Environmental Issues
We live in a world that changes from day to day. With these changes our environment becomes effected in many ways. In the following paragraphs I will be discussing two environmental issues. I will be detailing what they are and what happens and the effect it takes on our environment.
The first issue to discuss is one that many are aware of and that is climate change better known as global warming. Half of the world’s population could face severe food shortages by the end of this century as rising temperatures shorten the growing season in the tropics and subtropics, increase the risk of drought, and reduce the harvests of dietary staples such as rice and maize by 20 percent to 40 percent, according to a study published in the journal Science.
Global warming is expected to affect agriculture in every part of the world but it will have greater impact in the tropics and subtropics, where crops are less able to adapt to climate change and food shortages are already starting to occur due to rapid population growth.
Scientists at Stanford University and the University of Washington, who worked on the study, discovered that by 2100 there is a 90 percent chance that the coolest temperatures in the tropics during the growing season will be higher than the hottest temperatures recorded in those regions through 2006. Even more temperate parts of the world can expect to see previously record-high temperatures become the norm.
With the world population expected to double by the end of the century, the need for food will become increasingly urgent as rising temperatures force nations to retool their approach to agriculture, create new climate-resistant crops, and develop additional strategies to ensure an adequate food supply for their people.
All of that could take decades, according to Rosamond Naylor, who is director of food security and the environment at Stanford. Meanwhile, people will have fewer and fewer places to turn for food...