UN: Global Warming to Hit Poor Hardest
Pastor Dale Morgan
UN: Global Warming to Hit Poor Hardest*
The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 8, 2007; 3:32 AM
NEW DELHI -- Global warming will likely hit food production in
developing nations the hardest, increasing the risks of drought and
famine in the countries that already struggle to feed their populations,
a senior U.N. official said Tuesday.
However, a rise in global temperatures would increase food production in
most industrialized countries, which mostly have colder climates, said
Jacques Diouf the director general of the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization.
"Crop yield potential is likely to increase at higher latitudes for
global average temperature increases of up to 1 to 3 degrees Celsius (2
to 6 Fahrenheit), depending on the crop, and then decrease beyond that,"
Diouf said, speaking at a conference in the southern Indian city of Chennai.
"At lower latitudes, especially in the seasonally dry tropics, crop
yield potential is likely to decline for even small global temperature
rises, which would increase the risk of hunger," he said.
He estimated that a country like India could lose 18 percent of its
annual cereal production.
Developing genetically modified crops that produce higher yields could
offset the impact of climate change, Diouf said, while noting that crops
designed to be resistant to drought and flourish in extreme conditions
are not yet a reality.
Scientists have warned that unchecked greenhouse gas emissions are
causing global temperatures to rise, leading to drought, floods and
searing heat.