Climate Change Leaves One in six countries facing food shortage

In what could be the result of global warming and extreme drought conditions which seem to continue to grow on a global scale, leaving farmers world wide with shortages of available crops and even worse, combined with world population growth scientists now warn that these severe drought conditions could now become "simi-permanent" under climate change.



If true, perhaps starvation in the future could be a far greater threat to humanity than terrorism or war.

This could be nature's way of controlling our population.. or could it be a part of our own undoing?

Mankind can survive wars, and many other things... can humanity survive the ultimate climate change.. extreme global warming, followed by a thousand years of ice age?

How many will we watch starve to death this time while we look the other way?

On a personal level.. the global warming may or may not have a great deal to do with these starving nations.. I am wondering what is or can be done about it now?




Related Links From The Same News Source:

Famine

Debt relief

Global population

Related ATS Discussion:

Conspiracy to Remove Evidence of Climate Change?



[edit on 29-6-2005 by UM_Gazz]

I was debating on whether or not I should start a new topic but yours looks close enough. I was also wondering what solutions may be out there to combat global warming other than reducing emissions of greenhouse gases or putting a ring of particles into space. I thought I read at one time the possibility that something such as iron or some other material could be dumped out across a vast area of the ocean and combine with the CO2 in the water taking it out of circulation. If the CO2 concentration dropped significantly, perhaps the oceans would absorb more out of the atmosphere and global CO2 levels would drop. I'm not sure if iron would do the trick or if something else would be required or how much material would be required. Anyone heard anything along this line of thinking to combat global warming?

Originally posted by orionthehunter
I was debating on whether or not I should start a new topic but yours looks close enough. I was also wondering what solutions may be out there to combat global warming other than reducing emissions of greenhouse gases or putting a ring of particles into space.

If you check the link posted in my above post "Conspiracy to Remove Evidence of Climate Change?" You will see that there has been an effort to cover up or at least change evidence of climate change.. And mainly the causes that have contributed to it.

You want to know what can be done? ... all I can say at this time.. NOTHING!!

And you know what is worse than that?... No one really cares... This will be one of those events in human history that will not matter until it catches up to you and has a profound affect on your own lives.

Until then it seems that to most who will read this or anything ralted to this topic .. it will not matter!

Sometimes people not only have to see what is ahead.. they have to feel it to have a desire to take action. ... Usually when it is too late!





[edit on 29-6-2005 by UM_Gazz]

Get ready to see and ignore many more faces like these in the future..















Will it only matter to you when more of these faces are white?

Or when they are much closer to your own homes?

I would just like to say that there are just as many scientists as there are theories on this. Some things to consider:

1. We are just coming out of solar maxima e.g. peak solar activity cycles. I'm sorry to say but the energy us feeble humans pump into the system pales in comparison to the massive amount of energy coming from the Sun during these increased solar cycles. What's all that energy do - don't know but I'm sure it does something....

2. We only just realized the massive influence of the El Nino, La Nina phenomenon. Effects in Africa due to these effects are not well known yet (there are similar current cycles in South Atlantic and in the Indian Ocean).

3. Africa and the people in many countries are unfortunate victims of really bad government. Most people migrate to areas with water and arable land but not in many of these areas due to the political problems. I'm sorry but more aid will not fix the problem. People need to abandon the nomadic plains existence and move to where they can work and live a decent life. Kinda sucks to say that but that is the reality. They also need a government and industries that can compete on the international scale and so provide/raise the development investment necessary to support this change.

Long term climate change is dicey to predict at best. The Earth has gone thru many upheavals without man's intervention. They are likely to occur again and do not forget that the Earth ecosystem is basically self regulating and has been for millions of years. Again, there is a lot more energy coming from the big light bulb in the sky than us puny humans....

the climate change is only going to get worse in my opion. i cannot see how global warming can be slowed down, let alone stopped.

is it reversible? i dont think so.


i feel climate change is already in effect. i dont see the same weather i used to get.

the farming issue is another thing. i myself am in agriculture. i have nothing more to say here that i havnt said elsewhere except that GM products wont cure these problems either.

Although Europe is not anywhere as badly affected as Africa, I thought I'd share this somewhat related story.
They are having droughts in Spain and are trying to use a high tech way to reduce them.

guardian
Using a special heat-absorbing fabric, scientists from Spain, Belgium and Israel are trying to create "islands of heat," which would accelerate air currents and favour the formation of rain clouds, according to Jesús Vigo of the University of Salamanca, who is leading the project.

The scheme was announced at a mathematics conference yesterday at the University of Alicante. In effect, scientists are trying to imitate a pattern commonly observed around cities in satellite images taken by Nasa's "rain radar".

The concentration of concrete and asphalt makes city air warmer than surrounding areas, according to a study by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre. The hot currents rise, blow and clash with the cooler suburban air. Under the right conditions, they form rain clouds. Because of this so-called "urban heat island" effect, monthly rainfall is about 28% greater between 20-40 miles downwind of cities, compared with upwind, the study found.

Another excuse to bury our heads in the sand: We can;t do anything about death and famine in Africa 'cos it's all down to global warming...

No it is not Global warming will, in fact, bring increased rainfall to Africa.

Meanwhile, evil mass-murders like Mugabe get away with, well, with murder..... Zimbabwe used to provide excess food even in severe droughts due to its highly efficent farms. The farms Mugabe destroyed.

If we want to change Africa and bring an end to famine and proverty, there needs to be a regime change. That is the only way we can do it.

Unfortunately starvation is not a new threat. Even during the 20th century, we saw famine situations in Europe.

Anyone else remember Ethiopia's famine, starting around 1973? It's still ongoing; the real tragedy to me, as Gazz has pointed out, is that "we" rarely think about it unless it's happening "to us".

Regime change isn't going to change the landscapes. Nor is it going to change desert encroachment brought on by misguided farming processes; we need to act as a global community and put a lot more effort into providing help where and when it's needed.

I wonder how many wells could be provided by the cost of your average SUV?





[edit on 30-6-2005 by Tinkleflower]