Global warming is driving extreme weather and food scarcity faster than predicted

For several years now scientists have been warning that global warming will impact our ability to feed a growing population within decades. They were wrong, at least in the timeline they envisaged. The climate crisis is already causing food scarcity in many parts of the world. 

The World Bank reports that global warming is influencing weather patterns, causing heat waves, heavy rainfall, and droughts. Weather patterns are changing faster than previously thought.

These weather patterns are causing crop failures and hunger in many countries. About 80% of the global population most at risk from crop failures and hunger from climate change are in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. As we saw in 2022, these areas have switched from lengthy drought to extreme flash flooding, destroying homes, crops and killing thousands.

The effects of the climate crisis on food production around the world could directly lead to hundreds of thousands more deaths annually by 2050, purely as a result of food scarcity.

The type of food consumed in developed countries, as well as the way that food is produced is a big part of the problem. The global food system is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions—second only to the energy sector; it is the number one source of methane and biodiversity loss. Western diets high in meats (especially beef) and dairy products are especially culpable.

As extreme weather reduces the amount of land available for food production, global diets might change in a way that reduces their climate impact, but by then things will be too far gone for this to make a real difference. Even then, it’s a fair bet that the wealthiest around the world will be able to continue living the same lifestyles as they do today, living the poorest to suffer the consequences.

Failure to reduce carbon emissions, failure even to slow the rate at which emissions are growing, has meant that extreme weather and its impacts, is arriving more quickly then all but the most pessimistic predictions. If things are this bad today, how will they look in a decade’s time?