This blog was originally based on a course ran by Professor Nick Gray of the Trinity Centre for the Environment at Trinity College Dublin who also wrote a textbook for the module Facing up to global warming: What is going on and what you can do about it. Now working as an independent consultant, Nick continues to work in the area of environmental sustainability and looking at ways of making a difference without recriminations or guilt. Saving the planet is all about living sustainably.


Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Future Food Shortage Crisis

The plight that climate change has caused has been documented to death such to the extent that people have become immune to hearing about holes in the ozone layer and the melting icecaps. For some reason it seems people still cannot grasp the seriousness of the situation and how these changes will affect their lives and the lives of their successors.  For that reason this blog will address something we can all associate with, one of the most basic fundamental commodities we all need for survival and yet is something most take for granted. I am talking about food.
It was estimated that in 2010 13.6% of the world’s population was undernourished. This in itself is startling, however what is even more starling and worrying is the fact that it is estimated that our global population will double in the next ninety years. This means more people to feed with even less resources than now due to the rapid effects of global warming such as desertification,  higher temperatures and rising sea-levels. Ireland is an agricultural island nation, this fact means we will be very badly affected by these changes as we will be forced to change agricultural methods, try and produce climate-resistant crops and deal with the rising sea- levels that will claim fertile land. These revelations beg to question how it will be possible to provide for double the amount of people that are alive now when we cannot even provide for the current number of people adequately. The horrible truth is that realistically we will not be able to. That is of course unless we try to make a change now.
There is no point in lying and saying we can undo the harm we as a population have already caused because we cannot. However, we can prevent further damage and prolong the time we have before we have to face this crisis. With this valuable extra time we may be able to develop climate-resistant crops and introduce new methods for agriculture. Therefore, it is important that we make a change and commit to living sustainably through reducing carbon emissions and helping to control the rising global population.
Kate Hinchion

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