Читать книгу The Atlas of Food - Erik Millstone - Страница 21

Predicting the impact of climate change on food production is difficult because so many factors are involved. It is reasonable to assume that a rise in sea-level, already occurring as a result of thermal expansion, will affect low-lying cropland in countries such as Bangladesh, either by inundating it, or by leading to the intrusion of saltwater into underground aquifers, making the land too saline for agriculture, and reducing the availability of fresh water for irrigation or drinking. Weather patterns are becoming increasingly unpredictable. Intense tropical storms at unseasonable times damage crops and increase food insecurity, as do prolonged droughts. Agriculture is adaptable, however. Crops can be planted and harvested at different times, and new varieties developed that are more tolerant of stress than those now in use. In Asia, where there is little room for expansion of the agricultural area, global warming may actually enable farmers to move higher up mountain slopes and to more northerly latitudes. But even if, with a changing climate, the total quantity of food produced remained stable by increasing production in some regions, it is probable that productivity in other regions, including South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, will decline, making hundreds of millions of people increasingly dependent on imported food, with serious political, economic and social consequences.

Copyright © Myriad Editions

22 Organic Farming; 23 Greenhouse Gases

23