Tag: global food crisis

China: Yangtze River dries up, revealing 600-year-old Buddhist statues during the most severe heatwave ever recorded in the world

Strange Sounds – August 25, 2022

Heatwave in China is the most severe ever recorded in the world

Low rainfall and record-breaking heat across much of China are having widespread impacts on people, industry and farming. River and reservoir levels have fallen, factories have shut because of electricity shortages and huge areas of crops have been damaged. The situation could have worldwide repercussions, causing further disruption to supply chains and exacerbating the global food crisis.

People in large parts of China have been experiencing two months of extreme heat. Hundreds of places have reported temperatures of more than 40°C (104°F), and many records have been broken. Subway stations have set up rest areas where people can recover from the heat.

On 18 August, the temperature in Chongqing in Sichuan province reached 45°C (113°F), the highest ever recorded in China outside the desert-dominated region of Xinjiang. On 20 August, the temperature in the city didn’t fall below 34.9°C (94.8°F), the highest minimum temperature ever recorded in China in August. The maximum temperature was 43.7°C (110.7°F).

It is the longest and hottest heatwave in China since national records began in 1961. According to weather historian Maximiliano Herrera, who monitors extreme temperatures around the world, it is the most severe heatwave recorded anywhere.

“This combines the most extreme intensity with the most extreme length with an incredibly huge area all at the same time,” he says. “There is nothing in world climatic history which is even minimally comparable to what is happening in China.”

Together with the extreme heat, low rainfall in parts of China has led to rivers falling to low levels, with 66 drying up completely. In parts of the Yangtze, water levels are the lowest since records began in 1865. In a few places, local water supplies have run out and drinking water has had to be trucked in. On 19 August, China announced a national drought alert for the first time in nine years.

Hydroelectricity generation has fallen because of the low water levels. Sichuan has been especially affected because it normally gets 80 per cent of its electricity from hydropower. Thousands of factories in the province have had to cease operations because of electricity shortages amid high demand for air conditioning. Offices and shopping malls were also told to reduce lighting and air conditioning to save power.

https://strangesounds.org

Global Food Crisis ‘Will Kill Millions’ By Disease, Health Executive Warns

AFP –   June 23, 2022

The global food crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine will kill millions by leaving the hungriest more vulnerable to infectious diseases, potentially triggering the world’s next health catastrophe, the head of a major aid organisation has warned.

A Russian naval blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports has stopped grain shipments from the world’s fourth-largest exporter of wheat and corn, raising the spectre of shortages and hunger in low-income countries.

The knock-on effects of the food shortages mean many will die not only of starvation but from having weaker defenses against infectious diseases due to bad nutrition, Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria told AFP this week.

“I think we’ve probably already begun our next health crisis. It’s not a new pathogen but it means people who are poorly nourished will be more vulnerable to the existing diseases,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of a G20 health minister meeting in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta.

“I think the combined impact of infectious diseases and the food shortages and the energy crisis… we can be talking about millions of extra deaths because of this,” he said.

World governments should minimize the impact of the food crisis by providing frontline healthcare to their poorest communities, who will be the most vulnerable, said the British former banker who now heads the $4 billion fund.

“That means focusing on primary healthcare so the healthcare that is delivered in the villages, in the communities. Hospitals are important but when you are faced with this kind of challenge, the most important thing is primary healthcare.”

“It’s been a disaster for TB,” said Sands.

https://www.barrons.com

Global Food Crisis: ‘Perfect Storm’ of World Hunger Thanks to the Ukraine Crisis and COVID Could Starve Millions

Peter Caddle – May 5, 2022

Millions are at risk of starvation thanks to COVID and the ongoing war in Ukraine, both of which have helped create a “perfect storm” of a global food crisis.

Experts have warned that millions of people across the world are on the brink of starvation thanks to a “perfect storm” of a global food crisis.

A report by the Global Network Against Food Crises — a multinational organisation founded by the European Union as well as various United Nations bodies — found that 2021 represented the worst year for world hunger, but that things could soon get a whole lot worse thanks to a wide variety of ongoing geopolitical problems.

According to the organisation’s annual Global Report on Food Crises, 193 million people face acute food insecurity in 2021, which they define as being in a state where a person’s food intake is so low as to put their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger.

By far the single largest cause of this food insecurity last year was conflict, while the issue of economic shocks and climate change came in as very distant second and third place causes respectively.

However, despite how bad things got last year, experts who participated in the creation and publication of the report now fear that things could get a whole lot worse in 2022 as a result of a wide number of ongoing crises.

“Acute hunger is soaring to unprecedented levels and the global situation just keeps on getting worse,” said David Beasley, a former Republican Party governor who now serves as the executive director of the World Food Programme.

“Conflict, the climate crisis, COVID-19 and surging food and fuel costs have created a perfect storm — and now we’ve got the war in Ukraine piling catastrophe on top of catastrophe,” he continued. “Millions of people in dozens of countries are being driven to the edge of starvation.”

https://www.breitbart.com

‘Global Food Crisis’ Ukraine War Will Have ‘Catastrophic’ Effect on Global Food Supply – Agri Org

Peter Caddle – March 8, 2022

The world is heading into a global food crisis thanks to the war in Ukraine, according to the head of one major Agri organization.

Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine is going to have a ‘catastrophic’ effect on the world’s supply of food, the head of one of the world’s leading fertilizer companies.

Both Russia and Ukraine account for a significant portion of the global grain supply, with both nations also having significant roles within the supply of fertiliser, as well as its raw materials.

However, with trade grinding to a halt as a result of the latest stage in the ongoing conflict, the head of one major fertilizer company is sounding off alarm bells.

“Half the world’s population gets food as a result of fertilizers… and if that’s removed from the field for some crops, [the yield] will drop by 50%,” Svein Tore Holsether, who heads up agri company Yara International, told the BBC.

“For me, it’s not whether we are moving into a global food crisis – it’s how large the crisis will be,” he went on to say.

Holsether emphasized that there was already significant supply difficulties before the start of the current conflict, with the BBC noting that the increased cost of gas prices was already resulting in a steep rise in the cost of fertilizer.

The Yara International boss also is reported to have pointed out that around a quarter of key nutrients used in food production come from Russia, with sanctions now looking likely to further constrain in supply.

“At the same time we’re doing whatever we can do at the moment to also find additional sources,” he emphasized. “But with such short timelines it’s limited.”

https://www.breitbart.com