Food & Climate 

Read more

Unit 2:
Predicting the Future 

More than 500 million people today suffer from malnutrition and are at risk of starvation.  One of the great challenges for all of us in the 21st Century is to reduce poverty and produce enough food for our growing  global population.

This challenge becomes harder to achieve as the world population exceeds six billion and as land, water and genetic resources are damaged through overuse.

There is great concern that climate change will have negative impacts on agricultural production and will increase the number of people at risk of starvation.   These concerns are especially important in areas which are vulnerable to droughts and famines.  These areas tend to be those where population numbers are still rising so the impact of climate change will be particularly acute.

We can get some idea of the impact of future climate change when we look how extreme weather events have affected different countries.   Developed countries are much better able to cope with extreme weather events than less developed nations.  This photograph shows the devastating effects of a hurricane on the very poor country, Honduras, in Central America.

About this page:

Author:  Marta Moneo and Dr. Ana Iglesias - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, España
1. scientific reviewer: Alex de Sherbinin - CIESIN, Columbia University, USA
2. scientific reviewer: Lily Parshall - Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Columbia University, USA
educational reviewer: Emilio Sternfeld - Colegio Virgen de Mirasierra - España
last published: 2004-05-12