Climate Change Expanding Food Insecurity

Due to global warming, our original food sources may not be available in the coming years. Because of the high-sea levels predicted for our future, some animals will lose their habitat. When this happens, if they’re unable to find shelter elsewhere, they will be at a higher risk of going extinct. Additionally, crops would be harder to maintain with the unpredictable weather patterns as a result of climate change.

CROP REGRESSION RELATIONSHIPS

Tracking our current crop regression relationships is essential in determining what crops are depleting more abundantly than others. With this information, we can understand what crops are most affected by climate change and what measures we should follow for our future.

According to Deepak Ray’s (et al.) research, “results show that impacts are mostly negative in Europe, Southern Africa, and Australia but generally positive in Latin America. Impacts in Asia and Northern and Central America are mixed” (2019).

This shows that it is already hard to find available crops in countries with higher food insecurity. The depletion has already begun. By taking temperature and precipitation into account, we can see how these patterns have affected the most essential and prevalent crops. We can determine which areas are better for specific crops and work together to nurture these crops in places where they aren’t negatively impacted.

In a utopian society, we’d be able to achieve this nurturing process as equals, dividing the crops equally among countries. However, we are working with different societies that deal with food security differently. We must protect and allow these crops to thrive if we want to see them in the future.

FOOD INSECURITY

Climate change has drastically impacted countries facing food insecurity. While food insecurity is caused by various factors such as food accessibility and nutrition, we can recognize climate change’s impact by evaluating crop production where food security is an issue.

For instance, “we find that recent climate change had decreased consumable calories in 27 countries and increased in 26 (S4 Table). Losses in consumable calories compared to total consumed food calories annually were particularly great in southern parts of the African continent, such as in Zimbabwe (-7.2%), Malawi (-6.5%), and Mozambique (-2.8%); in western Africa such as in Mali (-3.9%) and Ghana (-3.8%); and in Asia such as in India (-0.8%), and Nepal (-2.2%)” (Ray 2019).

In other words, countries have lower consumable caloric rates that mean it is harder for them to obtain access to crops as easily as before. People are going hungry. The world’s hunger rate will rise as long as we aren’t doing all we can to slow down this global warming process.

With climate change on the rise, it’s essential that we collaboratively do as much for our environment as we can right now. From here, it will only get worse unless we make dramatic changes to our society and how we each go about our daily lives. As Gandhi once said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Ray, D., West, P., Clark, M., Gerber, J., Prishchepov, A., & Chatterjee, S. (2019). Climate change has likely already affected global food production. PloS One, 14(5), e0217148–. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217148