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 have warned.
Wulf Killman, chairman of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's climate change group, said the droughts that have devastated crops across Africa, Central America and Southeast Asia in the past year are part of an emerging pattern.
"Africa is our greatest worry," he said. "Many countries are already in difficulties … and we see a pattern emerging. Southern Africa is definitely becoming drier and everyone agrees that the climate there is changing. We would expect areas which are already prone to drought to become drier with climate change."
The Food and Agriculture Organization says that 34 countries are now experiencing droughts and food shortages and others could join them. Up to 30 million people will need assistance because of the droughts and other natural disasters.
Henri Josserand, the UN's famine early warning system director, said: "In southern Africa especially, there is no question that drought has become much more frequent in the past few years. There has been a sequence of drought years for four or five years. What is unusual is the repeat patterns."
[Excerpt of an article by John Vidal and Tim Radford, The Guardian]
No comments:
Post a Comment