Article contributed to illuminem as part of my Reclaiming Entrepreneurship series.
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Food waste alone is estimated to be responsible for emissions of between 88.50 and 102.20 Gigatons of CO2e between 2020 and 2050 with roughly one third of all food globally going to waste. Halving food waste is ranked as Project Drawdown’s top solution to keep within a 2˚C temperature rise by the end of the century. Waste from plastics, metals, paper, and other industrial materials is estimated to be responsible for emissions of between 17.47 and 28.22 Gigatons of CO2e for the same time period.
This is emissions, including from landfill. But there’s more.
Wasteful food production and consumption negatively impacts soil health, forest cover, water use, biodiversity, and chemical runoff. Low-nutrient and low-quality food from industrial production is correlated with ill-health and obesity even while its unequal production and distribution leaves vast swathes of the global population underfed. Industrial materials come with other considerations: mining, air pollution from industrial processes, more water use, toxicity, and, increasingly, the microplastics problem. Additionally, as most of these items are extremely energy intensive to produce, they serve to prop up the fossil fuel industrial complex.
Clearly an area ripe for implementing impactful solutions. Enter climate capitalism.
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