Spreading deserts threaten world food supply

[rodeodance]

Source: (Reuters)

Spreading deserts threaten world food supply

By Robert Evans Fri Aug 31, 11:04 AM ET

GENEVA (Reuters) - Spreading deserts and degradation of farm land due to climate change will pose a serious threat to food supplies for the world's surging population in coming years, a senior United Nations scientist warned on Friday.


M.V.K. Sivakumar of the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the crunch could come in just over a decade as all continents see more weather-related disasters like heat waves, floods, landslides and wildfires.

"Should we worry about land being degraded? Yes," Sivakumar, who leads the WMO's agricultural meteorology division, told a news conference in Geneva.

"Today we feed the present world population of 6.3 billion from the 11 per cent of the land surface that can be used for serious food production. The question is: Will we be able to feed the 8.2 billion that we expect to populate the globe in 2020 if even less land is available for farming?," he said

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070831/sc_nm/food_dc;_ylt=AqvKM81.NhvVZ6SsmIT9Qf6s0NUE

[aquart]

1. Famine, anyone?

[no_hypocrisy]

2. I remember learning that the Sahara Desert in Africa at one time was one of the

lushest, most productive farmland, and its overuse converted it into barren, arid land. With the new rage for growing corn for biofuel, and not rotating crops accordingly (among other things), I can easily predict future dust bowls that will exceed those of the Depression.

[ozymandius]

3. Really, it was massive climate change during the Eocene era.

The Tethys Sea stretched from Asia to Europe, nearly halfway across the world. The Sahara was once part of the fertile land dominated by lush mangrove forests. The climate change catalyst was the formation of polar ice caps.