How Do We Prevent a Food Crisis in the Midst of Climate Change?

Abstract

The current global warming trends are extremely likely to be the result of human social and economic activity since the middle of the 20th century (NASA 2018). Evidence of rapid climate change varies and includes global average temperature increases, seawater temperature increases, ice sheet loss, glacier retreats, snowfall reduction, rising sea levels, the retreat of Arctic sea ice, and extreme events. In particular, the impacts of extreme events due to climate change, such as droughts, floods, and typhoons, along with the average temperature rise due to global warming, are especially important for considerations surrounding food security. Indeed, climate change will have far-reaching influences on crop, livestock, and fisheries production and will change the prevalence of crop pests (Campbell et al. 2016). As a consequence of the vast impact of increasing climate change on food production systems, food security might be threatened (Islam and Wong 2017). The World Bank (2017) reported that food shortages due to drought are severe enough to affect 80 million people per day. Currently, 400 extreme weather events occur on average each year, and global climate change continuously increases climate hazards. These effects are more severe in poor countries and result in problems including housing shortages, poverty, and famine (Oxfam 2018). Climate change, in particular, could give rise to food crises, which would intensify poverty.