Climate change - food security
About
About
This is a project of the Climate Emergency Institute.
The purpose of this site is to discuss the impact of global climate change on food security.
The purpose of this site is to discuss the impact of global climate change on food security.
Food security is the most crucial and most important of all climate change impacts.
Thus, this site fills a huge gap in the global warming and climate change information.
It has been known since the 1995 IPCC assessment that low latitude regions - regions experiencing near the limit of heat tolerance to crops- including Africa, would be more vulnerable to global climate change.
But, it wasn't until the 2001 IPCC assessment that the IPCC finally recognized that even small temperature increases in these regions would result in disastrous to catastrophic crop losses. Nor that the benefit of global warming to temperate crops was questionable and at best would only be modest and brief.
Up till the 2001 assessment the IPCC had assumed that the agriculture in temperate regions would benefit from global warming and higher atmospheric CO2, and that overall global agricultural output would not be affected by global climate change at least to 2100. Of course this still made atmospheric GHG pollution dangerous in the extreme to the most climate change vulnerable regions. It was assumed that these Global South nations would buy more food from the Global North.
The 2001 IPCC assessment was a milestone showing a tangible impact of global warming on food production. This should have warned us all. Yet it seems most of us haven't really cared.
The 2007 IPCC assessment on food security made the 2001 conclusion even more definite and for the first time found that a potential benefit to the temperate region crops was far from certain and at best would be modest and brief.
The world is carrying on business as usual. The world assumes there is no great threat to our food security and that agricultural adaptions can cope with problems as they happen.
Up till the 2001 assessment the IPCC had assumed that the agriculture in temperate regions would benefit from global warming and higher atmospheric CO2, and that overall global agricultural output would not be affected by global climate change at least to 2100. Of course this still made atmospheric GHG pollution dangerous in the extreme to the most climate change vulnerable regions. It was assumed that these Global South nations would buy more food from the Global North.
The 2001 IPCC assessment was a milestone showing a tangible impact of global warming on food production. This should have warned us all. Yet it seems most of us haven't really cared.
The 2007 IPCC assessment on food security made the 2001 conclusion even more definite and for the first time found that a potential benefit to the temperate region crops was far from certain and at best would be modest and brief.
The world is carrying on business as usual. The world assumes there is no great threat to our food security and that agricultural adaptions can cope with problems as they happen.
Sadly, the risks and impacts of global climate change on food security are not on the agenda of UN climate change discussions or negotiations. Most of us aren't aware that today with already committed temperature increases all populations in all regions are losing future in food production. Food production globally and then in all regions will stop increasing and start decreasing. Certainly, the public isn't aware of this a dire emergency!
Finally, there is no risk assessment of food security under global warming and climate change. This site uses the documented effects of climate change and crop yields to give an indication of the risks. This should make us all think, be proactive and take action in pushing our governments to rapidly reduce emissions!
