A necessary wake up call

Throughout this semester, we've had lectures on civil war, terrorism, and genocide. Yet the most depressing lecture to me was the one on global warming. Not only was a yet unsolved issue with massive consequences presented, but it seemed impossible that a viable solution could be found. Even with all the news stories, celebrities, and worldwide concerts involved in the issue, I still feel like some people need a wake up call. The consequences of global warming will affect future generations, most people think, and focus needs to be more on the pressing issues of the day. Well, a new issue has arisen which bring global warming into the present day. World food shortages.

There are many causes of the shortage (many of which have been elaborated on in preceding blog posts), and global warming is definitely one of them. In the article, "Warming May Cause Crop Failures, Food Shortages by 2030" (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080131-warming-crops.html) it is explained that the increase in greenhouse gases increases global temperature which leads to droughts and changes in rainfall patterns. These effects both change the nature of agriculture worldwide. In this article, they created models of how the climate could change in the next two or three decades and how that would affect food (based on popular crops). The models helped them identify certain "hot spots" in southern Africa and South Asia, and although water and rainfall change is a bit of a mystery, they are still able to determine that there will be serious effects and shortages.

Still think twenty or thirty years is far away? Think that food shortages are reparable with new technology and there are no serious effects? Well, southern Africa and South Asia have never been the center of ethnic conflict or civil wars, right? Imagine a world in which Africa farmers are fighting over arable land and different groups in South Asia struggle to produce enough. It is entirely possible, in these somewhat unstable regions, for the food shortage to lead to war. There's the wake up call. Global warming has the possibility to create violence and war in the very near future, not to mention its effects down the line. Now, let's hope Professor Nexon was wrong and international institutions can help create some worldwide agreements on the issue.