Warming Temperatures Could Create Global Food Shortages, Study Finds

The warming climate could create food shortages for half of the world’s population by the end of the century, particularly in the poorer regions of the tropics and subtropics, a new study reports. Researchers found a high probability that by 2100 temperatures during the low-temperature growing season in those regions will exceed the highest current temperatures, and that rice and maize production could drop by 20 to 40 percent, according to the study published in Science. And while the effects will be felt most acutely in tropical climates, the researchers say, today’s record temperatures will become the norm even in more temperate climates. “The stress on global food production from temperatures alone is going to be huge, and that doesn’t take into account water supplies stressed by the higher temperatures,” said David Battisti, of the University of Washington, who led the study. The researchers combined climate models from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the effects of major heat waves from recent history, including one in 2003 that killed an estimated 52,000 people and ravaged wheat production across western Europe.