Climate change is the subject of how weather patterns change over decades to even centuries. Climate change takes place due to natural and human influences. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have contributed to climate change through greenhouse emissions, aerosols, and through changes in land use, resulting in a rise in global temperatures. Increments in global temperatures may have different impacts, such as an increase in storms, floods, droughts, sea levels, and the decline of ice sheets, and glaciers. The scary part is that out of the seven billion people living in this world none of them seem to care about the mess they are leaving behind having said that they are partially at fault.
Now try to picture yourself living in a world where everyone chose to eat healthy food, even the younger generations, instead of eating a quick five dollar combo or the typical cheeseburger and french fries, better known as a happy meal. In most cases society tends to drift away from the importance of where the food they are consuming is coming from, meaning they much rather pick price over quality. In some cases parents are too tight on schedule that their children have to constantly eat fast food. Unfortunately as they live in the fast paced life they are subconsciously leading their children through the path of becoming overweight. Statistics from the website The State of Obesity shows that 16.6 percent of children ranging from ages two to four have obesity in California alone.
While high schoolers show a rate of 13.9 percent, it is clearly shown that obesity is mainly affected at younger ages. Therefore targeting children at younger ages can be more beneficial and more effective. Once in a blue moon it is okay to eat at fast food restaurants but it is not okay to make it an everyday habit. In the long run favoring price over quality will not get you very far, instead it will drive you straight to obesity. According to statista roughly 15.8% of people in the United States consume fast food on a regular base of four to six times per week. Meaning that they are spending an estimate of ten dollars per meal which equals out to one hundred and sixty dollars a month. That is over one hundred dollars a month they are spending on a few meals, when they can be spending the same amount money on groceries that will feed them all month. Unfortunately that is the mindset that today’s society has grown into, although it is never too late to emphasize smarter eating habits. Having that said, over time by enforcing healthier ways to produce and consume food it will not only positively affect our health but so will climate change.
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As a kid growing up I did not eat much fast food in comparison to most. From being a picky eater to becoming anemic, fast food chains were what I needed to stay away from. My parents had the idea that home made food would be cheaper as well as healthier. I would come home everyday to full prepped meal ready for me to eat, while on the drive home I would be begging my mom to take me to Burger King or McDonald’s. In “A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System”, the author Nesheim states, “Market forces, and other drivers, has managed to provide abundant food at relatively low cost in the midst of a growing world population.” Meaning that food chains have been able to decrease the price of food due to the high volume of consumers. The question is, are fast food chains providing high quality food for a lower price?
Sometimes it is necessary to take into consideration what is in the food you are consuming. Neshiem mentions, “Some of these consequences are not captured in the price of food, but rather, are incurred by society at large in the form of healthcare costs…” For example if you go to Taco Bell you can get a drink, with two burritos, along with cheese and nachos for only five dollars. Five dollars does not sound bad to me but when it becomes a daily habit, the difference will be shown in your bank statement each month. In addition, favoring fast fast food is convenient and quick but the end result will cost you a fatal illness along with expensive medical bills. Would it be better to buy cheap fast food that can possibly lead to illness or healthy food that is slightly more expensive but better for you and the environment. Think about to what extent we are going to let low price food outweigh the value of our health.
Non-renewable energy sources are in effect persistently being used to create power. The consumption of these energizes produces gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides which prompt a worldwide temperature alteration. Deforestation is additionally promoting hotter temperatures. The peril of a worldwide temperature alteration is constantly making real harm to the Earth’s condition. A great amount of people are yet ignorant of a dangerous atmospheric deviation and do not view it as a major issue in years to come. What many people do not comprehend is that a worldwide temperature alteration is at present occurring, and we are currently encountering a portion of its shrinking impacts.
Perhaps if society does not value the importance of their health then how are they supposed to care for the environment. Studies have shown that climate change works like a trickle down effect, varying from affecting animals, to agriculture, to the food we consume each and every day. In the article, “Methane Emissions From Livestock Are Contributing to Global Warming Much More Than Scientists Thought”, Wolf said, “Methane is an important moderator of the Earth’s atmospheric temperature, it has about four times the atmospheric warming potential of carbon dioxide.” Animals such as goats, cattle, sheep and deer all contribute to the pollution of methane by animal belching. Animal belching is the action of releasing gas from the digestive tract through the mouth. Methane gas emissions contributes twenty eight percent to total emissions solely through livestock. All in all, major changes are due to the world, including our daily lives, to make it a better place. It just depends on if we want to keep living in a world full of contamination.
Global warming is a rapidly increasing problem affecting us in present time. Primarily caused by human activities, climate change is deteriorating our future planet and the way we live. In the article, “What to Do About Climate Change”, the author Ruth Greenspan Bell states, “In the years ahead, climate change will have a significant impact on every aspect of the daily lives of all human beings — possibly evem greater than war.” If left unattended, climate change will end up costing more to than it would if we start to take action now. Then not only would we end up with high paying expenses but global warming will also drain food, water, and other useful resources. Taking action now can actually be beneficial in many aspects. It will allow to create more job opportunities and a better living environment. Making a change in global warming brings a lot of diverse opportunities while reducing greenhouse emissions.
If the world’s population was able to work as a whole, and contribute to healthy dieting, the environment would change in such a drastic way. Unfortunately this is way too big of a problem and with the help of a couple thousand people it will not go very far. One way to start can be by applying healthy dieting rules with children ranging from the age of four to eight years old. For example, younger generations could be taught smarter eating habits, such as; veggies over candy, juice over soda, home food over fast food, etc. Like mentioned before, children from ages two to four are one of the highest obesity rates.
Therefore enforcing new and smarter eating habits upon young children could help start the world heal again. In the article, “The Latest Champion in the Battle Against Climate Change: Fast Food Burgers”, Lacy Cooke mentions, “MAX says it plants trees to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than the total emissions of its products.” MAX is playing their role in contributing to a positive environmental change by cancelling out the gas emissions they produce each year by planting trees. Now imagine if every fast food chain contributed to help reduce the gas emissions, the atmosphere would start to recover a little at a time. If MAX a fast food restaurant in sweden takes action on the current issues with climate change, then so can we. According to “Sutter Health” there are over fifty thousand fast food chains in the U.S. take a second to think about how many trees would be planted each year due to fast food chains. One way we can target a change is with the younger generations starting with schools, kids can be taught to grow their own food at home, recycle, and as well as implying healthier eating habits.’
In the show Couple Thinkers, Kimbal Musk says that we can start teaching elementary school kids to eat healthy and plant their own food. For example we can make it a fun activity and educate children how to plant so that way they can do it at home. In reality if you teach a child to eat vegetables instead of fries or water over soda eventually they will be accustomed to the healthy dieting lifestyle. In other words we can mold them to think green.Thinking green as in taking actions to help the environment, whether it is planting, recycling, or simply maintaining a healthy diet. Feeding off of what Kimbal Musk said, changing the minds of those who are stubborn and stuck in their old ways will take too long to change. Us humans in society have to change the way we teach the young generations.
We are not going to lie to them, instead we are showing them a new perspective to different eating habits and new ways to treating the environment. Enforcing healthier types of lifestyles when they are young will benefit them in the long run because it will be a norm to them. In this case we are focusing on teaching children to plant and to healthy diet. Now by healthy dieting I don’t mean that they have to eat vegetables all day everyday, it can be as easy as eating homemade food instead of going out to a fast food restaurant. Emphasizing healthy environmental habits upon young generations can help make a change over the years. It is all about the matter of taking a step forward in helping this world become a better place than it was yesterday.
While on the other hand there are those people that are constantly on the go and never have time to stop and eat a homemade meal. Throughout different countries, fast food has turned into an extremely popular food source in society’s everyday life. Junk food is ONES best friend when it comes down to studying, watching movies, hanging out with friends or when you simply just do not feel like cooking. Now the question is what groups of food are to be considered junk food? Foods that are substantially high in salt, sugar, fat, and low in dietary content. Just like any other good things can be bad and bad things can be good but all to a certain extend. One of the many reasons as to why most adults pick fast food is because they only have a thirty minute lunch break and restaurants such as Taco Bell and, Chick-fil-A are quick to serve.
Another reason why fast food restaurants are favored is contained within the taste of the food, from the unique flavor of the In-N-Out fries to the delicious crunchy taco. Once a fast food chain is able to hook you with their tasty foods you cannot stop yourself from eating there. This was proven by the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health’s article, “Why eat fast-food restaurants: reported reasons among frequent consumers”. They performed a survey including several questions related to junk food and one of the questions is “Is taste one of the reasons why people choose fast food?” the final results concluded a 69% of the people believed that taste was a main reason. The final result of the survey shows that taste plays the main role in junk food. Therefore society favors junk food not only because of the money they can save in one meal or how fast it can be served, but as well as for the taste it brings.
In the end, human activities are the main reason for global warming and we, society, are the only ones that can make a change. Fast food sure is convenient and cheap at times; on the other hand, eating homemade meals will not only benefit you but the ecosystem as well. You may not care about your well being nor mother nature but think about the impact of the living conditions you are leaving behind for future family lineage to come. The reasons stated above give enough proof that climate change has been happening, is happening, and will continue to happen if we don’t act now. As we incorporate better eating habits and ways to preserve the environment we will see a better coexisting between humans and mother nature.
Environmental change is a lot more than an unnatural weather change. The rise in normal temperature is just a single pointer of more extensive changes additionally turning into extraordinary temperatures, dry season, flooding, storms, and rising ocean levels. Not only is it affecting food production in addition it is also causing infectious diseases. It is obvious humans are one of the main contributors to global warming as glaciers melt faster, to our lakes and rivers drying up, this is happening all around us but yet no one cares enough to make a positive change. Most importantly it provides basic human resources needed to survive, where do you think oxygen comes from? That is right, mother nature. The end result is that the world does not need humans to survive instead we are in need of the world. Therefore it is very important that we take care of our living space.
Works Cited
- “A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System.” Topbooks.ro, www.topbooks.ro/generalitati-sanatate-publica-si-preventie-sanatate-publica-dieta-si-nutritie/a-framework-for-assessing-effects-of-the-food-system/.
- Bell, Ruth Greenspan. “What to Do About Climate Change.” Foreign Affairs, Foreign Affairs Magazine, 7 June 2017, www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2006-05-01/what-do-about-climate-change.
- Cooke, Lacy. “The Latest Champion in the Battle against Climate Change: Fast Food Burgers.” Inhabitat Green Design Innovation Architecture Green Building, Inhabitat, 6 June 2018, inhabitat.com/the-latest-champion-in-the-battle-against-climate-change-fast-food-burgers/.
- “Methane Emissions From Livestock Are Contributing to Global Warming Much More Than Scientists Thought.” The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel, weather.com/science/nature/news/livestock-methane-greenhouse-gas-emissions-estimates-increase.
- Palo Alto Medical Foundation. “Fast Food.” California Teen Health | Teen Health Information, www.pamf.org/teen/health/nutrition/fastfood.html
