MANIFESTO

with a probable temperature rise of 1.8 to 4 degrees C and a possible rise of up
to 6.4 degrees C.
The impact on agriculture will be significant. Warmer days and nights, more
frequent heat waves, and an increase in the area affected by drought will
decrease yields in warmer environments due to heat stress, increased insect
outbreaks, decreased water availability and land degradation, as well as an
increase in livestock deaths. These impacts are already being experienced by
many communities in countries of the South. There will also be an increase in
heavy precipitation events, which will further damage crops by eroding and
water logging soils. An increase in intense tropic cyclone activity will cause crop
damage in coastal ecosystem, while sea level rise will salinize coastal aquifers.
Pacific islands and large deltas are already affected.
Some regions will be particularly badly affected. In some African countries,
yields from rain-fed agriculture - the vast majority of agriculture in Africa -
could be reduced by 50 percent by 2020. Additionally, agricultural production in
many African countries is projected to be severely compromised.
In Latin America, productivity of some important crops is projected to decrease
with adverse consequences for food security. In much of southern and eastern
Australia and over parts of eastern New Zealand, agricultural production
is projected to decline by 2030 due to drought. In southern Europe, higher
temperatures and increased drought will also reduce crop productivity. Even in
North America, major challenges are projected for crops that are near the warm
end of their suitable range or which depend on highly utilized water resources.
Such circumstances will affect food production dramatically and experts predict
that there will be a grave increase in malnutrition and hunger, affecting millions
followed by a decline in worlds population in the middle of the 21st century.
But one need not wait for the future to witness the horrific, real-life effects
that climate change has on peoples’ ability to grow food and nourish
themselves. This manifesto makes evident the impact of the present blinkered
and destructive industrialized approach to producing food under increasingly
variable weather patterns and urges instead embracing a sustainable,
nourishing and safe mode of feeding ourselves that also helps to mitigate and
adapt to the hazards of climate change.
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