Climate crisis could trigger mass famine and migration! Latest report: Earth can still be saved, but this is necessary… Global warming and the climate change crisis are worsening daily. A new UN report released on the 8th focuses on the impact on “land,” showing that global land resources are facing unprecedented threats, severely impacting humanity’s ability to “feed itself,” and leading to more frequent large-scale migrations, causing political instability and conflict in many countries—including the United States and Europe. The homes of 500 million people are undergoing “desertification.” This report, co-authored by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and over 100 scholars from 52 countries, points out that nearly three-quarters of the world’s ice-free land is affected by human activities, and the homes of 500 million people are undergoing “desertification.” Soil loss is 10 to 100 times faster than it was formed, greenhouse gas emissions from chemical fertilizers have increased ninefold in half a century, and the rate of increase in average surface temperature is twice that of the global average. On August 8, 2019, IPCC Chair Lee Hoe-sung released a report stating that global warming and climate change are severely impacting human land use and food production (AP). Extreme weather events brought on by climate change will exacerbate these challenges, disrupting and reducing food supplies. Currently, over 10% of the global population is malnourished. Food shortages will force more people to leave their homes and cross borders. Between 2010 and 2015, droughts in the small Central American countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala led to a fivefold increase in the number of people flocking to the US-Mexico border. Professor Dave Reay of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland described this as a "perfect storm": "Limited land, a burgeoning population, all wrapped in the suffocating blanket of the climate crisis. The Earth has never been smaller, and the threat to our natural ecosystems has never been more immediate." While time is running out, if humanity can... However, the report's authors also point to a glimmer of hope: despite the growing urgency, if humanity can comprehensively adjust land use, agricultural practices, and consumer behavior—increasing land productivity, promoting crop diversity, reducing food waste, and reducing the consumption of meat like beef and lamb—then the food crisis can be overcome. The prerequisite is to act now! Beyond saving the planet and agriculture, these actions will also improve human health, alleviate poverty, and save the vast swaths of wildlife that are disappearing. However, if humanity fails to take drastic action, a severe food crisis is inevitable. As global temperatures continue to rise, droughts, floods, heat waves, and wildfires will become more frequent, accelerating soil loss and land degradation (erosion, desertification, and sea level rise), reducing crop yields, and harming livestock. Agricultural and livestock development can also exacerbate climate change. Agricultural development itself can also exacerbate climate change. For example, in places like Malaysia and Indonesia, the draining of wetlands to plant palm oil and produce palm oil causes the underlying peatlands to release large amounts of carbon dioxide. Scholars estimate that peatlands globally store between 530 and 694 billion tons of carbon dioxide. Every 2.5 acres of peatland releases the equivalent of burning 6,000 gallons of gasoline. The same is true for livestock farming. Methane emitted by cattle is a more potent greenhouse gas. Furthermore, the high global demand for beef is leading to the clearing of more and more forests for pasture, with the Amazon rainforest being a striking example. Globally, deforestation contributes to greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 600 million cars off the road each year. Planting large numbers of trees may seem like the only way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but consideration must be given to land needed for crops and livestock. Scholars estimate that if humanity fully pursues afforestation, while it could reduce emissions by up to 9 billion tons per year by 2050, it would also cause food prices to rise by up to 80%, making it an unrealistic solution. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest is severe (Ibama from Brasil – Operação Hymenaea, Julho 2016 @ Wikipedia / CC BY 2.0). Maintaining the 1.5-degree temperature increase! On the other hand, regardless of the method, scholars hope to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (currently about 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels). If this limit is not maintained, for example, with a 2-degree rise, approximately 100 million more people worldwide could face famine. Caterina Brandmayr, a policy analyst at the Green Alliance think tank, stated, "The key message from the IPCC is urgency: we must act now to plant new forests, restore our ecosystems, and eat less meat." (Source: Storm Media, August 9, 2019)
