Impacts of Climate Change on Food Production over the Next 50 Years - Term Paper Example

Impacts of Climate Change on Food Production over the Next 50 Years Impacts of Climate Change on Food Production over the Next 50 Years Climate Change The paper explores issues related to the impacts of climate changes on food production over the next fifty years, and this will involve an analysis of the global food production and the risk of food shortages associated with climate conditions. This paper will begin by a discussion of causes of climatic changes, thereby setting a pace for discussion on potential impacts of changes in climate on global food production. This discussion will associate the growth in the world’s population and economic development that have influenced the climate change, and expected responses on agriculture to climate change conditions at a global extent. However, the main objective of the paper is to explore the implications of climate changes on global food production for the next fifty years. Natural cause of climate changes is associated with radiating power available in the earth’s climate, which is generated through the power from the sun. Moreover, some energy is absorbed by the surface of the earth; thus, resulting to need to create a balance between the energy absorbed by the earth surface and the atmosphere, through a radiation of the same amount of energy, which is reflected to the space (Rosenzweig & Iglesias, 2001, 1). In fact, the radiation occurs through an emission by the land and ocean, and the energy is absorbed by the atmosphere, whereby it is reflected to the earth causing a greenhouse effect; thus, this process causes a change in the earth’s climate. Human activities have increased the rate of climatic changes due to the rise of greenhouse gases (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere, while increased warmth in the surface of the earth is attributed to climate change (Rosenzweig & Iglesias, 2001, 1). Additionally, rising temperature modifies thermodynamics of entire atmosphere, thereby resulting to exacerbation of changes in weather. Nevertheless, there are other acute cases of climate changes such as floods, droughts, storms and heat waves, which have been experienced since the twentieth century because of increased greenhouse gases concentrations in the atmosphere. There are natural occurrences of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, though the main cause is attributed to the industrial revolution and other human activities. In fact, the GHGs that are emitted because of the human activities are referred to as anthropogenic emission. However, pollution depends on balances created between release of gases due to innate method and activities of human beings. In addition, there are other gases removed from the atmosphere due to contamination of chemicals compound emitted through industrial activities. Food Production and Climate Change The changes in climate have contributed to a significant depression on the crop yields in numerous countries, whereby the climate changes are attributed to high temperatures and changes in the level of precipitation (Grantham Research Institute & Clark, 2012, 1). In fact, this is evident in the developing countries that have not yet developed necessary adaptive measures and capabilities. There are numerous counties in Africa with economies that are depending on agricultural productions, and the climate changes have increased their vulnerability to effects of floods and prolonged cases of droughts for the next fifty years (McCarthy, Canziani, Leary, Dokken & White, 2001, 20). Therefore, these countries are making initiatives facilitate the understanding of farmers in order to enhance their response to change in the climate, thereby design relevant strategies of dealing with these changes. Numerous agricultural innovations present in the developing countries are focused on the integrating technology and farm decision in issues related to conservation of water and soil, fertilizers and improved types of seed, and this result to impacts on the yield in agricultural sector. There are expectations of facing numerous challenges in the agricultural sectors due to the growth in the global populations, degradations of land and urbanizations, which is contributing to loss of farming land (United Nations, 2007, 3). Nevertheless, the production of food over the past years have kept a pace with a population in the world, though there have been some cases of regional deficits and deficiencies associated with nutrition. Therefore, the changes in the climate have been considered a factor that has a substantial effect on the production of food and availability in a different section of the world, for instance areas subjected to the risk of famine and drought. Various estimates have been done by scientists in different countries, and they have depicted a potentiality of change in the growth of crops and product in the agricultural sites that are seeking to apply relevant crop model for dealing with climate changes (Parry, Fischer, Livermore, Rosenzweig & Iglesias, 1999, 67). Moreover, an assessment of various implications associated with the global yields of the crops are accounting for the uncertainty associated with intensity of the climate changes. The implications of the climate changes on the food production are also associated with the physiological effect of carbon dioxide emitted by plants and the responses that are adaptive. On the other hand, there are projections of food productions in agricultural sites, and the data depicts aggregates of the regions engaged in trading and their trade models, such that, this estimation are indicating an increase in the prices of food, risks of food shortage. The impact of climate changes can also be explored through the examination of the fundamental variables in production of food attributed to various countries across the world. In fact, this applies certain survey data, though there are insufficient variations on the crucial variables in the data at a micro-level. In developing countries, have meteorological station covering wide areas; thus, they have applied their studies regarding climate changes by use of thin plate spline method of spatial interpolation in order to ascribe the rate of precipitation and temperatures based on the latitudes and longitudes (Parry, Rosenzweig, Iglesias, Livermore & Fisher, 2004, 56). Consequently, this has been offering substantial insights to the establishment of strategies to adapt with climate changes. Therefore, this focuses on the factors that influence the decisions made by farmers concerning food production in the future. Food production for the next fifty years will depend on the adaptability of various societies to the climate changes and other influence of demands like antagonism for production of bio fuels. Therefore, the climate changes are bound to subject numerous countries to severe challenges that create a capacity of adapting to the rise in temperature in various regions of the world. In addition, there are countries with the likelihood of having a capability to adapt and use the climate change for their own advantage. On the other hand, the climate changes are affecting the world fisheries by increasing their vulnerability; hence, affecting the food production that is deemed a substantial source of protein for approximately fifty percent of the world’s population. There are overexploitation and pollutions caused by climate changes on fisheries while warning of the oceans, lakes and rivers surfaces has led to adverse effects. Climate changes have caused melting of world’s glaciers leading to rising of sea and ocean level, which cause adverse effects on fisheries. Consequently, this has contributed to migration of marine fish species as a way of adapting to the high latitudes, though there are other species in the Arctic, which are trapped. In addition, effects of climate changes associated by emission of carbon dioxide have been associated with an impact on the marine ecosystem such as acidification of the ocean. There are high expectations of increased global demand for food, despite the changes in climate, which are considered relatively insignificant in the short term. In fact, for the next fifty years there are expectations of an increase in population, whereby there will be addition population of three billion (United Nations, 2008, 4). There are expectations of raise in wealth among many people, thereby resulting to high food demand and necessity for land and water for facilitating production. There are expectations of increased food prices in the future due to a combination of various factors associated with climatic changes for the next five years. Conclusion Conclusively, this paper has focus on discussing implications of climate change on worldwide food production over the next five years. The paper has focused on the issue related to emission of Greenhouse gases (GHGs), through an introduction of the climate changes. This offers a substantial basis of understanding the implications of the climatic changes on the food production, and it will contribute to making reasonable prediction of the condition for the next fifty years. In fact, after exploration of numerous ideas from different sources, there is an element of uncertainty and predictions since lately there have been climate changes that have not experienced in the past. Consequently, this creates impossibilities of predicting reaction of world’s food production sectors. For instance, there are complexities in the connection of the implication of climate changes regarding issues like pollution, diseases and pests. Therefore, this creates a difficult in predicting the environmental changes that are substantially associated with food production. Global production of food has been identified to a substantial contributor of GHGs emission, and it has contributed to environmental degradation in various parts of the world. Some of the activities associated with agriculture, which contribute to the emission of GHG are transportation and land conversions that are regarded as substantial components of food production systems (Darwin, 2000, 168). Therefore, this is an indication that there are limitations expected in the future due to the impacts of the climate changes; thus, production of food is expected to increase resilience and sustainability. On the other hand, the paper has focused on the vulnerability of fisheries in the world because of the climate changes, whereby they are offering significant source of proteins. In fact, it has been realized that the fisheries are being overexploited due to the change in climate associated with pollution. References Darwin, R., (2000), Economic effects of CO2 fertilization of crops: transforming changes in yield into changes in supply, Environmental Modeling and Assessment 5 (3), 157–168. Grantham Research Institute & Clark, D., (2012), How will climate change affect food production? 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