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Global
warming is a social problem The human society is not adapting fast enough to global warming. Sufficient resources must be allocated either to stop global warming or to adapt to it. The following argument alone is sufficient to convince that global warming is a dramatic problem. Farmers in key food-producing regions are confronted with some of the highest temperatures on record, temperatures that stress crops and reduce yields. The average global temperatures for September and November 2001 were the highest ever recorded for those two months in 134 years of recordkeeping. Then December, January, February, April, and May posted their second highest temperatures on record. And July 2002 was the fourth hottest ever. High temperatures, combined with low rainfall in many countries, create drought conditions. In 2002, grain harvest is 1800 million tons and grain consumptions is 1900 million tons. This situation is clearly not sustainable and favors the increase of the number of starving people, currently 800,000,000 worldwide. Reports of heat-stressed crops are common in the top three food producers: the United States, India, and China. Even irrigated crops suffer from high evaporation losses and heat stress. When temperatures range above 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit), crop yields can suffer. The corn plant, a highly productive crop that accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. grain harvest, is particularly vulnerable to heat. In a heat-stressed field, leaves curl in order to reduce moisture loss through evaporation. Under these conditions, photosynthesis declines and the plant switches from a growth path to a survival mode, reducing yields. India's harvest also suffers from high temperatures (a heat wave with temperatures reaching 45 degrees Celsius in May 2002 killed more than a thousand people). In addition, this year's monsoon was late and weaker than normal. Less rainfall has lowered India's estimated rice harvest from 90 million to 80 million tons. The solution to this problem needs to be first of all political. Biotechnology can probably solve current grain-harvest limitations, but who wants to hand over the future of 800 million people to biotech corporations? With which guarantees? Finally, it has to be said that, besides global warming, there are two other key factors which contribute to reduced harvests: low grain prices at planting time and falling water tables. GAVIOTAS + GLOBALIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS
+ WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT + GLOBAL WARMING |
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