Climate Change and Food Supply
There was some good observations following my “Connections” post, linking the Russian heat wave to the Egyptian Revolution. Not that direct, suggested Stephanie C, linking to an NPR podcast on Planet Money.
Paul Krugman weighs in:
I’ve been looking at the federal government’s estimates of world supply and demand, and clearly what we’re experiencing is the fallout from a global harvest failure due to terrible weather. Yes, climate change might be the culprit …
And adds in China:
One factor driving the rise in prices is a drought affecting China’s winter wheat crop. Shandong Province, the core of China’s wheat belt, has received only a half-inch of rain since September. The drought is so severe that the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations warned earlier this month that more than a third of the country’s wheat crop could be lost.
