Cargando…

Drivers of the Growing Water, Carbon and Ecological Footprints of the Chinese Diet from 1961 to 2017

In the past decades, food consumption in China has undergone a rapid increase and a significant structure transition, as a result of population growth and economic development. The food system is increasingly threatening the environment by depleting water resources, deteriorating water bodies, aggra...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Cao, Yiyi, Chai, Li, Yan, Xianglin, Liang, Yi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084431/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32164299
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051803
_version_ 1783508720152477696
author Cao, Yiyi
Chai, Li
Yan, Xianglin
Liang, Yi
author_facet Cao, Yiyi
Chai, Li
Yan, Xianglin
Liang, Yi
author_sort Cao, Yiyi
collection PubMed
description In the past decades, food consumption in China has undergone a rapid increase and a significant structure transition, as a result of population growth and economic development. The food system is increasingly threatening the environment by depleting water resources, deteriorating water bodies, aggravating climate change, degrading ecosystems, etc. It is significant to understand how food consumption affected the environment and how its impacts were driven in the historical period. This study reveals the environmental impacts of China’s food system from 1961 to 2017 from a consumption perspective by assessing water, carbon, and ecological footprints. The logarithmic mean Divisia index method was used to examine the drivers of the growing environmental footprints. The assessment results show that all three environmental footprints have had a drastic increase of more than two times during the studied period, which indicates the high environmental pressure posed by food consumption. We also found that, before the 1980s, the main driving forces of the increasing footprints were population and per capita energy intake. From 1984, the diet pattern started to take a positive effect and then became the dominant driver of the growing environmental footprints after the end of the 1990s.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7084431
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-70844312020-03-24 Drivers of the Growing Water, Carbon and Ecological Footprints of the Chinese Diet from 1961 to 2017 Cao, Yiyi Chai, Li Yan, Xianglin Liang, Yi Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In the past decades, food consumption in China has undergone a rapid increase and a significant structure transition, as a result of population growth and economic development. The food system is increasingly threatening the environment by depleting water resources, deteriorating water bodies, aggravating climate change, degrading ecosystems, etc. It is significant to understand how food consumption affected the environment and how its impacts were driven in the historical period. This study reveals the environmental impacts of China’s food system from 1961 to 2017 from a consumption perspective by assessing water, carbon, and ecological footprints. The logarithmic mean Divisia index method was used to examine the drivers of the growing environmental footprints. The assessment results show that all three environmental footprints have had a drastic increase of more than two times during the studied period, which indicates the high environmental pressure posed by food consumption. We also found that, before the 1980s, the main driving forces of the increasing footprints were population and per capita energy intake. From 1984, the diet pattern started to take a positive effect and then became the dominant driver of the growing environmental footprints after the end of the 1990s. MDPI 2020-03-10 2020-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7084431/ /pubmed/32164299 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051803 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Cao, Yiyi
Chai, Li
Yan, Xianglin
Liang, Yi
Drivers of the Growing Water, Carbon and Ecological Footprints of the Chinese Diet from 1961 to 2017
title Drivers of the Growing Water, Carbon and Ecological Footprints of the Chinese Diet from 1961 to 2017
title_full Drivers of the Growing Water, Carbon and Ecological Footprints of the Chinese Diet from 1961 to 2017
title_fullStr Drivers of the Growing Water, Carbon and Ecological Footprints of the Chinese Diet from 1961 to 2017
title_full_unstemmed Drivers of the Growing Water, Carbon and Ecological Footprints of the Chinese Diet from 1961 to 2017
title_short Drivers of the Growing Water, Carbon and Ecological Footprints of the Chinese Diet from 1961 to 2017
title_sort drivers of the growing water, carbon and ecological footprints of the chinese diet from 1961 to 2017
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084431/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32164299
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051803
work_keys_str_mv AT caoyiyi driversofthegrowingwatercarbonandecologicalfootprintsofthechinesedietfrom1961to2017
AT chaili driversofthegrowingwatercarbonandecologicalfootprintsofthechinesedietfrom1961to2017
AT yanxianglin driversofthegrowingwatercarbonandecologicalfootprintsofthechinesedietfrom1961to2017
AT liangyi driversofthegrowingwatercarbonandecologicalfootprintsofthechinesedietfrom1961to2017