Climate Change and World Food Crisis

At a meeting in Budapest, scientists from the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have offered ominous warnings about the nexus between climate change and world hunger.  The Nobel Peace Prize winning body of researchers  are seriously concerned that climate change in coming decades will cause more intense floods in the Northern Hemisphere and droughts in the south and in arid areas, which may lead to a global food crisis.

They have suggested that the particular regions that will suffer water shortages include the Mediterranean Sea basin, the western United States, parts of southern Africa and northeastern Brazil.  At the meeting, it was noted that the marked decline of water quantity and quality would have a adverse impact on health and result in more areas affected by water stress which affects both drinking water and agriculture. 

One of the co-authors of the IPCC report concluded water depletion would be one of the primary results of climate change.

“Everybody pretty much agrees that water is central to the way climate change is going to affect ecosystems and every human being,” said Kathleen Miller, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. “It’s one of the key things that we depend on.”