Climate Change and Food Security in Developing Countries
The Impact of Climate Change on Food Security
Overview
The United Nations (UN) has hired you as a consultant, and your task is to assess the impact that global warming is expected to have on population growth and the ability of societies in the developing world to ensure the adequate security of their food supplies.
Case Assessment
As the world’s population nears 10 billion by 2050, the effects of global warming are stripping some natural resources from the environment. As they diminish in number, developing countries will face mounting obstacles to improving the livelihoods of their citizens and stabilizing their access to enough food. The reason these governments are struggling even now is that our climate influences their economic health and the consequent diminishing living standards of their people. Climate changes are responsible for the current loss of biodiversity as well as the physical access to some critical farming regions. As such, these changes in global weather patterns diminish agricultural output and the distribution of food to local and international markets. These difficulties will become even more significant for these countries as the Earth’s climate changes for the worse. Temperatures are already increasing incrementally, and polar ice caps are melting, so the salient question is: what does this suggest for developing societies?
The issue before the developing world is not its lack of food, but rather how to gain access to food. Simply put, changes in our climate are affecting the global food chain, and hence, the living standards of entire populations. Added to this is the fact that food is not getting to where it is needed in time to prevent hunger or starvation. In many developing countries, shortages are due to governments’ control over distribution networks rather than an insufficient supply of food itself. In effect, these governments are weaponizing food by favoring certain ethnic or religious groups over others. When added to the dramatic climate changes that we are experiencing even now, the future for billions of poor people looks increasingly dim.
Instructions
You are to write a minimum of a 5 persuasive paper for the UN that addresses the following questions about the relationship between atmospheric weather patterns and food security in the developing world:
Climate change and global warming are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same phenomenon. What are the differences between the two concepts and what leads to confusion?
In 1900, the average global temperature was about 13.7° Celsius (56.7° Fahrenheit) (Osborn, 2021), but as of 2020, the temperature has risen another 1.2°C to 14.9°C (58.9°F). According to the Earth and climate science community, if the Earth’s surface temperature rises another 2°C (3.6°F), we will suffer catastrophic weather patterns that, among other things, will raise sea levels, cause widespread droughts and wildfires, result in the plant, insect, and animal extinctions, and reduce agricultural productivity throughout the world (Mastroianni, 2015 and Lindsey & Dahlman, 2020). How much credibility do you place in these projections? Why?
There is no question that the Earth’s food sources are threatened by changes in its weather patterns, but what specific challenges does climate change pose to the food security of people in the developing world?
There is currently a debate among some multinational lending agencies like the International Monetary Fund, UNICEF, and AID over the financial support for food security that has been misused by recipient government officials. On the other hand, U.S. authorities insist that misuse of its assistance is not occurring because it has strict monitoring oversight in place. What is your position on this matter? Is there evidence that financial assistance to developing governments is being widely misused by government officials?
Guidelines
This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). For assistance and information, please refer to the SWS link in the left-hand menu of your course and check with your professor for any additional instructions.
In order to earn full credit, your paper must be divided into at least four full pages of content (one page to address each of the four questions above), and include at least a one-half page introduction and a one-half page conclusion – making a minimum total of five full pages of text.
You must use at least seven credible sources (excluding Wikipedia, dictionaries, and encyclopedias) that are appropriate for the subjects under discussion.
You must use only double-spacing and not place extra spacing between paragraphs or section headings.
The Impact of Climate Change on Food Security
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The Impact of Climate Change on Food Security
Climate change has caused devastating environmental and economic effects worldwide. The most affected countries are developing nations with limited capacity to address the problem. Climate change affects food security in many ways. It creates a hostile environment for crop farming and livestock keeping, leading to biodiversity loss. Prolonged drought, hurricanes, floods, storms, and other extreme weather events make cultivating and harvesting crops impossible. Developing countries' agricultural production systems should transform to adapt to climate change and attain sustainable development. This transformation requires adequate funding. Addressing food security in developing countries requires proper solutions to climate change and stringent anti-corruption measures.
Difference between Climate Change and Global Warming
The terms ''climate change'' and ''global warming often create confusion as many people use them interchangeably. However, the two concepts are different but related. Climate change refers to the long-term, unexpected, and abnormal changes in the average weather patterns, including temperature, precipitation, and wind patterns (Matawal & Maton, 2013). In contrast, global warming is the increase in the earth’s average temperature due to the high concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (Lionello & Scarascia, 2018). It is an aspect of climate change. The causes of these two phenomena also contribute to their distinction. Scientists have linked global warming to specifically human activities. These include burning fossil fuels, which emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the earth's atmosphere. These gases deplete the ozone layer, resulting in global warming. On the other hand, human activities and natural factors like ice ages, volcano eruptions, tectonic shifts, and solar radiations cause climate change (Lionello & Scarascia, 2018).
Despite global warming being an aspect of climate change, many people confuse them based on their effects. Arguably, both concepts can lead to extreme weather events like floods, droughts, storms, and heat waves. These effects confuse some people, questioning how global warming can lead to floods and storms, bearing in mind that global warming is only associated with increased temperatures. To them, increased temperatures should only lead to droughts and wildfires. They do not understand the relationship between global warming and floods, storms, or hurricanes. In this case, it is easy to confuse global warming with climate change since it encompasses global warming. Similar effects experienced in both events strengthen the confusion, leading many people to use the two terms interchangeably.
The credibility of the Projections
Climate change models predict that a further increase in global temperatures by 2oC (3.6oF) will intensify destructive weather patterns and other climatic weather impacts such as rising sea levels, widespread droughts and wildfires, reduced agricultural productivity, and extinction of plants, animals, and insects. From an individual viewpoint, these projects are credible since they emerge from credible sources. For instance, a peer-reviewed article by Lindsey & Dahlman (2020) indicates that increasing temperatures drive geographical temperature extremes, resulting in extreme weather events like droughts. Prolonged droughts will lead to low agricultural production and loss of biodiversity. Floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and storms caused by climate change will also lead to similar occurrences. Some of these effects are witnessed already witnessed worldwide. For instance, a new report from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) revealed extreme drought in sub-Saharan Africa due to climate change.
The sub-Saharan region is experiencing the dramatic impacts of climate disasters becoming more frequent and intense. According to this report, if global warming surpasses 2oC in the next decades as predicted, drought losses will be five times higher than the current situation. In Angola, over 40% of livestock, a primary source of livelihood accounting for about 31.4% of the country’s agricultural GDP, is vulnerable to extreme droughts (UNCCD, 2022). Under the projected climate conditions, the livestock population affected by drought will exceed 70% (UNCCD, 2022). National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) data also agree with the projections. According to NASA, 2022 recorded an alarming warming trend, intensifying forest fires, hurricanes, droughts, and rising sea levels. The existence of these catastrophic events makes the projections credible. The bottom line is that the climate is increasingly changing, causing global warming.
Challenges of Climate Change to Food Security in the Developing World
Developing nations are susceptible to climate change because they rely highly on natural resources and cannot address its impacts. The increased vulnerability and inability to combat climate change threaten the agricultural sector, leading to food insecurity. The manifestations of extreme weather events caused by climate change affect food production and accessibility in the developing world (Raj et al., 2022). These events make agriculture unattainable, inducing yield declines in the affected region. Heat waves, for instance, may become more frequent, preventing crops from growing (Wudil et al., 2022). Studies show that an increase in average temperature by one degree Celsius resu...