Climate change is set to increasingly disrupt food
supplies and water resources in vulnerable areas like sub-Saharan
Africa and South Asia. Two new reports look at the effects of climate change on
poorer communities around the world - and asks what they could mean
for us.
The World Bank's report, '
Turn down the heat', which is out
today, looks at the likely effects of two degrees and four degrees
warming on agricultural production, water resources, coastal
ecosystems and cities across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
It warns thata two degree Celsius temperature rise
could lead to a 10 million increase in malnourished children in
Africa by the middle of the century. By the 2030s, just 1.5 degrees
of warming could mean that 40 per cent of the land currently used
for growing maize will be unsuitable for growing the crop.
A
video lays it out: More drought
means more crop failure, which leads to more hunger.
In South Asia, the report highlights the potential
impact of changing seasons on the summer monsoon. If temperatures
rise by four degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, an
extreme wet monsoon, which currently occurs about once every
hundred years, could occur every ten years by 2100.
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