Food and Environment

Delegates from 194 countries negotiated over a week and finally succeeded to prepare the negotiating text for the 2015 Universal Agreement on Climate Change to be held in Le Bourget, France from 30 November to 11 December 2015.   On Friday (13 th February 2015), delegates participating Geneva Climate Change Talks finalised the content of the new agreement which includes the text about mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology and capacity building.    Participants of the Climate Change Talk in Geneva. Photo credit:   UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré The United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has set the objective of the 2015 conference to achieve a universal and binding agreement on climate for the first time after 20 years of UN negotiations by the nations all over the world. Achievement of Geneva talk over the last week is a key milestone towards this objective of UNFCCC. This has given a hope that we are moving in right direc...

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Jagat Bahadur Shahi (name changed) of Mugu, one of the remote districts of Nepal, hardly remembers when he has been able to feed their fill to his children last time. His six years old daughter and four years old son are so severely malnourished that anyone with kind heart cannot stop tear rolling down his/her eyes seeing them. These children had to bear the demise of their loving mother and Jagat Bahadur's caring wife last year as she was not lucky enough to get adequate food during her pregnancy.   Pouring salt on his wound, his two years old daughter leaved the world last month due to malnutrition.  Every morning Jagat Bahadur wakes up with a dream of having enough food to feed his children. He has a desire neither for a cozy house nor for a luxury car. He doesn't have a dream to send his children in expensive private school.   He just prays to have a handful of rice for his two little cuties. 

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Emperor penguins ( Aptenodytes forsteri) are regarded as an icon of Antarctica due to its peculiar appearance and behaviour. These are the largest of all penguins adapted to extreme climatic condition of Antarctica [ 1 ] and are particularly susceptible to environmental changes in southern ocean as a result of global climate change due to being ice-obligate species [ 2 ] . Size of the bird also increases its susceptibility to climate change [ 3 ] and its morphology which prevent them to forage up to greater depth and range make the situation even worse [ 2 ] . Alteration in sea ice condition, which ultimately affects availability of pray and breeding and moulting of these birds, significantly affects their population [ 2 ] . 

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Swine are particularly susceptible to increased environmental temperature because evaporative cooling by sweating is of limited value to them due to barely functional sweat glands. Impacts of thermal stress on pig due to increased ambient temperature are described here briefly.   For Impacts of Climate Change on Cattle , Click Here.

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Reduction in milk production is one of the major economic impacts of climatic stress in dairy cattle. Decrease in milk yield due to heat stress is more prominent in Holstein than in Jersey cattle [ 1 ] . Decreased synthesis of hepatic glucose and lower non esterified fatty acid (NEFA) level in blood during heat stress [ 2 , 3 , 4 ] causes reduced glucose supply to the mammary glands resulting low lactose synthesis which in turn ensues low milk yield [ 5 ] . Reduction in milk yield is further intensified by decrease in feed consumption by the animals to compensate high environmental temperature [ 5 , 6 ] .

Although the proportion of CH 4 in the atmosphere is very low compared to CO 2 , the relative contribution of CH 4 to global warming is high due to the high radiative forcing contributed by this gas. The global atmospheric concentration of methane reached 1774 ppb in 2005 compared to 1732 ppb in the early 1990s and only 715 ppb in the pre-industrial era (figure). This increase in atmospheric concentration of CH 4 is responsible for radiative forcing of +0.48 ± 0.05 W m –2 which is second only to that contributed by CO 2 due to CH 4 having approximately 25 times higher global warming potential (GWP)   compared to CO 2 . Therefore, reduction in CH 4 emission is more effective and probably an easier strategy than reducing CO2 emission. Figure : Trend in the increase in atmospheric concentration of CH 4 over the last 10,000 years and since 1750 (inset) with corresponding radiative forcing. Source: IPPC (2007) P.S. References available on request.

Ruminant animals are great contributors to the human food chain due to their ability to utilize complex polysaccharides in plant cell walls (cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectin), which are otherwise non digestible to any of the mammalian digestive enzyme and turn these into meat and milk for human consumption. Digestion of these polysaccharides in ruminant diets is attributable to anaerobic biodegradation of these compounds into their respective monomers by microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) present in the forestomach of the animals. In spite of their contribution to the human food chain, ruminant animals are often debated as one of the contributing factors in global climate change due to the emission of CH 4 as a byproduct of fermentative digestion of feedstuffs in the forestomach. In addition, production of methane by ruminants causes a significant amount of feed energy loss which could be used for animal growth and production if methane production is prevented.

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai In 2009, the United Nations climate change conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark. There was a widespread hope to the world community about the conference that it would bring a significant policy and commitment to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. But, the conference couldn’t make a consensus decision and thus the accord of the conference was not passed unanimously. The seeds of the debate seem to be sown in Kyoto protocol in which principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” has been initiated. According to this principle developed and industrialised countries which led the industrial revolution are responsible for most of the greenhouse gases now in the atmosphere and therefore should bear a greater responsibility for combating climate change. As a consequence of this principle in Kyoto protocol some large developing nations such as China and India were exempted from the same emissions-reductions obligations as developed countri...

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Any physiological, metabolic, behavioral and performance abnormality in animals due to inability of thermoregulatory mechanism to regulate normal body temperature during high ambient temperature can be referred to as heat stress. Heat stress is not only the concern of only tropical region but also a matter of major apprehension in sub-tropical and temperate regions too as frequent spells of high ambient temperature and gradual rise in global atmospheric temperature is being experienced in many of the temperate regions of the world due to global climate change. Heat stress is one of the greatest climatic challenges faced by horses affecting animal health and welfare in the area of the world where ambient temperature often exceeds upper critical temperature.  Principle of management of heat stress during hot weather is to hasten the heat loss and avoid the heat gain as far as possible.

Major M echanisms that A nimals use to C ontrol B ody T emperature (Thermoregulatory Mechanisms in Animals) by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Major Impacts of climate change on animals are due to thermal stress resulting from increased ambient temperature. This article has been posted to illustrate how animals control their body temperature. This will help to find/design adaptation methods against climate change effects.  The first line of defense animal use to maintain body temperature in unfavorable ambient temperature is behavioral response to manage heat loss or gain [ 1 ] . Seeking shelter in hot day or sun in cold day and altering body posture according to temperature to minimize or maximize relative body surface area to alter heat loss or gain are major behavioral response to maintain body temperature by cattle [ 1 ] . Animals can maintain its body temperature within narrow range irrespective of ambient temperature due to metabolic heat production [ 2 , 3 ] ...

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPPC) has classified the sources of greenhouse gases into six major source categories (energy, industrial processes, solvent and other product use, agriculture, land-use change and forestry and waste) each of which has further been divided into several sub-categories. Livestock is one of the sub-groups of the sources of greenhouse gases under the agriculture group. Methane (CH 4 ) from enteric fermentation and CH 4 and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) from livestock manure management are two major greenhouse gases emitted from livestock sector. Greenhouse gas inventory of the country from livestock sector has been prepared by using the Tier 1 emission estimation method of IPPC by using default emission factors for different categories of animals. The data has been assembled and analysed by using 2006 IPCC Software for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories version 1.96.   L ivestock sector of Nepal is responsibl...

  by Yadav Sharma Bajagai 1     Introduction Warming of climate system of the earth is a unanimously accepted reality [ 1 ] and probably one of the most prominent challenges for scientists, development workers, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders regarding development and sustainability in international and national arena during past several years. Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPPC) has described climate change as any anthropogenic or naturally occurring alteration in the climate over time [ 1 ] . The World Bank has published ‘world development report 2010’ with the title “development and climate change” as an example to depict the importance of this issue. Global warming is attributable to increase in atmospheric concentration of green house gases (mainly CO 2, CH 4 and NO 2 ) as a result of human activities since the industrial revolution [ 1 , 2 ] . Concentration of total green house gases in the atmosphere has been i...