All around the world, farmers are dealing with the negative effects that the overheating of our planet is having on their crop yields. In England, the summer yielded the second-worst harvest on record, adversely affecting, among others, the country's wine industry, economist James Meadway explained in The Ecologist.
What's happening?
Meadway described the summer as "cold, wet, miserable."
While this sounds like an accurate description of the weather in England basically all the time, the past season was reportedly even worse than normal. Grape harvests, in particular, were down 66% to 75% from average, while other crops such as wheat and barley also suffered.
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The reason for all this, as Meadway explained, is no mystery. The continued overheating of our planet, largely a result of our reliance on dirty energy sources, has created unpredictable changes to weather patterns. As a result, certain crops that have long thrived in different regions are becoming untenable at an ever-increasing rate.
Why are crop failures important?
Crop failures have not just hit England — they have affected communities all over the world. In Pennsylvania, farmers have been unable to grow the potatoes that make up their livelihoods. In China, rice and corn crops have failed. The list goes on and on.
If these problems continue to worsen, they could affect global food supplies.
What's being done about crop failures?
"[A] new approach is needed," Meadway wrote. "We need buffer stocks of essentials built up for when the supplies, now much more erratic than before, start to fall away."
However, this type of preparedness can only go so far. To truly confront the factors that are causing crop failures all around the world, the most important thing that we can do is to stop the overheating of our planet by switching away from polluting energy sources such as gas and oil and toward clean, renewable sources such as wind and solar.
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