This paper seeks to identify and evaluate potential implications of global climate change on food security within developing nations. This analysis will also identify and examine key causes of climate change and how it effects the food supply specifically within the Global South, as well as what explains the variation in how global climate change impacts developed versus developing nations. For the purposes of this paper, the terms “developing nations” and “the Global South” will be used interchangeably.
Global agriculture, and thus the world food supply, face the reality of a changing climate, as well as the known challenge of feeding a world population that is projected by the United Nations to reach over 9 billion by the year 2050. The …show more content…
Global warming is causing climate patterns to change; however, global warming itself represents only one aspect of climate change (“Climate Change: Basic Information” 1). Climate change encompasses global warming, but refers to the broader range of changes that are occurring, i.e., any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time, including major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, as well as rising sea levels, shrinking of glaciers, and shifts in flower/plant blooming times, among other effects, that occur over several decades or longer (“Climate Change: Basic Information 1). According to Strzepek, climate change could have far-reaching effects on patterns of trade among nations, development, and food security (28). The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines food security as having been achieved when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life, and is composed of four fundamental elements – availability, access, utilization, and …show more content…
The world’s most complete temperature tracking records (NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climactic Data Center, and the UK Meteorological Office’s Hadley Centre) began in 1880 to collect temperature data from thousands of weather stations worldwide to measure and assess global temperature changes. In 1896, Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius predicted that a doubling of CO2 would lead to an increase in average global temperatures of 5 to 6 degrees Celsius but calculated that it would take another 3,000 years of fossil fuel burning to reach a doubling of CO2, and that it would unequivocally be a good thing as people would be able to enjoy more equable and better climates (Leiserowitz 1). However, in the 20th century alone, global temperatures have increased by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century alone. It was not until the 1950s that scientific assessment of the potential consequences of climate change began to shift with the publication of a paper by Roger Revelle and Hans Suess of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Charles
Global agriculture, and thus the world food supply, face the reality of a changing climate, as well as the known challenge of feeding a world population that is projected by the United Nations to reach over 9 billion by the year 2050. The …show more content…
Global warming is causing climate patterns to change; however, global warming itself represents only one aspect of climate change (“Climate Change: Basic Information” 1). Climate change encompasses global warming, but refers to the broader range of changes that are occurring, i.e., any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time, including major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, as well as rising sea levels, shrinking of glaciers, and shifts in flower/plant blooming times, among other effects, that occur over several decades or longer (“Climate Change: Basic Information 1). According to Strzepek, climate change could have far-reaching effects on patterns of trade among nations, development, and food security (28). The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines food security as having been achieved when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life, and is composed of four fundamental elements – availability, access, utilization, and …show more content…
The world’s most complete temperature tracking records (NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climactic Data Center, and the UK Meteorological Office’s Hadley Centre) began in 1880 to collect temperature data from thousands of weather stations worldwide to measure and assess global temperature changes. In 1896, Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius predicted that a doubling of CO2 would lead to an increase in average global temperatures of 5 to 6 degrees Celsius but calculated that it would take another 3,000 years of fossil fuel burning to reach a doubling of CO2, and that it would unequivocally be a good thing as people would be able to enjoy more equable and better climates (Leiserowitz 1). However, in the 20th century alone, global temperatures have increased by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century alone. It was not until the 1950s that scientific assessment of the potential consequences of climate change began to shift with the publication of a paper by Roger Revelle and Hans Suess of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Charles