Crop Failures and Drought Within Our Children's Lifetimes

[unhappycamper]

Crop Failures and Drought Within Our Children's Lifetimes
by Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published on Tuesday, November 30, 2010 by The Independent/UK

Children today are likely to reach old age in a world that is 4C warmer, where the 10,000-year certainties of the global climate can no longer be relied on, and widespread crop failures, drought, flooding and mass migration of the dispossessed become a part of everyday life.

This dire scenario could come as early as the 2060s - well within the lifetime of today's young people. It could mark the point when, for the first time since the end of the Ice Age, human civilisation has to cope with a highly unstable and unpredictable global climate.

A series of detailed scientific assessments of this possible "four-degree world", published today, documents for the first time the immense problems posed if the average global temperature rises by 4C above pre-industrial levels - a possibility that many experts believe is increasingly likely.

The international climate negotiations which resume this week in Cancun, Mexico, are aimed at keeping global temperatures within the "safe" limit of a 2C increase. But many scientists believe that, based on current trends, a rise of 3C or 4C is far more likely.

The greatest concern is that a 4C increase in global average temperatures - a temperature difference as great as that between now and the last Ice Age - would create dramatic transformations in the world, leading to water shortages, the collapse of agriculture in semi-arid regions and triggering a catastrophic rise in sea levels in coastal areas.

[XemaSab]

1. There's no way we can possibly keep things within ANY limit

It's out of our hands at this point.

[SpiralHawk]

2. Hell, how about our lifetimes....? It is here already

"For those who monitor developments on the land and with our food, the darkness fairly gushes from the latest report from the UNs Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

"In November the FAO warned that world food price increases are “dangerously close” to crisis level. This level was last attained in 2008 — a year when prices peaked as a consequence of unstable climate, crops being used for biofuels, and raw financial speculation for profit. In the gnawing aftermath of that upward spike in prices came increasing dearness and scarcity of food staples, then political instability, and finally food riots in over a dozen nations. Darkness.

"Just now, according to the latest FAO report, the broad global index that they employ to measure food prices has risen to 197 points and is accelerating upward. This mark is stumbling close to an index value of 200 points, which was the point at which the food riots erupted two years ago."

http://thecalloftheland.wordpress.com/

[elocs]

3. Between the disastrous consequences of climate change and the collapse of the American empire,

it's not going to be a pleasant world or life for our children.