A hammer blow for millions
Oh and by the way – also famine.
The world is at risk of widespread famines “of biblical proportions” caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the UN has warned.
David Beasley, head of the World Food Programme (WFP), said urgent action was needed to avoid a catastrophe.
A report estimates that the number suffering from hunger could go from 135 million to more than 250 million.
Those most at risk are in 10 countries affected by conflict, economic crisis and climate change, the WFP says.
The fourth annual Global Report on Food Crises highlights Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Nigeria and Haiti.
The East African countries are already faced with the locust invasion.
The WFP’s senior economist, Arif Husain, said the economic impact of the pandemic was potentially catastrophic for millions “who are already hanging by a thread”.
“It is a hammer blow for millions more who can only eat if they earn a wage,” he said in a statement.
“Lockdowns and global economic recession have already decimated their nest eggs. It only takes one more shock – like Covid-19 – to push them over the edge. We must collectively act now to mitigate the impact of this global catastrophe.”
We’re never going back to the way it was.
I’m sure Trump would just remind us that these are shithole countries.
http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/csdb/en/ versus
(NYT)
In other words, the world eats food about as fast as it grows it, with very little in reserve.
Added to that, modern agriculture (in which I am presently engaged) has been defined as ‘that human activity whereby land is to turn petroleum into food.’
Though nitrogen is about 80% of the air we breathe, its fixed form as nitrogen compounds is guarded by plants from intruders: of which there is no shortage. Seeds (rich in N) are commonly contained in hard seeds in tough casings. Plants treat fixed nitrogen the way banks treat gold bullion. Sugars they give away like pay-night millionaires high on champagne.
The urea used in much grain production is synthesised from hydrogen and nitrogen in the Haber Process, and the hydrogen is obtained not from water, but from hydrocarbons extracted from gas wells. We eat until those wells run dry. Then we find something else.
Hydrogen extracted from water by electrolysisis not as attractive a way to go, though solar generation of electricity could change this.
But then in about 10,000 years time will come the real test, as the world descends into the next (post-Pleistocene) glaciation. Last time, there was glacial ice ~2 km thick where NYC is today.