Hi everyone!
Here is a link to an article from The Guardian that states that the higher temperatures and unpredictable rain patterns could result in a 20% decrease in the growing season in the Horn of Africa.
Is climate change to blame for famine in the Horn of Africa? | Duncan Green | Global development | guardian.co.uk
Peace and blessings,
Yeshe
:flower2:
I lost track of this thread, so I missed this post yesterday. Your Guardian link adds some information on the situation in East Africa, but it drives me up the wall that mainstream media always have to take the cautious approach when talking about climate change, because they think that there has to be one single, sole cause of the drought in Africa, or the droughts in the American Southwest or floods elsewhere. Instead of just saying that they conclude: "The conclusion? Attributing the current drought directly to climate change is impossible" What is the point of that disclaimer when they add two sentences after: "worldwide, events like this have a higher probability of occurring as a result of climate change". Which should mean to anyone paying attention, that a warming atmosphere leads to greater extremes in weather.
Global warming doesn't have to be the only cause of a flood, a drought, a hurricane or a tornado...or just plain more volatile weather; but it means that we will average more extreme weather that will reduce crop yields as the years go by. I wish I had the 15 post count now, because I could show you a link to the Earth Policy Institute article by Lester Brown, which is showing that world grain production is going to fall far short of a hoped for 100 million ton surplus this year....which was needed to make up for the losses that have caused declines in inventory for the last three years. The bad weather in most grain producing nations indicates that 2011 will be another shortfall that will drive up prices even higher.
2008 was the last year of a bumper crop that exceeded expectations. If it wasn't for that, food prices would be double or triple what they are now, and we would be already in a world food crisis. A changing climate means the good years will be fewer and farther between. The problem now with food production, is that whether we use natural or GMO hybrids, all of our agriculture is based on plants developed over the last 5000 years -- a time of very stable weather compared to what we are heading into!
