Originally published July 18 2005
UN, U.S.: Climate changes, drought causing food shortage for one in every six countries
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Research by United Nations and United States agriculture groups has determined that the rate of climate changes and drought conditions plaguing the world will cause a food shortage for one in every six countries, which threatens to become semi-permanent if the trend isn't halted, reports The Guardian.
One in six countries in the world face food shortages this year because of severe droughts that could become semi-permanent under climate change, UN scientists warned yesterday.
In a stark message for world leaders who meet in Gleneagles next week to discuss global warming, Wulf Killman, chairman of the UN food and agriculture organisation's climate change group, said the droughts that have devastated crops across Africa, central America and south-east Asia in the past year are part of an emerging pattern.
Southern Africa is definitely becoming drier and everyone agrees that the climate there is changing.
The worst affected countries include Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Eritrea and Zambia, a group of countries where at least 15 million people will go hungry without aid.
Many countries have had their worst harvests in more than 10 years and are experiencing their third or fourth severe drought in a few years, the UN said.
A report published in Nature today predicts that as greenhouse gases fuel global warming, the dunes of the Kalahari could begin to spread.
According to the UN's famine early warning system, 16 countries, including Peru, Ecuador and Lesotho, face "unfavourable prospects" with current crops.
"The 20-year average clearly shows a dramatic increase of desertification and drought," said a leading agricultural economist, Professor Giovanni Quaranta, of the University of Basilicata in southern Italy.
In Malawi, where a government report suggests more more than 430,000 tonnes of maize will be needed to avert the second food shortage in three years, one in three people are expected to need help by the end of the year following poor rains.
Climate change is happening, and it is affecting livelihoods that depend on the natural environment, which, in Africa, means nearly everyone," said Andrew Simms, spokesperson for the Working Group on Climate Change and Development.
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