Climate
change is an amplifying fundamental cause of food insecurity.
Carbon
dioxide is the number-one reason for man-made climate change.
Climate
change affects the economy, our emotions, and the growth of societies.
Food
shortages and high prices for staple foods have risen than ever, leading to
many people in Africa and some parts of Asia to starve because many of them
live on less than a dollar a day.
Food
prices have been affordable for decades, but the tide has now turned. While
farmers and producers profit from the price hikes, consumers all over the world
are seeing a growing share of their income go towards buying simple staple
foods.
Prices
for wheat and corn reached record highs in 2007, while global food reserves
reached a 25-year low. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization reported food
price inflation reached 18 percent in China that year, 13 percent in Indonesia
and Pakistan, and 10 percent or more in Latin America, Russia, and India. Wheat
doubled in price, and rice was 20-percent more expensive. Prices have since
come off their peaks but hunger still stalks the poor.
The
combined effects of erratic weather linked to climate change, increased energy
and input prices, growing demand in emerging markets like China and India, and
increased demand for biofuels is pushing food prices up and poor people will
suffer most.
These
rises in food prices, led to riots in many countries over food shortages.
In
2007, food issues boiled over in some the world's richest countries. The rise
of pasta prices led to a one-day strike in Italy, Britain and the United States
also saw food prices increase by an average of 4 percent, an unusually high annual
spike for both countries.
Since
the beginning of the industrial revolution, the average amount of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by nearly 40 percent from an estimated
280 to more than 380 ppmv percent.
This
increase in Carbon dioxide’s share of the atmosphere is mostly due to
man-induced factors, such as burning fossil fuels, deforestation and industrial
production.
The
key, underlying factors for hunger in the future are independent of climate
change, and related more directly to population growth and low socio-economic
capacity.
Climate
change will superimpose itself - mainly through increased aridity and heat
stress in areas that are at the margin of production - to an already battered region,
much need to be done.
The
changing climate means that people in many areas no longer know what to plant,
or when to plant.
Things
may get considerably worse earlier, possibly as soon as the next decade, if
things like frequency of extreme climate events on the climate side, and
competition for bio-energy and food demand from China and India on the economic
side, grow steadily.
Reasons
for high food prices .
Food
reserves have been hit by various factors, including the switch to bio-fuels,
drought in Australia, Niger, Sudan, Parts of Uganda, Chad, floods in the UK, a
badly affected wheat crop in Canada, etc.
In
India, rice prices have hiked because of higher gas prices and transportation
costs.
The
rising cost of tortillas and many other corn-based products can be pinned at
least partly on a booming U.S. ethanol fuel industry, which now consumes about
a fifth of the U.S. corn harvest each year.
Concerns
over food prices, however, go beyond relatively short-term economic problems
like the credit crunch. The UN predicts that world population will grow to
around 9 billion people by mid-century, and with it the demand for food will be
higher. Global warming will also become a driving factor.
Bushfires
Changing
Climate fans the flames, this was witnessed in forest {Bushfires} in Kenya,California, Australia, etc
Australia’s
recent bushfires were the continent’s worst natural disaster in a century.
Wildfires in the southern Australian state of Victoria wiped out entire towns,
destroyed more than 1,800 houses and left 7,000 people homeless. More than 200
people died.
The
weather preceding the Victorian bushfires was extreme, nearly one week of
maximum daily temperatures in excess of 45 degrees Celsius. Even at night
temperatures never dropped below 30 degrees. Melbourne even recorded its
hottest day ever. These conditions meant the bush was tinder dry and large
areas of the State were on Extreme Fire Alert.
Water
Cycle
Global
warming is intensifying the water cycle in the process of precipitation,
infiltration, and evaporation.
Every
system requires energy: the more energy, the more vigorous the system. The sun
powers the life-giving system that is the water cycle and thanks to greenhouse
gases, there is more energy, or simply heat, in the system.
As
result, the amount of moisture circulating through the atmosphere has increased
as well. That’s why CTF predicts that global warming will lead to an
“intensification” of the water cycle, leading to heavier rainfall in some areas
leading to severe floods and more severe drought in other regions.
It
is already happening. “In West Africa, there is anecdotal information that the
monsoon is starting later, finishing earlier and is characterized by more
intensive rain. I have heard the same from Sri Lanka,” says Colin Chartres,
director of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
With
impacts differing all over the globe, a priority for scientists is to figure
out how climate change will affect specific river basins and other local water
resources.
Precipitation
As
a general trend, wet areas are getting wetter, and dry areas are getting drier.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) reports that rainfall could
increase 10 to 40 percent in wet regions, mostly in the northern hemisphere,
and decrease 10 to 30 percent in dry regions, mostly in the southern
hemisphere. Extreme rainfall in the form of more powerful and frequent storms,
and extreme drought, will be more frequent, and more intense.
The
poor will be the first to feel the impact of changing precipitation patterns.
In the meantime, greater rainfall in northern areas could replenish groundwater
stocks, although it could also lead to excessive river flows and flooding.
