It is sometimes difficult for us Westerners to make this sad observation: global warming is indeed one of the three major causes of hunger in the world, after wars and economic crises. To understand this, we must study the impact of global warming on ecosystems linked to food production , the plundering of resources including water, and the effects of climate disasters on the increase in the prices of agricultural production and the stability of the most fragile populations.
Food crisis and climate change
According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), climate change and its disruptions are today one of the most serious causes of hunger in the world. A link also recognized by the Paris Agreement. Climate change has a very negative impact on the food crisis, with direct links to global warming. Indeed, all new unprecedented climate disruptions aggravate pre-existing crises. Thus, more than 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger, a figure that continues to increase, and will continue as long as vulnerable populations cannot adapt to these climate changes. If nothing is done, nearly 600 million more people could suffer from lack of water and food by 2080, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). If no measures to reduce greenhouse gases are truly implemented on a global scale, climate change and global warming will make access to food increasingly difficult.
Climate and economic instability
The climate is changing faster than people can adapt, making them extremely vulnerable. When climate variations become extreme, so are the consequences. Indeed, the negative effects of climate change are transforming natural areas: land degradation, rising sea levels, and advancing desert areas make it impossible to cultivate land that was once fertile. Elsewhere, areas are being reshaped based on increasingly severe flooding, following increasingly frequent storms, and shifting rainy seasons, with sometimes devastating monsoon periods. These events trigger economic disruptions that worsen people's inability to cope. Climate instability leads to economic instability, a new cause of hunger that leads to lasting food insecurity. This is particularly the case when people can no longer live off their agriculture as before, and they do not have access to other sources of food.
Extreme weather events and climate disasters
We talk a lot about global warming, but beyond the increase in temperatures that leads to melting ice and significant droughts, we must also note the disruption of the climate and the catastrophic resurgence of extreme weather events: unexpected cold snaps that destroy harvests, storms, cyclones and torrential rains or, on the contrary, increasingly frequent periods of heat waves. These extreme events destroy homes and weaken agricultural productivity, particularly for essential "major crops" such as rice, wheat or corn. When harvests are bad, there is a shortage of food and prices increase while income from agriculture decreases. However, without direct resources, families are then forced to buy food produced elsewhere, which is much more expensive. This is a vicious circle experienced by farmers in risk areas shaken by chaotic climatic episodes. Already very vulnerable in these regions of the world, these local farmers are deprived of their source of income, access to food and all other resources when drinking water runs out. The correlation is now established between the exposure of countries to extreme climatic and temperature variations, and hunger: nearly 80% of people subject to hunger live in regions prone to extreme weather events.
Agricultural production in danger
Global warming and its corollary of extreme weather episodes are exacerbating the difficulties already present. The fragile agricultural system is threatened by a drop in productivity, the destruction of crops but also of soils, which compromises the future as well… Because if the increase in temperatures and drought can be anticipated, these violent and unpredictable climatic variations leave traditional farmers helpless due to a lack of sufficient infrastructure to compensate for the losses. It is the developing countries that are the most threatened and that are today experiencing “food stress”. Their precarious situation, their crops threatened by the slightest climatic variation, the impoverished, dried-out soils, precipitate the most deprived communities into food insecurity or even famine. This fragility is accentuated by the continuous financial pressure on small producers because of competition and price variations on the financial markets.
Water, precious and deadly
The paradox? There is a water shortage in many regions of the world, even in Europe, where some areas sometimes have to ration water. And yet, floods are among the disasters that most damage a region. As for their alternation, it is devastating. In 2016, the coastal current called El Nino, a real climatic anomaly that disrupts the circulation of currents and has global impacts, delayed the arrival of spring rainfall in Somalia. The sudden alternation of rain and drought had a devastating impact on plantations, land fertility and the survival of livestock, which suffer from thirst, weaken and become impossible to keep or sell. Devastating floods often lead to health disasters. Cyclones and storms make water impure and, faced with a lack of drinking water, populations have no choice but to make do with it, which leads to the spread of bacteria and epidemics such as cholera. It is then the lack of hygiene, linked to the absence of water, which pushes populations into dramatic situations, forcing them to move and become climate refugees.
The chain consequences of global warming
As we have seen, already on a local scale, global warming and extreme phenomena are already causing a cascade of effects that lead to hunger and migration of affected populations. There could be nearly 150 million climate refugees by 2050 if the consequences of global warming are not contained, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South Asia. But there is also a network of perverse effects due to sudden climate variations. When small rural farmers suffer drought or flooding of their crops, they no longer have the means to send their children to school. They will therefore take them out of school so that they can help the family in the fields, or ensure the water supply. During a hurricane, when the land and houses are flooded, when livestock perish, families who have nothing left and who are at risk must leave. Because of hunger, these disasters are also the scene of security problems, looting, dangers and violence to survive, and the law of the strongest can quickly tip entire regions into famine and chaos. Hunger and lack of resources cause conflicts that can degenerate into civil war, only increasing the distress of the populations.
How to preserve crops?
All the inhabitants of the Earth, wherever they live, will have to adapt to sometimes brutal changes over the coming decades. The most fragile populations are, very unfairly, those who will have participated the least in the acceleration of global warming, but who will suffer the most from it. And it is still they who will have to make the greatest efforts in resilience and adaptability in terms of food: rethinking their resources and means of subsistence, transforming habits, housing, agricultural methods, etc. Many NGOs are participating in these transformations by providing training in agroecology to provide local populations with the foundations of long-term resilient agriculture. These people must be helped to better manage agricultural land by restoring soil richness, diversifying crops, and strengthening infrastructure. The establishment of community property constructions will help the community to withstand future climatic events (creation of bridges, dams, irrigation systems), to secure harvests. In Africa, simple closed bins have helped preserve grain from drought and significantly reduce crop losses due to lack of water.
Global warming and its catastrophic disruptions will have a terrible impact on access to food and harvests around the world. Fortunately, there are solutions. The implementation of virtuous and reasoned agriculture will also be very useful in Europe where extreme weather episodes also have a dramatic impact in certain regions.
If agroecology responds concretely to food insecurity, it is by limiting global warming that we can avoid famine for many displaced peoples or climate refugees. But there is no miracle. It is the rich countries that absolutely must change their habits because they are, through their unbridled consumption, responsible for global warming.