Scarcity

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Food Scarcity in the Age of Rapid Climate Change

Some may find the materials in this recording triggering. Please proceed with care.

Welcome, Climate Enthusiast! Time is of the essence in the search for solutions to address food scarcity and climate change.

Take a moment to picture this:

empty shelves in the grocery,

crops on fire in the fields,

livestock collapsing and perishing where they stand,

or perhaps no grocery store,

fish floating dead in the sea,

millions of people bone thin and weak, migrating from their homes on foot carrying backpacks with children in tow

wading through knee-deep water or walking barefoot across a dry cracked desert floor, with the threat of civil unrest and war to add to the turmoil and gore.

At this very moment, this is a true and grim reality for Millions of people on Earth who are grappling with the harsh realities of food scarcity and

climate change.

In simplest terms, food scarcity arises when the food produced does not suffice for the population's needs, primarily due to external factors such as climate change, conflicts, and sometimes government policies.

Our environment suffers too. Air and water pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, and biodiversity loss are just the tip of the melting glaciers.

To fully understand, demystify, and clarify what is happening to our planet Earth and our only known home in the galaxy, let us cover some terminologies we use to explain the science behind climate.

Climate is all weather conditions for a given location over a period of time typically averaged over 30 years.

Weather is the state of the atmosphere, including temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind, humidity, precipitation, and cloudiness.

Climate Change is the gradual changes in all the interconnected weather elements on our planet, which include areas becoming warmer, wetter, drier, and colder over several decades or more. Climate change increases the risks, frequency, and strength of extreme weather events such as floods, heatwaves, and cyclones.

According to NASA, extreme weather events are heat extremes, wildfires, droughts, tropical cyclones, heavy precipitation, floods, high-tide flooding, and marine heat waves. People in hunger and poverty are especially vulnerable to extreme weather events like droughts, flooding, and forced migration.

Let us lighten all this science up a little.

Greenhouse Gasses (acronym GHGs), such as carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and ozone, trap the sun's heat, preventing it from drifting off into outer space through our atmosphere.

excess gas in our atmosphere leads to global warming and serious consequences.

While too much gas in our bodies might make for silent and deadly farts that our loved ones will recover from the experience,

Alarmingly, our global food systems contribute nearly a third of GHG emissions and are the number one source of methane and biodiversity loss.

Mooooooove over James Bond! Cattle are on a secret mission to kill all humans one burp and fart at a time, with each cow releasing a startling 30 to 50 gallons of methane daily.

Global warming makes it hot in here, dangerously hot.

Record-breaking temperatures and heatwaves turn the atmosphere into a massive dehydrator, parching moisture from everything on Earth, creating droughts, and turning your lunch greens, grain crops, and all the beautiful trees into dry tinder, which is the nightmare fuel for creating cinematic wildfires reminiscent of End of Days action films.

Our glaciers are having a meltdown, crying into the sea, and sea levels are rising to the occasion, flooding their neighboring coastal cities.

Extreme weather events are double trouble: heatwaves tag along with droughts and wildfires, while rising sea-levels soiree with flash floods and torrential downpours. Earth's weather has gone from predictable to expect-the-unexpected in a very short amount of time.

Heated oceans are causing drama, making marine life rethink living arrangements and migrate to more chill environments before tropical cyclones, such as Typhoons and Hurricanes, come for a visit and stir things up. The increased precipitation and rising sea levels due to glacier melting can intensify these stormy situations, creating raging storm surges and more flooding.

But wait, there is more! Earth's version of a vacuum cleaner is called a carbon sink; it sucks up carbon dioxide. According to education.nationalgeographic.org, a carbon sink area or ecosystem absorbs more carbon dioxide than it releases, such as plants, the ocean, and soil.

Ecosystems are everywhere: living things (plants, animals, you, me) and non-living things (rocks, water, air); they build communities, interact, and sometimes even partake in hostile takeovers.

The environment is a collection of all possible conditions in a given place. It encompasses the interaction of all living species, climate, weather, and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity.

We mentioned Food Systems a while ago; according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Food Systems include products (crops, livestock, fish), the means by which the products are transported to us, the packaging, the processing, and products sales. These systems also include consumption and disposal practices, the environmental contexts from which they come, the cultural norms surrounding the end products, and regulatory government policies.

We saved deforestation for last. Think of deforestation as all of Earth's trees, the wildlife, indigenous peoples who are stewards of the land, and all other life on Earth getting an eviction notice to make space for new skyscrapers, pasture lands for the cows that are secretly trying to do us in, crop real estate, and to obtain wood to fuel our heaters and use for cooking.

Let us put all those scientific terms and knowledge to work in answering our key question: How does climate change contribute to food scarcity?

The rise in global wildfires adversely affects food production, damages agricultural areas, negatively impacts livestock and crops, reduces yields, intensifies food scarcity, and displaces people from their homes and livelihoods.

The GHGs released into the atmosphere from wildfires, deforestation, and burning fuels naturally get sucked up by the ocean's carbon sink; unfortunately, adding more CO2 to the ocean turns water into a deadly acid bath called ocean acidification with harmful outcomes for fish and marine plants, leading to their untimely death and the demise of ecosystems. Ocean acidification also destroys fisheries' food yields and the income of those relying on it.

Desertification, a form of land degradation, further aggravates food scarcity. Land degradation refers to the gradual loss of a land's productivity as fertile lands turn barren, food prices surge, and the result is hunger, malnutrition, and social unrest due to forced migration and wars.

Human actions contributing to this include the deterioration of soil nutrients and soil erosion, biodiversity loss, deforestation, urban growth, and vegetation damage from overgrazing.

We are going to get a bit more serious, but we promise good news is on the way.

Not everyone experiences the impacts of climate change equally. According to the October 2021 White House report on the Impact Of Climate Change On Migration, extreme weather events and ensuing conflicts, such as real wars with people fighting and killing each other over food and water, displaces nearly 30 million people from their homes annually. In 1985 Essam El-Hinnawi, a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) expert, coined the term "climate refugees" to address climate migration. Robin Bronen, an immigration attorney and Alaska's first refugee resettlement director, coined the term "climigration" in 2008 to bring awareness to the lack of governance and tools needed to support and protect people experiencing displacement.

There is a strong correlation between food scarcity, racial discrimination, those living in rural areas, those living below the poverty line, and experiencing unemployment. Local and government food programs, land programs, and other incentives have been implemented globally with moderate success, though there is room for further improvement. NGOs and foreign aid providing services sometimes cause more harm than they do good for the populations they are trying to help, and they must be aware of preexisting services successfully addressing prevailing issues and understand the core problems these communities face at a local level to provide effective solutions.

The accelerations in climate change will continue to negatively impact those at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale and those with low economic status first and the hardest.

Now that we have explored what is happening to our planet and understand the science behind climate change, it is essential to understand climate zones by examining Geographical Regions.

Pause this podcast and take a moment to look up three images of maps online using these search terms separately:

Three distinct climate zones
Latitude zones
Five climate zones

If you are looking at the maps, focus first on the three distinct climate zones. These zones are divided based on latitude and solar radiation:

The Polar Zone at the high latitudes encompasses the North Pole (Arctic Circle) and the South Pole (Antarctic). Here, you'll find cold temperatures prevailing most of the year.

The Tropical Zone near the equator experiences warm and wet climates with minimal temperature variations annually.

The Temperate Zone lies between the Polar and Tropical zones and experiences distinct temperature shifts of hot and cold seasons.

Using the latitude zones map, you'll notice these three climate zones are further divided into five latitude zones:

North and South Frigid Zones
Tropical Zone
North and South Temperate zones

Now, referring to the Five Climate Zones map, these five latitude zones are further divided into five climate groups based on temperature patterns. These five climate groups are further divided into 12 climate types based on seasonal precipitation. The Köppen-Geiger climate classification system was published by botanist Wladimir Koppen in 1884 and is widely used today.

Group Tropical A consists of Wet (rainforest), Monsoon, and Wet and dry (savanna) types.

This climate supports barley, beans, Cassava, Chickpea, Cocoa (chocolate), Coffee, and corn crops.

Group Continental D has extreme temperature differences between summer and winter. This group includes Warm Summer, where summers are warm, and winters are cold, but not the coldest.

Cool Summer is characterized by short, cool summers and long, cold winters.
Subarctic (or Boreal) regions have short, mild summers and long, bitterly cold winters.
This group supports various crops, from grains to vegetables and forests.

This climate group supports olives, grapes, citrus, kale, chard, spinach, cauliflower, carrot, broccoli, onion, potato, radish, rice, cotton crops, and more.

Group Mild C mirrors climates that are somewhat temperate but can vary based on their specific region. The climate types within this group include the

Mediterranean, where summers are typically hot and dry, and winters are cool and wet.
Humid Subtropical has hot, humid summers and cooler winters.
Marine has mild temperatures year-round with cloudy, wet conditions.

Lastly, Group Polar E represents the coldest climate on our planet: Tundra, which is treeless because of its perpetually cold temperatures. Only hardy vegetation like mosses, lichens, and certain grasses can survive here. Icecap is the coldest of all climate types. It is inhospitable for agriculture and most life forms due to its extreme cold and perpetual ice and snow.

Group Dry B, unique in its temperature and low precipitation classification, includes Arid and Semiarid types. Group Dry B is the only group classified by temperature and low precipitation levels.

This climate supports Corn, sorghum, Cassava, yams, Dates, almonds, and Cotton crops. It is significant to note that drylands, areas most vulnerable to food scarcity, cover more than 40 percent of the world's terrestrial surface.

Earth's diverse range of climates and regions explains the varied impacts of climate change. Some areas may see increased agricultural potential as climate zones shift due to climate change. However, many will face severe challenges or even total loss of their livelihoods, lives, and ability to produce food due to these changes.

Are you ready for the good news I promised you?

Let us chew on solutions to address food scarcity and climate change.

Mitigation Strategies And Efforts Have Shown Great Promise

Kelp Forests: Kelp is an editable marine seaweed that grows rapidly and can absorb CO2, acting as a carbon sink. Kelp forests reduce wave impact on coastlines, acting as natural breakwaters.

Oyster Farming: Oysters play a pivotal role in cleaning and filtering water, as a single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water daily. Kelp helps maintain the quality of marine ecosystems and can be grown with oyster farms.

Integrating kelp into the global food supply can help alleviate food scarcity and malnutrition. Additionally, when mixed with animal feed, kelp can reduce methane emissions from the cows trying to kill the human race one burp and fart at a time. Kelp farming is a multi-billion-dollar global industry and holds economic significance for the livelihoods it supports.

According to the UN's World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought article, mitigation efforts to reduce desertification include agroforestry, farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR), reforestation, and water management. Agroforestry and land management systems intentionally grow native trees and shrubs in line with crops and within pasturelands to increase soil water retention, provide natural fertilizer, and reduce water evaporation.

Soil conservation is another method to counteract the adverse effects of desertification and food scarcity. Contour plowing gives your farm a stylish "haircut," ensuring that water stays where you want it and reduces soil erosion. Crop rotation is soil rejuvenating; one season's beans, the next, it might be corn, giving the soil a break and allowing it to regenerate and replenish its nutrients.

Vertical Farming is the urban condo lifestyle for plants. Growing crops in vertically stacked layers uses significantly less land, water, and transportation energy.

Water Management: Proper water management can significantly reduce the occurrence of wildfires and drought, plus reduce strain on available water resources. Key strategies include: Water Recycling: Treating and reusing water for agriculture, industrial processes, and household purposes. Rainwater and Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Collecting rainwater and even extracting water from the atmosphere can serve as invaluable resources, especially in regions with limited freshwater sources.

Desalination: As freshwater sources become scarcer, desalination, which removes salts from seawater, provides fresh water for direct use in agriculture, industry, and households.

Reducing Food Waste: globally, one-third of the food produced for human consumption goes to waste. That's like cooking a three-course meal and then tossing one course into the trash. By reducing food waste, we could feed more people and decrease the demand on our food systems.

Renewable Energy is the star of the mitigation game. By transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal, we reduce our GHG emissions and ensure a sustainable and more economically viable future.

Reduced meat consumption efforts such as 'Meatless Monday' and 'Tofu Tuesday' address global food scarcity and climate change concerns attached to livestock consumption.

Lastly, Community Engagement and Education are crucial. Knowledge is power, and it's contagious. Sharing is caring; we can collectively make informed decisions to benefit the planet.

The future of Earth and humanity is in the balance due to climate change and food scarcity; it can be overwhelming, though we have solutions aplenty.

This concludes our journey through the intriguing maze of food scarcity in a rapidly changing climate. We laughed and learned; now it is time for you to take this knowledge and make a difference.

Till soon, Climate Enthusiast!

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