Unbridled heat waves threaten food security across the planet

Heat waves are hitting Europe, the United States and China, with the hottest day globally already recorded in early July, putting human life at risk, as well as the land and sea on which it depends.

NASA warns that July could be the hottest month on record

The month of July 2023 will probably be the hottest month in “hundreds, if not thousands of years”, warned this Thursday (21) Gavin Schmidt, renowned NASA climatologist, during an informative meeting with journalists.

“Our food system is global”, said John Marsham, professor at the University of Leeds. “There are increasing risks of simultaneous major crop losses in different regions of the world, which will really affect food availability and prices. That's not what we're seeing now, but in the coming decades it's one of the things that really makes me scared.

“As a human being, if you are rich enough, you can go in and turn on the air conditioning. But natural ecosystems and cultivated ecosystems cannot do that.”

Heat waves are expected to become 12 times more frequent by 2040 compared to pre-warming levels. While a heatwave may not kill an ecosystem, longer and more frequent events will mean nature doesn't have time to recover.

The climate crisis not only increases atmospheric heatwaves, but also oceanic ones, harming coastal communities and threatening another important source of food for humans. Heat stress causes a large number of deaths, such as the 2021 “heat dome” along Canada’s Pacific coast, which killed about 1 billion marine animals. 😔

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Period 2023-2027 will likely be the hottest on record, warns UN

The period 2023-2027 will most likely be the hottest ever recorded in history, due to the impact of greenhouse gases and the meteorological phenomenon El Niño, which are causing an increase in temperatures, warned the UN this Wednesday (17).

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