Image: An Inconvenient Truth
Climate Crisis & Sustainability Update: More on How Our Climate & Sustainability Crises Impact Food Security: “Once the oceans are gone, we’re gone. The oceans sustain the planet.”
By Richard Power
There are numerous factors:
Food security is threatened by soaring fuel costs, as well as by the commandeering of land for growing bio-fuel instead of food;
Food security is threatened by the melting of the glaciers, the drying up of the rivers and the desertification of the soil;
Food security is threatened by the fragility of the distribution chain (as with any chain, it is only as strong as its weakest link);
And, as the Agence France Press news story cited in this post highlights, food security is also threatened by the warming of the seas and by unrestrained fishing.
The future food security of millions of people is at risk because over-fishing, climate change and pollution are inflicting massive damage on the world’s oceans, marine scientists warned this week.
The two-thirds of the planet covered by seas provide one fifth of the world’s protein — but 75 percent of fish stocks are now fully exploited or depleted, a Hanoi conference that ended Friday was told.
Warming seas are bleaching corals, feeding algal blooms and changing ocean currents that impact the weather, and rising sea levels could in future threaten coastal areas from Bangladesh to New York, experts said. ... Marine ecosystems and food security were key concerns at the Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts, and Islands, an international meeting of hundreds of experts from governments, environmental groups and universities. ... The current plunder is risking long-term sustainability with “too many fishing boats taking too many fish and not allowing the stocks to regenerate,” said Frazer McGilvray of Conservation International.
“Once the oceans are gone, we’re gone. The oceans sustain the planet.” Agence France Press, 4-11-08
See Also Climate Crisis & Sustainability Update: Madness of Pursuing Last Drop of Peak Oil, Instead of 21st Century Renewable Energy Model, has Caught Up w/ Us -- the Food Security Fuse has Been Lit
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Center for American Progress Action Fund's Mic Check Radio has released a witty and compelling compilation on the Top 100 Effects of Global Warming, organized into sections like "Global Warming Wrecks All the Fun" (e.g., "Goodbye to Pinot Noir," "Goodbye to Baseball," "Goodbye to Salmon Dinners," "Goodbye to Ski Vacations," etc.), "Global Warming Kills the Animals" (e.g., "Death March of the Penguins," "Dying Grey Whales," "Farewell to Frogs," etc.) and yes, "Global Warming Threatens Our National Security" (e.g., "Famine," "Drought," "Large-Scale Migrations," "The World's Checkbook," etc.) I urge you to utilize Top 100 Effects of Global Warming in your dialogues with friends, family and colleagues.
Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.
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