Brief

<p>In this session, Prof. Thomas Homer-Dixon, director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation, Balsillie School, touched upon the impact of climate change on the global food supply. He discussed the cause of global warming along with the benefits it will have on the agricultural production and the consequences it will bring upon the global food supply in the present and future.</p> <p>Homer-Dixon initiated this session by explaining how global warming is caused and how it results in the change of transparency of the atmosphere. Furthermore, he used chart methodology to show the consequences of three main greenhouse gases from year 0-2005 that have emitted very large quantities since the industrial revolution and have had rapidly increased &nbsp;in the last decades.</p> <p>Additionally, he reflected on the relationship between food production and greenhouse gases, and also showed the substantial increase in the temperatures through the decades, significantly in the Northern Hemisphere; because of the Ice-Albedo feedback that negatively affects the energy balance, climate and the natural water cycle.</p> <p>In the future, people will be facing a radical change due to an increase of 3 or 4 Celsius degrees, making adjusting to the change a real challenge. </p> <p>The session highlighted the most significant consequences of climate changes on global warming, the agricultural production and the global food supply sector, through energizing the natural water cycle resulting in massive storms, drought and flooding.</p> <p>The main highlights of the session were the unfortunate cases of extreme drought and decrease in soil moisture and impacts of heat stress on crops and food supply. Therefore, research should focus on the resilience of main crops like rice to increasing temperatures.&nbsp; </p> <p>Prof. Homer-Dixon concluded his session by stressing the importance of agricultural adaptation through investing in technological innovation, which he said is not enough as &ldquo;without lowering emissions, widespread failure of global food systems is likely in the second half of the century even with the smartest adaptation.&rdquo; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

Speakers

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