According to a report issued by the United Nations on Food Crises 2020, climate change and other extreme weather events are among the main factors that have caused the recent rise in hunger and food insecurity in the world, with 34 million people experiencing severe weather-induced food insecurity. During 2019, an increase of 17% over 2018.
An official in one of the environmental organizations says that the greater the phenomena of climate change, the more negatively it affects the sustainability of food and leads to unfavorable repercussions in some countries, such as a decrease in the food security index, the impact of agricultural soils, and the weakness of water resources.
– Food production
A university professor says that climate change has several impacts that threaten food security in the world, including an impact on food production; Because when the temperature rises, many crops will be less productive.
He pointed out that there are expectations that the total food production in the world will decrease by 10 to 15% due to global warming, and climatic changes affect water resources, as climate changes mean an increase in temperature, which leads to more evaporation in the carrier water resources. As well as the effects on the agricultural soils, which deteriorate after rising temperatures and cause the accumulation and sedimentation of their salts. Climate changes also affect livestock and fisheries; As a result of the increased dissolution of carbon dioxide in salt water and oceans, which leads to acidification of sea and ocean waters, which affects fish life.
And that the rise in temperatures will lead to the melting of an amount of Arctic ice, and then the rise in sea levels in general in the world between 10 to 50 cm, until 2050, which in turn will affect some rivers, especially low deltas, the most important of which is the Nile Delta. The Ganges, and the Mekong, where part of the delta lands begin to submerge in these areas, threaten citizens’ lives.
One of the environmental specialists said that climate changes have a detrimental effect on the lives of all human beings, as they will affect the provision of food needs for citizens or the amount of fresh water available to each person in the world, noting that the world’s population is 7.2 billion people, who will reach about 9.7 billion in 2050, An increase of about a third or more.
He added that about 2 billion of the world’s population suffer from shortage and malnutrition. About 700 million suffer from hunger and climate changes, and the limited amount of fresh water and cultivated land areas will increase poverty and hunger. Many problems will occur, pointing out that the most affected areas by Climate change are the desert regions of Africa, the Middle East, and the Gulf region because they are more exposed to and affected by climate changes worldwide.
And that the threat of climatic changes to food security varies according to the region, and its impact on climate changes, as the loss of 20% of arable land threatens the abundance of global food, with the increase in the rate of desertification, pointing out that the rise in global temperature by half a degree causes many problems, both in the quantity Crops or in the availability of fresh water.
According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global warming may increase to 183 million hungry people by 2050.
– High desertification
The Secretary-General of environmental experts in one of the organizations says that climate change significantly affects the agricultural land, as the drying of the agricultural field accompanies the temperature. Instead of irrigation twice a month, the land will need to be rinsed every week or every three days, which is difficult in countries that suffer from desertification. He added that the rising temperature would turn the cultivated land into scorched land.
A recent study issued by the United Nations Development Program a few days ago indicated that the world spends about 423 billion dollars annually to subsidize the consumption of fossil fuels, which is equal to 4 times the amount required to help poor countries cope with the climate. This amount is sufficient to cover the estimated annual cost of eliminating absolute poverty in the world three times.
