When disasters caused by climate change are discussed, images of Pacific islands submerged under the sea, strong storm surges, massive floods, and wildfires are undoubtedly in your mind. However, some of the effects—which will result from some of these same phenomena—will be deadlier but more mundane.
Grab some food. According to a research that the anti-poverty organisation Oxfam America released on Monday night,"food prices could double by 2030, with half of this rise driven by climate change". What was the outcome? "Compared to a world without climate change, there could be 25 million more malnourished children under the age of five in 2050". Not the kids complaining in the backseat because they still want their chicken McNuggets after all this
time. This is about families in the worlds poorest countries who are already struggling to make ends meet and could soon face famine due to growing costs for basic food items.
A fine balance of natural circumstances is essential for food production. Even little variations in the mean temperature or amount of precipitation might cause an abundant crop to become unviable.
Whether that is warmer or wetter can unleash pests that devour crops, like locusts. A season's yield
can, of course, be completely destroyed by fires or floods. Food costs increase when food supplies decline. Furthermore, even slight rises in food prices might mean the difference between life and death for the more than 3 billion people who survive on less than $2.50 per day. These impacts are already apparent. According to Oxfam: In 2010 Pakistan saw severe floods that killed 40 percent of the cattle in the affected areas, ruined an estimated two million hectares of crops, delayed the sowing of winter crops, and skyrocketed the price of staples like wheat and rice. Consequently, an approximate of eight million individuals reported consuming less food and less nutrient-dense meals for a prolonged duration.
Numerous global record-breaking weather events have already occurred this year, severely affecting agriculture as well as the accessibility and cost of food. There are plenty other examples. Fisheries and agriculture in the Philippines were completely destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan. According to Oxfam, Brazil's worst drought in ten years has destroyed crops in the nation's breadbasket region, including the important coffee harvest, driving up coffee prices by fifty percent. (And you thought your local coffee shop's $4 cappuccino was pricey enough.)
However, issues are not limited to severe weather occurrences. Land can become barren with even
little variations in temperature or rainfall. According to Oxfam,"millions of impoverished people throughout Central America are facing hunger and destitution as a result of shifting rainfall patterns and rising temperatures". Rainfall overall is rising in Guatemala, but at crucial points in the crop
cycle, there is notably less precipitation, which is severely affecting crops. Drought has caused small-scale farmers to lose 80% of their corn crops over the past two years.
There are other organisations besides Oxfam that have forecast possibly disastrous food shortages
and price increases. According to a recent study published in the journal Environmental Research
Letters, large drops in the yields of key crops including spring wheat, maize, and soybeans could
result from an increase in heat extremes during critical times for crops. Leaked versions of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's upcoming report indicate that it will likely predict hikes in food prices.
In the unavoidable event of a climate disruption, Oxfam offers some recommendations on how
national governments may ready themselves to lower the risk of mass famine. The panel
recommended, among other things, that the right to food be become a legal requirement, that safety- net programmes like school lunches be expanded, and that small-scale farmers be given more support through irrigation and other means. But as the authors of the report point out, adaptation has its bounds. Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions is the best thing we can do to lessen the pain that global warming causes to humans. If not, there will be a great deal of starvation, extreme poverty among farmers and fishers, and resentment towards paying too much for coffee.
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