The Earth is Overburdened: Food Security Challenges in an Era of Falling Water Levels and Rising Temperatures

Author: Lester R. Brown (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: In this innovative work, Lester Brown comprehensively outlines the various ways in which human demand is depleting Earth's natural resources. He particularly emphasizes that the resulting environmental degradation is putting food production at risk; global warming will severely challenge crop yields. For every 1°C increase in temperature, grain yields may decline by 10%. Decisions in the energy sector could have a greater impact on future food security than policies in the agricultural sector. Public attention is currently focused on the depletion of oil resources. In reality, the depletion of underground aquifers poses a more serious threat. Oil can be replaced, but water cannot. In major grain-producing countries, including China, arable land is shrinking. As densely populated nations increasingly rely on automobiles, scarce arable land is being converted into roads and parking lots. While population growth has indeed slowed, the world still adds 70 million people annually. Faced with the historical slowdown in land productivity since 1990, grain production is lagging behind population demand. The Earth's ability to provide sufficient food for humanity is being challenged. To address this challenge, it requires not only efforts from the agricultural sector but also stable climate energy policies, global efforts to improve water productivity, land-saving transportation systems, and population policies that strive for a balance between population and food supply. Earth Under Stress explores these issues and summarizes pathways to ensure future food security.