Taylor Yurasits: Water and Food at COP22

This is a photo that was provided at COP22, showing the glaciers on the Himalayan mountains. The Himalayan glaciers are considered the “water towers” of Asia and a source of water for other rivers that are surrounding; such as the Indus and the Ganges. During the COP22 conference it has been brought to attention that glaciers located on Mount Everest are predicted to melt due to the increase in the temperature rise. Increasing the rate at which these glaciers are melting endangers both the environment, animals, and human life. One of the panels suggests “Accelerated melting of the Himalaya glaciers could affect over a billion people who depend directly on the water from the Himalayas for both farming and hydropower.” Reducing the greenhouse emissions, will greatly affect the melting of these glaciers and society should push more countries to sign to the Paris Agreement.
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​Wheat fields in India have been a big market and food source for the country throughout the years. Punjab, India is considered one of the “bread baskets” of the world for the amount of wheat and bread they produce. Though, India has been having malnutrition throughout the wheat fields because of the decreasing level in groundwater. India has become very concerned about the wheat fields and what is to happen in the future with producing bread because of this issue. Another issue similar to wheat in India is rice in China. China has seen that with the temperature rising throughout the world and an increase in methane emissions, the yield of rice has started to decrease. Of course with losing rice, the price of rice is predicted to rise to 32-37% as well as the yield only being 10-15%. Rice is a main product and marketing factor in China and will have a detrimental effect on the economy. The left picture below is a picture of an India wheat field and the picture on the right below is a rice field in China.

COP22 has taken an interesting aspect of promoting climate change at this Marrakech convention. Being mainly in the green zone, I have noticed that the youth is really taking an act on climate change because we are the ones to be affected in the future years. My interest in food and water came about when deciding between an issue to cover for the American Chemical Society meeting in the spring at San Francisco. I have learned a lot about public health, specifically ways to better food and water throughout the world. I meet with a group called Indu and they focused on bacteria in water and ways to reduce it. I found this most interesting because it was so simple with the process. There is a plant called endive, which is very leafy and bitter. The endive contains folate, fiber, and vitamins A and K. To start the process Indu treated the endives with sunlight then moved them to a dark refrigerator for 21 days. The purpose of the darkness is to ensure the endives do not open up, resulting in loss of nutrients and moisture. In the refrigerator where the endives are kept is a continuous flow of water to keep the endives moist. After 21 days, the endives are fed to the fish to be digested and to then have a chemical produced to reduce bacteria in the water. I thought this was super cool because of how natural and easy this process can be completed.

References:

COP22 Green Zone