Green Fair sounds alarm on nature loss, climate change

The way we produce our food is the biggest cause of nature loss, says marine biologist Professor Pavitray Pillay.

“Food production has caused 70% of biodiversity loss on land and 50% in freshwater. It is also responsible for 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions,” Professor Pillay said at the Green Fair, held at Groote Schuur Hospital, last Friday.

In South Africa, she said, more than half of the food produced was wasted even before it left the farms.

Professor Pillay said since 1970 there had been a 69% decline in monitored species, a million plant and animal species had become threatened with extinction, the world had lost half its corals and forest areas the size of football fields were being lost daily.

Also at the fair - which the hospital held to promote environmental awareness among its staff - Professor Stephanie Midgley said that according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2021 assessment report, recent changes in the climate were widespread, rapid and intensifying and unprecedented. She said health, food security and climate change were all linked.

“The Western Cape Agricultural Incident Chart shows how unpredictable the weather has become. We are experiencing more extremes, and it's not just about how but when,” she said.

Professor Midgley works on climate change and its impacts on the broader agricultural sector and how to build on-farm resilience. She was the project leader for the development of the provincial government’s SmartAgri Plan for the Western Cape agricultural sector.

The plan provided a roadmap for a low-carbon, climate-resilient agricultural sector in the province, she said.

Jan Odendaal, from Green for Life, spoke about the work the organisation does, going around to towns across the country planting trees. He said thousands of ‘trees of hope’ had been planted all over South Africa.

“Trees bring hope and new life. I encourage Groote Schuur Hospital to serve as a blueprint for what a tree hospital should look like,” he said.

Hospital spokesman Alaric Jacobs said: “Promoting environmental awareness is an easy way to become an environmental steward and participate in creating a brighter future for our children.”