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[Note: Our blog will continue featuring posts surrounding the unfolding climate crisis as the crisis will have, in our view, a profound impact on the future of work]
We now know the 3 major impacts of the Climate Crisis:
1) Catastrophic sever weather events (eg the most powerful recorded hurricane that destroyed parts the Bahamas)
2) Rising sea levels (See The People of the Isle de Jean Charles Are Louisiana’s First Climate Refugees—but They Won’t Be the Last)
3) Drought
All these combined put the worlds food supply at severe risk. Scientists are now looking at the impacts of something they call “Multiple Breadbasket Failure.” At the moment, if there is a major food shortage somewhere in the world (think about what is playing out in Zimbabwe just north of us) it is possible for the rest of the world to assist that area with some emergency food. However, in a Multiple Breadbasket Failure scenario this is not possible, leaving whoever is facing a food crisis to fend for themselves.
The Christian Aid charity a few weeks ago release their report entitled Hunger Strike: The Climate and Food Vulnerability Index In it they highlight the top 10 most food insecure countries in the world, many of which are already experiencing agricultural failures due to a rapidly changing climate.
Here are the 10 countries with their corresponding populations:
1. Burundi – 10 864 245
2. DRC – 91 931 000
3. Madagascar – 25 570 895
4. Yemen – 28 250 420
5. Sierra Leone – 7 853 364
6. Chad – 15 228 584
7. Malawi – 17 563 749
8. Haiti – 10 981 229
9. Niger – 21 447 388
10. Zambia – 17 094 130
This is a total of 247 million human lives which are right now on the frontlines of experiencing a near-term food catastrophe.
No one may be able to help them.
The knock-on effect of all the countries that neighbour these 10 also needs to be taken into account. Mass migration for example is already becoming a reality. (See Climate Change Is Already Driving Mass Migration Around the Globe)
We are already locked in to some very serious scenarios as a result of the lag between ocean heat absorption and impact. (See Rising Seas Aren’t Even the Scariest Part of Climate Change in the Oceans —Some places are already “reaching adaptation limits.”)
“Even if we turned off greenhouse gas emissions tomorrow we’d have another 0.3 to 0.4 degrees [Celsius] of additional warming,” added Bindoff. Just that amount of warming will reshape the lives of more than a billion people who rely on ice or fishing for their livelihoods in low-lying coastal regions, high-mountain areas, and the Arctic. If we don’t limit our carbon emissions, those effects will spread far beyond the most vulnerable coastal areas in the latter part of the century.”
What needs to happen to mitigate even greater disasters and impacts is extremely important.
We have absolutely no time to lose.