Summer 2024 • Vol. 30 • Issue 6
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Climate Change and Ingredients Sourcing …Giorgio Dell’Acqua
he acceleration of climate change driven events is creating increasing pressure on the environment and living organisms that depend upon it with consequences that will be hard to fix or reverse in the future. Every living organism that is exposed to environmental changes is impacted. We need to understand the overall scenario to put in place effective actions to mitigate the changes that will affect the environment as we know it and the way we source natural ingredients for cosmetic use. The call for action is now.
Global Warming
We exist in a thin layer of the atmosphere, up to seven miles above sea level. Life has been preserved for millions of years with the right conditions of temperature and air, mostly nitrogen and oxygen, but also greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide that when released in the atmosphere contribute to stabilize the right temperature for living organisms. However, since the industrial revolution in the late 1800s, increased burning of coal, oil, and natural gas has caused more carbon dioxide to be released in the atmosphere, eventually trapping the heat with the consequence of increasing the earth’s temperature—a process referred as global warming. Extreme weather has also triggered melting of glaciers and polar ice caps as well as contributed to sea level rise. In the U.S., greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming have been associated with transportation, electricity production, industry, residential/commercial heating, and agricultural practices.1
Climate Change and Its Effect on Plant Growth
A plant needs water, air, sunlight, optimal temperature, and the right soil to properly grow. Climate change is affecting all these elements except for sunlight. While most of the water on earth is saltwater from the ocean, only 3% is fresh water (glaciers, groundwater, lakes, rivers, etc.). A warmer climate is causing increased water evaporation, eventually trapped in the atmosphere. Cycles of rain are altered leading to dry areas becoming drier and wet areas wetter. Plants find it difficult to adapt to these changes and in dry areas, farmers need more and more ground water to sustain irrigation. As the level of carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere, plants grow faster; however, weeds also do so and become difficult to control. Plant-feeding insects are proliferating due to the decrease in plant nutritional value and increase in sugar content when plants are grown in a higher carbon dioxide atmosphere. This decrease in nutritional value is a concern for the human diet but also for other uses (such as cosmetics and supplements) as their ingredient quality is affected. Plants contain less protein, zinc, iron, and vitamins, especially B vitamins.2,3 (continued on Page 6) Temperature changes during nighttime or daytime alter the normal growth of plants and their reproductive
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