Agriculture has become a vicious cycle, producing a fifth of the world’s carbon emissions, which inevitably will inflict great harm on food production.
Prof Thomas Homer-Dixon, chairman of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, said carbon emissions were responsible for damage that comes with a price.
“If not slowed by the end of this century its consequences will continue to grow in severity. Our children will feel the effects. We experience atmospheric radiation imbalances every day. To phrase it in lay terms, it’s as consequential as 400 Hiroshima bombs a day,” he said.
“We need to adapt our agricultural production processes. It’s safe to say our climate is changing, our food must too.”
Predicting that rising temperatures and increased gas emissions will lead to larger storms, droughts and flooding, causing hardships to crop harvesting, he said, and that the Sub-Saharan Africa region would experience most of these challenges.
“The bottom line is we need to invest in agricultural adaptation,” Prof Homer-Dixon said. “We need to innovate and use technology to make our crops resilient.
“We need to prevent a widespread failure of global food systems that can only be done by serious lowering of emissions.”
nalwasmi@thenational.ae
