Are you contributing to Global Warming by Not Breastfeeding?
In this month of 2022, the heat in the European countries have spiked to its maximum and the London bridges are melting and wildfire is engulfing the neighborhood. Italy sees its severe drought with the loss of its crop. At the same time, the tallest Himalayas are losing their charm as the white cap gradually vanishes showing their black face.
Are these the effects of Global Warming? At this point now people who were denying it cannot say No.
Many people have devoted their lives to saving this motherly earth. Can you help them and the earth just by breastfeeding your baby?
Every month 385,000 babies are born globally. Two third of these babies are fed formula milk. Can you guess how much formula milk is required for a baby for a month? If the baby is exclusively fed on only formula milk for 6 months, 21 kg of that powder is required. With the decline in breastfeeding trends, there is increased production of formula milk. In China alone, around 660,000 tons of milk powder are sold. About half of this constitutes so-called ‘growing up’ or ‘follow up’ milk formulas that are unnecessary and possibly harmful to the nutrition of young children as stated by the World Health Organization. Much of this formula powder comes from milking another species — a cow — which is grazed on watered pastures created from clearing forested land. Along with that, there is water use, pollution, and methane gas production from dairy farming. There is energy and water waste that occurs during manufacturing and distribution, as well as during packaging. These activities also contribute to global warming. Apart from that, the environment is polluted with plastic bottles, packing wastes, etc.
Thus my friends, with a simple natural act of breastfeeding and supporting and helping mothers to breastfeed, each one of us can contribute to reducing global warming.
Time is ticking. We need to act fast and act now. If we don’t act Now, time is not far when we all have to face food insecurities. Feeding on mother’s milk is every baby’s right and supporting each breastfeeding mother is our responsibility. Though sounds very simple, initiating and sustaining breastfeeding is not very easy. The current lifestyle, work schedule, pressures from families and friends, and eye-catching advertisements all put pressure on breastfeeding mothers or who are planning to breastfeed to adopt formula feeding. In this context, each one of us plays an important role to help mothers to stick to breastfeeding and indirectly help Save the Earth.
