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Page added on December 10, 2010
The World May Run Out of Food by 2050The World May Run Out of Food by 2050
A new book covers one more reason humanity needs to tackle global climate change, and tackle it fast: we’ll starve to death if we don’t.
That’s the argument put forth by Professor Julian Cribb in The Coming Famine: The Global Food Crisis and What We Can Do to Avoid It. Cribb writes that a global population of 9.2 billion by 2050 would double our current food requirements, and vastly outpace the growth in our food production capabilities.
Extreme weather patterns will contribute to droughts that afflict the worlds poor. Food riots and war will break out. The demand for protein foods like meat, eggs, and fish will cause prices to skyrocket.
Cribb’s vision may sound like the far-fetched plot of a sci-fi film, but research already predicts a massive die-off of coral reefs as ocean dead zones expand. Scientists have already said we’ll be out of fish by 2050. Oh, and more than 2 billion people will face water scarcity—with an additional 5 billion facing moderate shortages.
Unfortunately, there’s little hope that negotiators at the current Cancun climate conference will come to any meaningful agreement. So do we just kick this can down the road some more?
5 Comments on "The World May Run Out of Food by 2050The World May Run Out of Food by 2050"
Kenz300 on Fri, 10th Dec 2010 10:11 pm
The worlds ever growing population may just meet it’s match with the worlds limited resources.
Did limited resources cause the great societies of the past to disappear?
A world that had adequate resources when it had 5 billion people will be stretched to the limit growing to 9 billion people.
Jim on Sat, 11th Dec 2010 3:12 am
This same crap has been said for the last 200 years. Amazingly, with advances in science and technology, we always seem to meet the challenge.
Kenz300 on Sat, 11th Dec 2010 11:06 am
WE are eating well. There are 2 billion people on the planet that are not eating so well. Add another billion people to share your food with and….
rangerone314 on Mon, 13th Dec 2010 1:23 am
We always seem to meet the challenge…
It only takes ONE time not to meet the challenge… for technical, political or structural reasons…
They didn’t meet the challenge on Easter Island, nor did the builders of Ankor Wat.
I don’t think tackling global warming now will fix the planet by 2050… the carbon already out there will pretty much trash the planet.
We are no longer in the Age of Choices, we are in the Age of Consequences.
Julian Cribb on Tue, 14th Dec 2010 11:38 am
What Jim hasn’t noticed is that the world has reversed its investment in agricultural science and technology. This is one of the nine factors increasing the risk of global food insecurity. Assuming it will happen doesn’t make it happen, unfortunately, Jim.