Food Security and Climate Change

James M. ByrneProfessor and Chair of Geography

Climate change is about the poorest, most vulnerable and food 

insecure people (WFP)

Impacts• Sea level rise

– Millions of refugees 

• Enhanced extremes = floods and drought– Pakistan 2010, 2011– Southeast China 2011– African drought and conflict

• Changes in water supply – Irrigation and food security– Rain‐fed agriculture

GHG since 1960 tonnes per capita

• Chinese citizen = 100• American = 830• Canadian = 750• Albertan = 1500

• Tar sands = 99 ppm GHG• Goal < 350 ppm• Current = 380 ppm

Climate Change Solutions

• Earth – The Operators’ Manual– http://video.pbs.org/video/1855661681

• Mark Jacobson, Stanford University

100 Nobel Laureates Issue Dire Warning for Planet Earth

The most profound danger to world peace in the coming years will stem not from the irrational acts of states or individuals but from the legitimate demands of the world's dispossessed. Of these poor and disenfranchised, the majority live a marginal existence in equatorial climates. Global warming, not of their making but originating with the wealthy few, will affect their fragile ecologies most. Their situation will be desperate and manifestly unjust.