From Climate Problem to Climate Solution

One of the catastrophic problems of climate change is that it diminishes our ability to grow food — prolonged droughts, devastating heat, crop-destroying floods and unpredictable weather patterns.

Based on a study published last year in Nature, the Stanford School of Sustainability reports that at the current rate, climate change will reduce the yield of staple crops — wheat, corn, soybeans, barley, and cassava — by 24 percent by the end of the century. The exception to staples is rice, which benefits from higher nighttime temperatures. But the lower supply of most staples, combined with higher demand — there continues to be more mouths to feed — means we will pay more for the food we eat.

But agriculture is not just a casualty of climate change. It’s also a cause. It’s estimated that the processes of growing food contribute roughly one third of the greenhouse gas emissions that are heating up our world.