Trouble Cropping Up

Climate change will cause agricultural output to decline significantly, says study

Posted at 4:43 PM on 13 Sep 2007

Attention, people who eat: Climate change could cause global agriculture output to decline by up to 16 percent by 2080, according to a new study from the Center for Global Development and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Like life itself, the allocation won't be fair: productivity is likely to generally decline in developing countries -- India, Pakistan, and most of Africa and Latin America -- while improving in the U.S., most of Europe, and Canada. India, which is on track to become the world's most populous nation by mid-century, could see its food production fall by up to 38 percent; Sudan and Senegal could both suffer over 50 percent declines. "At least a billion people live in the poorest countries that are likely to be worst hit by this slow-moving crisis," says Nancy Birdsall of the CGD. "This will be a serious problem for us all."

sources:  Reuters, Inter Press Service