Adopting a healthier diet will probably feature prominently in many of our New Year’s resolutions. But it’s often challenging for people to live up to their intentions. What if though, shifting from current diets to healthier, more plant-based ones could prevent up to 236,000 premature deaths around the world and boost global GDP – simply by improving air quality.
There are good reasons to persist in making deliberate choices about what’s on your plate. These choices not only impact your own health, they affect the health of the planet too.
Food systems represent one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. If left unchecked, these emissions would probably add enough extra warming to take Earth’s average temperature beyond a 1.5°C rise in the 2060s.
Research is now also establishing air pollution on the list of problems caused by agriculture. Animal farming, in particular, is a major source of ammonia emissions. These emissions react with other pollutants to form fine particulate matter, which can cause health issues like cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and diabetes.
In his recent study, co-author Marco Springmann, Senior Researcher in Environment and Health, reveals that shifting from current diets to healthier, more plant-based ones could prevent up to 236,000 premature deaths around the world and boost global GDP – simply by improving air quality.
Read more in The Conversation.
