Nicholas Stern: 'I got it wrong on climate change – it's far, far worse'

[GliderGuider]

71. By this one

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112734522#post64

You could also peruse this:

http://www.fao.org/forestry/15538-079b31d45081fe9c3dbc6ff34de4807e4.pdf

The FAO has been concerned about food security due to climate change for most of a decade now.

ETA the foreword from the FAO document:

Climate change will affect all four dimensions of food security: food availability, food
accessibility, food utilization and food systems stability. It will have an impact on human
health, livelihood assets, food production and distribution channels, as well as changing
purchasing power and market flows. Its impacts will be both short term, resulting from more
frequent and more intense extreme weather events, and long term, caused by changing
temperatures and precipitation patterns,

People who are already vulnerable and food insecure are likely to be the first affected.
Agriculture-based livelihood systems that are already vulnerable to food insecurity face
immediate risk of increased crop failure, new patterns of pests and diseases, lack of
appropriate seeds and planting material, and loss of livestock. People living on the coasts and
floodplains and in mountains, drylands and the Arctic are most at risk.

As an indirect effect, low-income people everywhere, but particularly in urban areas, will
be at risk of food insecurity owing to loss of assets and lack of adequate insurance coverage.
This may also lead to shifting vulnerabilities in both developing and developed countries.
Food systems will also be affected through possible internal and international migration,
resource- based conflicts and civil unrest triggered by climate change and its impacts.

Agriculture, forestry and fisheries will not only be affected by climate change, but also
contribute to it through emitting greenhouse gases. They also hold part of the remedy,
however; they can contribute to climate change mitigation through reducing greenhouse gas
emissions by changing agricultural practices.

At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the resilience of rural people and to help
them cope with this additional threat to food security. Particularly in the agriculture sector,
climate change adaptation can go hand-in-hand with mitigation. Climate change adaptation
and mitigation measures need to be integrated into the overall development approaches and
agenda.

This document provides background information on the interrelationship between climate
change and food security, and ways to deal with the new threat. It also shows the
opportunities for the agriculture sector to adapt, as well as describing how it can contribute to
mitigating the climate challenge.

Your opinion is dramatically out of step with the position of the entire scientific community that is looking at the issue.