WFP: Climate Change Could Worsen Global Risk Of Hunger & Child Malnutrition 20% By 2050

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

Owing to the realities accompanying climate change — increasing levels of drought, flooding, extreme weather, and thus crop losses — the global risk of hunger and child malnutrition could rise by around 20% by the year 2050, according to a new report from the World Food Programme (WFP).

Image via FEMA

The researchers involved in the work, though, note that by examining the different risks facing different countries and regions, it may be possible to reduce threats to food supply.

As an example of what’s meant by “different risks,” Northern Africa and Southern Europe, for instance, will face increasingly extreme heatwaves and water scarcity; while South Asia will face extreme floods, sea level rise, and unstable monsoon rains.

“Different groups are affected by different types of risks, at different intensities and at different times,” noted Gernot Laganda, the director of climate and disaster risk reduction programs at WFP.

Reuters provides more: “Building greater resilience to the threats will require ‘layers’ of responses, he said. Catastrophic threats of large-scale losses of crops or animals — the type that might come along every 5 to 10 years, for instance, and force those hit to migrate — might be dealt with in part with insurance plans, Laganda said.

“But more regular seasonal threats — of smaller-scale flooding, for instance — cannot be insured, he said, as the problems come too frequently. In those cases, building savings groups among women farmers, for instance, to ensure cash is on hand to deal with the crop failures, could be a better way to deal with risks.”

Speaking about what should be done to address these looming issues, Mikael Eriksson, who works for the government of Sweden on climate and energy problems, noted that: “Prevention is so much more efficient than disaster management.”

No kidding, but most people remain convinced that they won’t be affected by whatever issue is looming until it’s too late to actually do anything. How does the old joke go? People have only two modes of operation: complacency, and blind panic.


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

James Ayre has 4830 posts and counting. See all posts by James Ayre