At this alarming rate, that imagined dystopian enclave might become a reality and nothing suggests we are not getting there. One unfortunate impact of climate change is food security, which has always been a key concern for sustainable development. COVID 19 has had some adverse impact on the cost of food and could worsen with climate change. Extreme weather conditions, a shift in consumption habits have converged to raise foods prices globally by 28 percent, according to FAO Food price index. There is no expectation that this trend will reverse anytime soon. Climate experts have warned that this trend could lead to trade restrictions and stock piling and ultimately food insecurities.
A world of hurt
Going forward extreme weather can be anticipated in various spots on the globe every year. These incidences have to be treated as the new normal as many regional baskets come under attacked from unprecedented high temperatures that cause record droughts and the carnage of wild fires. Deluge of floods have also been witnessed in the last year. These global reaching events all conglomerated have had an impact on livestock and crops. Already the costs are being witnesses in food prices, from bread, tomatoes to beef. One word to describe the adverse weather events of the past year, ‘unprecedented’. In mid-July, the Henan province in China was hit with a year worth if rain in a matter of three days, a phenomenon never seen in the past 1 000 years. In the Philippines and India, massive potential rainfalls caused mass evacuations and crop damages.
Global hunger stares at its citizens
Drought has exacerbated hunger in some of the poorest countries in the world. There comes Africa! Southern Madagascar is in the throes of the worst drought in 4 years. People and children are living on cactus leaves and whatever they can scrounge around. World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley stated that there have been back-to-back droughts which have pushed communities right to the very edge of starvation. At this particular moment, 1 million Madagascans are food insecure with no access to safe, sufficient nutritious food. There is a consensus about the cause of this crisis, climate change. With disaster following disaster, even the biblical tale of God sending 10 plagues to punish humanity for its evil is being replayed. Over a year ago, the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen experienced the world desert locust outbreak, triggered by record remains. In Ethiopia only, 356 000 tons of cereal were lost, leaving millions of people food insecure.
Climate chaos breeds food insecurity and political instability
A downside to the current malaise of food insecurities is now apparent for many global citizens. Food inflation is now real for many governments. Higher food prices tend to result in political unrest, even in those countries where such actions are constrained. In the past year Kuwait recorded temperatures of 53.2° Celsius (127.7° Fahrenheit). The same record-breaking temperatures were observed in neighbouring Iraq and Japan. These heat waves are a threat for global food prices and supplies. Iran saw protests over the rising cost of food, with the protests now political, calling on the removal of the government. All this is over food insecurities.
Climate breakdown
Presently, almost all policy makers and scientists agree that the underlying cause of the current crisis is hundred years of human activity causing the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that the adverse impacts of global warming will be painfully apparent before a child born today turns the age of 30.
An urgent need for ‘transformational change’
The need for transformational change has never been so urgent. Transformational change has to be started at all levels; individual, communities, business, institutions and governments. We must redefine our way of life and consumption. A recent paper by Ortiz-Bobea has shown that climate change has erased seven years of improvements in agricultural productivity in the last 60 years. Climate smart agriculture could hold the key.
