Can Moringa help in Reducing the effects of Climate Change?

What is Climate Change?

Climate Change on our planet Earth has been changing since when the Earth was born billions of years ago, as it is to be considered by scientists, and it shall be changing till the Planet earth lives. Change is the only constant! However, the question we must ask is it changing for good for humans, animals, plants and trees, oceans and the entire ecosystem we live in?

Climate change, as NASA described on their website is the change in the usual weather on any place on our planet Earth. It may rain significantly at a particular time when it should not be, or it may not be raining at a particular time range when it should be. As per United Nations “Climate Change is the defining issue of our time and we are at a defining moment. From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale. Without drastic action today, adapting to these impacts in the future will be more difficult and costly.”

What has led to Climate Change?

When the heat in the atmosphere of the Earth increases and could not leave the atmosphere, it leads to global warming and that is one of the significant attributions to climate change. Greenhouse gases help and aggravate the radiations and heat in the earth leading to rising in the temperature of the earth. Since mid of 20th Century, when the era of modern industrialisation began, burning of carbons like fossil fuels leads to emission of concentration of atmospheric Carbon dioxide (CO2). As NASA sees, “to a lesser extent, the clearing of land for agriculture, industry, and other human activities has increased concentrations of greenhouse gases.”

What are the impacts of Climate Change?

Scientists believe that the temperature of the earth would increase over the next 100 years which would lead rise in the level of oceans and seas shall culminate to the significant flooding. Some part of the earth may see very scorching summer that has never seen before. Till date summers of 2020 has been recorded at the highest levels with the levels of 2016. Some parts of the world may have colder winter than usual with very heavy snowfall. Extreme droughts may be prevalent in some parts of the world which we can now as well. The extreme change in usual weather will also lead to scarcity of food as crop may not grow and thereby food security is a big threat. Some places might have stronger and frequent hurricanes which is a reality these days. The consequences of climate change are widely known to all of us and Climate Change is the number one point of issue of the global meetings, be it political, economic or social.

As per a special report by The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), set up by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment to provide an objective source of scientific information, “Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050. This means that any remaining emissions would need to be balanced by removing CO2 from the air.”

United Nations in its “Earth Summit” produced the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as a first step in addressing the climate change problem. It has a membership of nearly 197 countries. All the countries ratified the convention are parties to the convention. The ultimate aim of the Convention is to prevent “dangerous” human interference with the climate system.

In the 21st Century at the 21^st conference of the Parties in Paris in 2015, parties to the UNFCCC reached a landmark agreement to combat climate change and accelerate and intensify its actions and investments needed for sustainable low carbon future. The Paris agreement has 184 countries that ratified the agreement. All the member countries are expected to support the net emission of carbon to Zero with enhanced support to the developing nations to do so.

How Moringa can help in reducing the effects of Climate Change?

The plantation of trees alone cannot help in combating the Climate change fully. It is a fact. Trees absorb CO2 emissions during the process of Photosynthesis to in which they use sunlight to convert that CO2 into the sugars and energy they need to grow. Planting tree, therefore, can help to mitigate the climate change breakdown as they absorb CO2 emissions in their trunk, leaves, roots, soil.

However, the type of trees we plant also matter in terms of rate of absorption of CO2 as all the trees do not equally absorb the CO2 with the same rate. One such plant/tree is moringa (scientifically moringa oleifera). As per a Japanese study by the scientists (Villafuerte, and Villafuerte-Abonal), moringa is capable of absorbing 20 times more carbon emissions than normal vegetations and 50 times more than Japanese Cedar plants.

As per an article published by Newton K Amaglo, the moringa tree, therefore, will be a useful tool in the prevention of global warming in that, one moringa tree will be equivalent to the effectiveness of fifty (50) Japanese cedar tree in absorbing carbon dioxide. For example, If we expanded moringa from one hundred thousand (100,000) hectares worldwide to one million (1,000,000) hectares, that would equate to 5 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions being sequestered. Studying how the demand for other superfoods took their rightful positions in the world market would help us to develop policies and programs to greatly drive demand for moringa products in all markets.

For hundreds of millions of people, the threat of famine is connected to the change of the climate. The planting of trees, including the planting of the Moringa tree, can play one important role in mitigating the effects of climate change.

Terry Exports LLP (TEL) is an Indian based premium moringa leaves, powder, seeds, tea & oil exports-oriented firm, which promotes, market and distributes moringa oleifera products of the highest & premium quality to pharmaceutical/nutraceuticals, cosmetic, personal care, wellness, food, beverage and spa industries across the globe.