Shifts in weather patterns induced by climate change will increase extreme heat and reduce rainfall across major crop growing regions, with impacts on agricultural production.
Shifts in weather patterns induced by climate change will increase extreme heat and reduce rainfall across major crop growing regions, with impacts on agricultural production. Will this trigger a decline in the supply of calories needed to sustain the world’s growing population?
According to a study published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, global calorie supplies are subject to continuing or even increasing vulnerability to climate change.
Climate change could reduce global crop yields by 10% by mid-century and 25% by century’s end, under a vigorous warming scenario, if farmers cannot adapt better than they did historically.
To quantify this, a team of researchers from Boston University, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change Foundation (CMCC) coupled their statistical models trained on past data with forecasts of future temperature and rainfall from 21 high-resolution Global Climate Models (GCMs) simulations to project how yields might change in response to shifting weather patterns.
Read more at CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change
Photo Credit: NickyPe via Pixabay
