U.N. report warns climate change, land exploitation threaten food supply


A United Nations scientific report released Thursday says climate change, along with unprecedented exploitation of land and water resources, could threaten the world's food supply. "The cycle is accelerating," said NASA climate scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig, a report co-author. "The threat of climate change affecting people's food on their dinner table is increasing."
The report said that climate change is worsening land degradation by thawing permafrost, causing deserts to expand, and making forests more vulnerable to fire, drought, and pests. But efforts to curb greenhouse gas-emissions, which are blamed for climate change, and to counter the effects of global warming, could be in vain without major changes in global land use and agriculture. Even human diets must change, with the report recommending people eat less meat.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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