A case of "as good as it goes"
This is a letter I wrote to Radio New Zealand after hearing the documentary:
This is a letter I wrote to Radio New Zealand after hearing the documentary:
Let
me first of all congratulate Radio NZ and Inight in particular, for
covering a topic that is almost taboo.
Unfortunately,
It is not a matter any more a question of a gap between the human
population and the ability of of the earth to sustain it; indeed not
only a question of «climate change».
Rather
it is a matter of rapid, exponential and irreversible climate change.
Back
in 1990 it was said that 1C would produce catastrophic and
irreversible clmate change (sorry, I have lost the actual quote. the
2C you mentioned has little relevance apart from being a new
political target as a result of 30 years inaction.
Instead
we have reached .89C above baseline, 401 ppm of CO2 which the world
has not seen since warm-blooded mammals have walked the earth. Not
only that, but the current situation represents the delayed result of
greenhouse gasses released into the atmosphere 40 years ago.
Further
warming is already «baked into the pie» whether we reduce
greenhouse emissions or not.
In
a world of 4C the land (at least in continental land masses) will be
so hot that protein breaks down and the seas so acidic that they will
not sustain phytoplanktons.
The
implications for agriculture and the ability of humans to feed
themselves are even more dire than that and imply, not only
increasing difficulty in feeding extra population but implies a loss
in the ability of humans to feed themselves, period.
We
may well be looking down the barrel of a mass extinction event.
Climate Tough Crops Help Food Insecurity
3 August, 2014
Super Typhoons and record temperatures hog the global warming headlines, but weather changes are also threatening the ability of farmers to grow food.
Specialists
from plant breeders, to human rights advocates to climate scientists
all told Radio New Zealand's Insightthe
ability to have secure and reliable food production will deteriorate
as the planet heats up.
Rice
crops, such as this paddy in Hoi An Vietnam, are under pressure from
changing weather.
Photo: RNZ
/ Benedict Collins
The
challenges to the farmer appear to be ever increasing, be they longer
and more extreme droughts, changing rainfall patterns or an increased
exposure to seawater damage.
In
turn, crops that have been relied on for thousands of years, such as
rice, are under pressure.
In
many parts of the Pacific traditional crops are already failing due
to droughts and rising sea levels.
Traditional
Pacific crops, such as these in Solomon Islands, are failing in the
face of extreme weather and rising water levels.
Photo: RNZ
/ Annell Husband
The
human rights organisation, Oxfam, works in the region and its climate
change spokesperson Jason Garman said it's the poorest and most
vulnerable communities in the Pacific that "are the first and
worst affected".
He
says the impact on food in the Pacific region is plain for all to
see.
"You look at a place like Kiribati, it's littered with dead coconut palm trees there's nothing left on the top so those coconut palms are getting polluted with salt water but you also have drought situations where it's so dry that the coconut trees can't survive."
In
the Marshall Islands, saltwater pollution and severe droughts have
led to deteriorating food security and a population increasingly
reliant on food aid.
Mr
Garman says it's the countries who have put the least greenhouse
gasses into the atmosphere that are paying the highest price in terms
of food insecurity.
New
varieties of rice are being bred to withstand weather extremes and
greater soil salinity.
Photo: RNZ
/ Benedict Collins
But
its not just the Pacific where agriculture is being affected, the
latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report sounded a
warning for key crops like wheat and maize.
A
contributing author Dr Andy Reisinger says yields are dropping below
what they could have been were it not for climate change.
He
says gains in wheat and maize yields are now slowing, while the
population soars with 200,000 more people on Earth everyday and those
in developing countries are the worst affected.
The
warmer the planet gets the more food supply will be disrupted.
And
it's food grown in tropical parts of the world such as the Pacific
Islands, parts of Africa and South East Asia - particularly by small
scale farmers with few resources - that experts believe could
be hardest hit.
Crop
Research
To
counter these predicted outcomes, considerable scientific research is
being undertaken to try to ensure plants can cope with any
change in climate.
Organisations
who oversee food production, like the World Vegetable Centre in
Taiwan are doing what they can to try to develop new varieties that
can cope with more extreme temperatures.
The word's largest public collection of vegetable seeds are in a cold store held at the World Vegetable Centre in Taiwan. Photo: RNZ / Benedict Collins
Spokesperson
Maureen Mecoozi says the centre's breeding programme is utilising the
biggest public vegetable seed collection in the world to develop on
new lines of vegetables and trees that can better cope with heat and
drought.
"We're doing a lot of work on heat tolerance in the crops that we work on...
trying to develop lines that have good heat tolerance tolerance for drought and other environmental stress because we know farmers are going to be facing those issues and we want to be able to help them."
Ms
Mecozzi says the World Vegetable Centre is also doing what it can to
educate farmers and growers in developing countries how to maximise
what they do grow without it going to waste, especially as they are
stored or packed and taken to market.
Farmers
struggle not to waste food as they get their goods to a market stall
like this one selling salted duck eggs in Taiwan.
Photo: RNZ
/ Benedict Collins
She
says if the world wasn't wasting close to a third of the food it
grows, it would go a long way to meeting the future demand.
The
International Rice Research Institute is also carrying out breeding
work on the vital crop which provides 20 percent of the world's
dietary energy supply.
A
representative from its office in Hanoi, Leo Sebastian, says one new
strain is submarine rice, intended for growers in the Mekong Delta
where sea levels are rising. The rice is able to survive for a
fortnight under water.
It's
also breeding greater salt and drought tolerance into crops.
But
there is little plant breeders, farmers or anyone can do in the face
of the more extreme weather that comes with a warmer climate.
Rajendra
Aryal the United Nations Food and Agriculture representative in the
Phillippines, explains that in November 2013 Super Typhoon Haiyan
obliterated food production in that country.
"The
impact of Typhoon Haiyan on the livelihood of small farmers and
fisherfolk was devastating... nearly 130,000 families were affected,
600,000 hectares of land were devastated, 33 million coconut trees
were affected, out of that 15 million trees were just on the ground."
Oxfam's
Jason Garman fears if nothing's done to address greenhouse gas
emissions the world could be heading towards a four or five degree
celcius average warming increase.
When
it comes to food production, he says that means the world is digging
itself a deeper and deeper hole.
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