Tekoha

Ciudad del Este | How Does Climate Change Affect You?

“The Impact of Global Warming on Livestock”

High-Level Project Summary

What does it take to arouse interest in the general population? The answer could be presented in many ways depending on the context of the question, now, we have concluded that there is a determining factor in all possible situations, "money", something that touches our pocket definitely gains our full attention, so if we need to attract the largest audience to the planet's call for help, we need to use this technique. We address one of the predominant items in our reality, livestock: we need to identify the consequences of global temperature increase in our day to day life, not necessarily in extreme events such as floods, hailstorms, hurricanes and/or droughts.

Link to Final Project

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFN1nFQNU0/kniOq1YgbwDUmarBRZNBJQ/watch?utm_content=DAFN1nFQNU0&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink

Link to Project "Demo"

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-lw0BwWSc2KAIarVQ7JUNEOMKMf7ttA3/edit#slide=id.p1

Detailed Project Description

The Earth need not resemble Venus very closely for it to become barren and lifeless. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos into a kind of hell. Carl Sagan in Cosmos's chapter 4.

What would happen if we knew that the cost of the basic food basket suffers a gradual increase as a consequence of climate change? Do livestock end their life cycle unharmed by global warming? Every 5 years the global temperature rises 0.1°C and believe it or not, we are literally paying for it.

The first human revolution originated with the domestication of plants and animals, however every action generates a reaction, every human activity has a consequence, one of them is climate change, there is a greater than 95% probability that in the last 50 years human activities have contributed to global warming. Regarding this are we aware of it, globally Paraguay emits 0.09% of the world's CO2, 0.2% less than in 1990 and 33% less than in 2015, by land use change, Paraguay emitted 54% less than in 1990 and 65% less than in 2015; despite not being the main emitters of CO2 we have signed the Paris agreement and taken measures in this regard, because environmental awareness is everyone's responsibility.

Despite these measures, there are still negative effects of climate change, which with proper knowledge could be mitigated, the best way to combat ignorance is to approach from a common and real perspective, considering this, of countless existing problems, we decided to target the livestock sector, since the national economy is mainly powered by agro-livestock production as it also involves the final consumer without distinction of age.

This sector, paradoxically, is a direct victim of climate change, we cannot mitigate the negative impact of livestock production by appealing to its total prohibition, it is utopian, so we must use realistic measures with the accumulation of information available in "NASA Earth System Observatory". As a consequence of the increase in global temperature, livestock suffer from "heat stress", this phenomenon is the set of changes that are triggered in animals in environments with high temperature. These animals, when subjected to these hostile environmental conditions, reduce their feed intake, lose weight, reduce milk production and reproduction decreases.

But as it is not enough to mention the effects of climate change, it is urgent to translate it into figures: 15 out of 100 cattle will have no offspring, the thinning of cutting cattle causes $30.00 loss per head and in terms of milk production, $3.00 is lost in terms of 4 liters per day and per animal. If we take as a base quantity 200,000 animals per year, during 1 year for milk production, each animal produces less 1,095.00 $, that is, the 200,000 dairy cattle, would be producing a loss of 399,675.00 $ on average.

Analyzing only the milk production, we would find these monstrous values, what would we discover if we include the procreation deficit of the species and the weight loss of the cutting cattle? The result would be even more negative economically speaking, however if we take advantage of the optimal production and fattening capacity of cattle through the provision of accurate and timely information, it would be possible to predict and act during days with high temperature and humidity index.

The (ITH) temperature and humidity index has the following classification:

Heat Stress

ITH > 98 FATAL
ITH > 89 Severe or critical
ITH > 78 Moderate
ITH > 72 Light
ITH < 72 Thermo comfort

Fifty-seven percent of livestock production is located in the western region; by analyzing historical records for the last 30 to 15 years, it is estimated that this region suffered heat stress (ITH>72); and for 2 to 5 years heat stress was severe (ITH > 89).

It is concluded that heat stress has been a historically frequent phenomenon in the last 15 to 30 years of study and has been frequent and intense in the departments with the greatest livestock activity in Paraguay.

An alternative solution is the establishment of silvopastoral systems, which is a way of combining trees with pastures and animals within a plot. Trees provide shade for livestock, improve soil fertility and physical conditions, and provide additional economic income in the medium term and, in the long term, timber production. Improved pastures produce more and better quality forage compared to native grasses and, if well managed, maintain or improve soil fertility. It is also possible to opt for investment in infrastructure for environmental refrigeration, the latter would be an immediate but not definitive solution, you alway have to choose the sustainable and natural alternative. Finally, of course, is to generate environmental awareness, these are challenges that have treatment, and the solution has as a result the increase in the profit of the item in question and the increase in prices to the final consumer.

Considering the importance of obtaining historical and current information for a more timely and accurate generation of monthly forecasts of the temperature/humidity index and taking as a reference the project "Real Time Remote Monitoring System of the Chagas Disease Transmitter", the idea of implementing temperature and humidity sensors at strategic points was born, the greater the number of sensors, the more accurate the information will be, and of course timely to take the necessary measures in real time, avoiding avoidable losses. The extraction, dissemination and processing of the information would require the support of satellites in orbit, with the support of the Paraguayan Space Agency as an intermediary. The implementation of the sensor system has a cost of $150,000.00.

Space Agency Data

The inspiration comes from the project called "Real Time Remote Monitoring System of the Transmitter of Chagas Disease" conducted by the Polytechnic Faculty - UNA, the same consists in making a remote monitoring of the vector transmitter of Chagas disease, which is commonly known as the vinchuca, with infrared photoelectric sensors that were used to detect the entry of these insects to a trap, which contain pheromone bait to attract them. Considering some specifications of the project, the following idea arises, the implementation and installation in strategic points of the western region in charge of monitoring the temperature and humidity index in order to have timely and accurate information on heat stress in livestock production.

Hackathon Journey

It is really satisfying to be listened to; to be validated by our motivation and skills, no matter how small they may be; for the team this is the first experience in a hackathon, it forced us to break our fear, to discover new skills and of course to enhance the existing ones. We were working with excellent mentors from different areas, the predisposition was wonderful, so much so that the more we commented our ideas to the mentors, the more clarity we acquired.

We all want to change the world in a big way, we want to be protagonists of exploits and above all improve everything around us, it is not wrong to be ambitious, on the contrary... we must be, however we must start somewhere, a small step and that is where the idea of working for the challenge "How Does Climate Change Affect You?" was born, after it infinite unanswered questions, the challenge was presented in understanding the question and try to convey it in the best possible way.

Nothing else is left to thank, for the space, for the patience, for the predisposition of the international and local organization, to the excellent mentors, especially to Professor Martha Osorio who was dedicated to thoroughly verify the project, to the team, to friends who from their profession provided us with information on the subject... thank you for convincing us that we all have something to contribute.