Pandemics Ahead

Pandemics Ahead is a series of articles looking at the link between animal protein and global health disasters. The articles are excerpts from Meat Climate Change: The 2nd Leading Cause of Global Warming by Moses Seenarine, (2016). Xpyr Press, 348 pages. ISBN: 0692641157. http://amzn.to/2yn7XrC

See also Meat Society, a series exploring issues related to curbing demand for animal products, an important climate change solution for individuals and nations alike, especially in Western states where meat and diary consumption dwarfs other regions. See also our COVID-19 Meat Pandemic Bibliography with a categorized listing of Online News and Reports (March to June, 2020).

1 Regs to Nowhere

2 Industrial Chicken

3 Avian Flu

4 Panzootic

5 Chicken Diseases 

6 Biodiversity and Livestock

7 Mass Extinction

8 Wildlife Diseases

9 Rivers of Waste

10 Manure and Disease

11 Dead Zones

12 Fish-kills in One-Month

13 Food-borne Illnesses 

14 Altering Gut Bacteria & Meat Parasites

15 Milk Allergy & Meat Allergy

16 Air Pollution

17 Antibiotics and Superbugs

18 Mercury Poisoning

19 Commercial Fishing

20 Waste and ByCatch

21 Farmed Fish

For more information, see MeatClimateChange.org

Fish-kills in One Month

Pandemics Ahead: Number 12 in a series looking at the link between animal protein and global health disasters.

Excerpt from Meat Climate Change: The 2nd Leading Cause of Global Warming by Moses Seenarine, (2016). Xpyr Press, 348 pages. ISBN: 0692641157. http://amzn.to/2yn7XrC

Looking at records for the month of September 2014 alone, there were tens of thousands of dead fish in rivers, ponds, lakes and streams. Around the world, on almost every day of the month, fish kills were reported. On many days, multiple fish kills were recorded.(933)

On the 1st of September, 2014, there were two fish kills reported: thousands of dead fish washed ashore on a beach in Mohammedia, Morocco; and a large mass of fish floated in a river in China. On the 6th, there were three fish kills reported: a mass die off of fish in a river in China; hundreds of dead fish on a beach in Alicante, Spain; and 7 tons of fish dead in a lake in Sabaudia, Italy.

On September 12, 2014, there were three fish kills: large amounts of dead and 'sick' fish in the Baltic sea off coast of Sweden, Finland and Germany; thousands of dead fish washed up, 'the first of it's kind' along the coast of Qatif, Saudi Arabia; and thousands of fish died 'due to chemical pollution' in a lake in South Carolina, America.

On the 22nd of September, 2014, there were five fish kills: (i) a large fish kill in Valenzuela City, Philippines; (ii) a mass fish kill in Kuwait Bay, Kuwait; (iii) hundreds of dead fish floating in a river in Bejaia, Algeria; (iv) hundreds of dead fish in a canal in Pontedera, Italy; and (v) thousands of fish washed up dead in Central Java, Indonesia.

On September 30th, 2014, there were four fish kills reported: (a) hundreds of fish dead in Yosemite Lake 'due to rain' in California; (b) hundreds of fish floating in a canal in Hermosillo, Mexico; (c) a mass die off of fish in a channel in Sakarya, Turkey; and (d) hundreds of dead fish floating on a lake in Tours, France.

In the US, there were numerous fish kills during the month of September 2014 as well. For instance, (i) on the 2nd, hundreds of dead fish washed ashore in Pinellas County, Florida; (ii) on the 3rd, tens of thousands of dead fish washed up along the Neuse River in North Carolina; and (iii) on the 11th, hundreds of thousands of fish died in a creek in Iowa. 

On 12th September, (iv) thousands of fish died 'due to chemical pollution' in a lake in South Carolina; (v) on the 17th, hundreds of pounds of fish died in a lake 'due to herbicides' in Illinois; (vii) on the 29th, hundreds of fish were killed in a lake in Texas; and (viii) on the 30th, hundreds of fish died in Yosemite Lake 'due to rain' in California. 

The repercussion of fish kills include biodiversity loss, extra greenhouse (GHG) pollution, and negative effects on human health. But the climate-altering gases related to the livestock waste, eutrophication, disposal of fish-kills, and effects on human health, are either ignored and uncounted.

Chapter 25: WASTE POLLUTION, page 242 

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For more information, see MeatClimateChange.org

Dead Zones

Pandemics Ahead: Number 11 in a series looking at the link between animal protein and global health disasters.

Excerpt from Meat Climate Change: The 2nd Leading Cause of Global Warming by Moses Seenarine, (2016). Xpyr Press, 348 pages. ISBN: 0692641157. http://amzn.to/2yn7XrC

The manure from factory farms contains ammonia which is highly toxic to fish at low levels. Escalating the amounts of manure and nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus from livestock production, can cause algal blooms which block waterways and deplete oxygen as they decompose. This often kills fish and other aquatic organisms, devastating the entire aquatic food chain.(929)

The concentration of nitrate in the ground water supply can reach unhealthy levels. Infants up to three months of age are especially susceptible to high nitrate levels and may develop Blue Baby Syndrome (methemoglobinemia), an often fatal blood disorder.(930) In 1996, the CDC established a link between spontaneous abortions and high nitrate levels in Indiana drinking water wells located close to feedlots.

Almost all the US feed production and industrial farms are concentrated along the Mississippi River basin. A liter of seawater commonly holds around 7 milligrams of dissolved oxygen, but around the mouths of the Mississippi, it holds less than 2 milligrams. The only organisms active here are those that do not depend on oxygen to live. Most summers, between 13,000 to 20,000 sq km (5,000-7,700 sq mi) of sea at the mouth of the Mississippi becomes a "dead zone."(931) 

Nearly 400 dead zones ranging in size from one to over 70,000 sq km (27,000 sq mi) have been identified, from the Scandinavian fjords to the South China Sea. Animal farming is not the only cause, but it is one of the worst. In Asia, pig and chicken feed farms in coastal China, Vietnam, and Thailand regularly pollute the South China Sea. The northern part of the Caspian Sea is loaded with nitrogen that comes down the Volga. Many of the seas surrounding Europe are affected - the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the Irish Sea, the Spanish coast, and the Adriatic, all have dead zones.

Not all algal blooms are toxic, but some kinds of algae do produce toxins, such as domoic acid, which is a powerful and fatal neurotoxin. Toxic algal blooms impact the lowest levels of the food chain first, in shellfish and feeder fish that larger marine animals feed on. Even if the toxins do not kill the larger marine animals, toxic algal blooms can wipe out lower levels of the marine food chain and decimate supplies of food that larger marine animals rely on.

Climate change may encourage longer and more frequent blooms of toxic algae along Canada's Pacific coast, impacting marine communities as far north as Alaska with much more consistency than in the past. This is because algae thrive in warmer waters, which both encourage growth in certain kinds of algae and discourage a mixing of ocean waters. And Alaskan waters are some of the most rapidly warming waters in the world, having risen by 3 degrees C in the past decade.(932)

Chapter 25: WASTE POLLUTION, page 241

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For more information, see MeatClimateChange.org