Billions Face Food Shortages, Study Warns
Friday 09 January 2009
by: Ian Sample, The Guardian UK
Climate change may ruin farming in tropics by 2100. Record temperatures to become normal in Europe.
Half of the world's population could face severe food shortages by the end of the century as rising temperatures take their toll on farmers' crops, scientists have warned.
Harvests of staple food crops such as rice and maize could fall by between 20% and 40% as a result of higher temperatures during the growing season in the tropics and subtropics. Warmer temperatures in the region are also expected to increase the risk of drought, cutting crop losses further, according to a new study.
The worst of the food shortages are expected to hit the poor, densely inhabited regions of the equatorial belt, where demand for food is already soaring because of a rapid growth in population... http://www.truthout.org/011109A
Billions Face Food Shortages
This is a big problem. Food shortages. People starving. This study doesn't even take into account the problem of dwindling energy supplies, which will also negatively impact food production. If human were to take this issue seriously, then it will begin intensive programs in earnest—and starting now—to address the problem of overpopulation. With adequate efforts toward education and economic equity, the problem of overpopulation can be rectified with a minimum of harm over the course of a few generations. What it is going to take is intentional curtailment: the conscious awareness of the problem by most people, and the subsequent decision to limit reproduction to one child per couple. This is just plain necessary to bringing the needs of the human population back into line with the abilities of the planet to provide for them. Check out this article I found on Truthout.org:
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The problem is economists. Until now, none have been able to envision a world with a thriving economy that isn' dependent on population growth to stoke economic growth.
ReplyDeleteRampant population growth threatens our economy and quality of life. I'm not talking about the obvious environmental and resource problems. I'm talking about the effect upon rising unemployment and poverty.
I should introduce myself. I am the author of a book titled "Five Short Blasts: A New Economic Theory Exposes The Fatal Flaw in Globalization and Its Consequences for America." To make a long story short, my theory is that, as population density rises beyond some optimum level, per capita consumption of products begins to decline out of the need to conserve space. People who live in crowded conditions simply don’t have enough space to use and store many products. This declining per capita consumption, in the face of rising productivity (per capita output, which always rises), inevitably yields rising unemployment and poverty.
This theory has huge implications for U.S. policy toward population management. Our policies that encourage high rates of population growth are rooted in the belief of economists that population growth is a good thing, fueling economic growth. Through most of human history, the interests of the common good and business (corporations) were both well-served by continuing population growth. For the common good, we needed more workers to man our factories, producing the goods needed for a high standard of living. This population growth translated into sales volume growth for corporations. Both were happy.
But, once an optimum population density is breached, their interests diverge. It is in the best interest of the common good to stabilize the population, avoiding an erosion of our quality of life through high unemployment and poverty. However, it is still in the interest of corporations to fuel population growth because, even though per capita consumption goes into decline, total consumption still increases. We now find ourselves in the position of having corporations and economists influencing public policy in a direction that is not in the best interest of the common good.
If you’re interested in learning more about this important new economic theory, I invite you to visit either of my web sites at OpenWindowPublishingCo.com or PeteMurphy.wordpress.com where you can read the preface, join in my blog discussion and, of course, purchase the book if you like. (It's also available at Amazon.com.)
Please forgive the somewhat spammish nature of the previous paragraph. I just don't know how else to inject this new perspective into the overpopulation debate without drawing attention to the book that explains the theory.
Pete Murphy
Author, "Five Short Blasts"