan: Illegal logging, a rampant palm oil industry and forest fires have taken a toll on this species, now on the critically endangered list of the IUCN.

• The Giant Panda: Ecological changes have accounted for plummeting numbers of this animal in the Sichuan province of China

• The Golden Lion Tamarin: This animal calls the Amazon forest home and has seen its habitat evaporate in the face of extensive farming and timber-felling, now on the IUCN’s critically endangered list.

Plastic Waste

The role plastic products play in the daily loves of people all over the world is indeterminable. Approximately 300 million tonnes of plastics are consumed each year. The short-lived use of millions of tonnes of plastic is unsustainable and dangerous. Half of all plastics ever manufactured have been made in the last 15 years, and productions are expected to continue increasing exponentially.

Each year, about 8 million tonnes of plastic waste escapes into the oceans from costal nations. Millions of animals are killed by plastics every year, from birds to fish to other marine organisms. Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to be affected by plastics. Nearly every species of seabird eats plastics.

Most animal deaths are caused by entanglement or starvation. Seals, whales, turtles and other animals are strangled by abandoned fishing gear or discarded six-pack rings. Microplastics have been found in more than 100 aquatic species, including fish, shrimp and mussels, all destined for our dinner plates. Stomachs so packed with plastics reduced the urge to eat, causing starvation. Tests have also confirmed liver and cell damage and disruptions to reproductive systems, prompting some species such as oysters, to produce fewer eggs.

Research has found that sea turtles that ingest just 14 pieces of plastic have an increased risk of death. 50-80% of all dead sea turtles have been found with plastic inside them. The young are especially at risk since they are not as selective as their elders about what they eat and tend to drift with the currents, just as plastic does.

54% of all whales, dolphins and seals are impacted by plastics. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that 100,000 marine mammals are killed by plastic each year. A 2019 study of marine mammals in the waters of the UK found that 100% of dead animals on their coast had ingested plastic.

Plastic waste kills up to a million seabirds a year. Many seabirds are found dead with their stomachs full of this waste. Scientists estimate that 60% of all seabird species have eaten pieces of plastic, a figure they predict will rise to 99% by 2050.

Waste also can encourage the growth of pathogens in the ocean. A recent study concluded that corals that come into contact with plastics have a 80% chance of contracting disease, compared with a 4% likelihood for corals that do not.

The solution is to prevent plastic waste from entering rivers and seas in the first place, through better and improved waste management systems and recycling, as well as better product design for disposable packaging.

 Cruelty Free Products

Traditionally, animals have been used in painful tests to demonstrate that cosmetics are safe to use. Cosmetic chemicals are forced down the throats of animals, dripped into their eyes or smeared onto their skin before they are killed and dissected.

Yet transferring the results of animal tests to humans has proven to be problematic and misleading in many cases. Instead, safety can be assured by using approved tests that do not use animals, and by sticking to the many combinations of existing ingredients that have already been established as safe for human use.

Nowadays and through increased awareness, more and more cosmetic brands are moving away from animal testing. Cruelty free companies make animal friendly shopping easier by displaying a Leaping Bunny or similar logo on their products.

Squalane is a purified, odorless and hydrogenated version of “squalene”, a lipid found naturally in many animals and plants, as well as human sebum. It is a moisturising ingredient which makes it a favoured ingredient in moisturising creams, foundations and other cosmetic products.

The main on-going use of animal squalene today is said to be down to financial reasons in that plant squalene, is 30% more expensive than that of the moisturising substance of the deep-sea shark liver – some of which are now in danger of extinction. Experts believe that despite various cosmetic companies investing in more sustainable alternatives, there are still issues with supply in that some specialised producers may be passing of shark squalene as the more expensive plant alternative.

90% of the world shark liver oil production feeds the needs of the cosmetic industry – which corresponds to approximately 3 million sharks caught every year. Unfortunately, the industry remains highly unregulated, and brands often have no legal obligation to let consumers know the source of their ingredient squalene. It is therefore up to consumers to thoroughly research the products we buy – if squalene or squalane is listed as an ingredient, look for the words ‘100% plant derived’ or ‘vegetable based’ or ‘vegetable origins’

Sustainable Farming

Farming is a complex, multicomponent, interactive process that is dependent on land, animal, human and water resources. Throughout the developing world, it is practiced in many different ways and environments and with differing degrees of intensity and biological efficiency. Animals play an integral role in many of these farming systems.

Maintaining good animal health is clearly important – healthy animals produce more and live better lives. They make the production process much more efficient and profitable for the farmer. Good husbandry practices also reduce the impact on the environment. Poor animal health, lacking welfare and mismanagement of livestock means animals are more susceptible to disease and may die. By overseeing good animal health, it reduces the number of unproductive animals that emit greenhouse gas emissions.

Mixed, integrated farming systems that include animals show promise across different context globally, to solve a number of problems. Improved management of grazing lands can restore native grasses and significantly improve soil carbon sequestration, mitigating climate change. Additionally, efforts to improve industrial production practices along the supply chain can have significant positive impacts on water quality, forest cover, animal welfare and human health.

Well managed animal agriculture systems and sustainable diets are necessary elements of our future food systems.

Each and every one of us can make changes in the way we live our lives. By educating yourself and making informed choices, we can all ensure that the decisions we make will positively impact our earth. A healthy planet is not an option – it is a necessity.

Courtesy of HKALPO