Climate change and our food....

Food prices have reached a record high this year, fueling unrest in regions like North Africa and the Middle East.

A recent study presented at 2010's UN climate summit in Cancun predicted that global warming could double grain prices by 2050 and leave millions more malnourished. This latest research, "Climate Trends and Global Crop Production Since 1980," was published in the journal Science.

Australia is the canary in the coal mine for climate-change impacts. The driest inhabited continent on earth, is regarded as highly vulnerable. A study by the country’s blue-chip Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation identified its ecosystems as “potentially the most fragile” on earth in the face of the threat.

Australia is but the first and most seriously impacted of the arid sub-tropical (and near-sub-tropical) climates that are facing horrific desertification from climate change.

Some regions are already at times near the upper limits for farming. The tropical north is vulnerable to staggering floods. The country is increasingly being whipsawed by human-caused climate change — just as the U.S. SouthEast is

“In southern Australia, and most clearly and strongly in southwest Australia, the warming will be accompanied by a drying, on average, that will create a special challenge and that is already being felt in the Western Australian wheat belt, leading to some major changes in farming patterns,” Garnaut said today, based on the climate outlook provided by models

World food prices are expected to gain in the first half of the twenty-first century, reflecting a rising population and higher incomes, slower agricultural yield growth and the effect of climate change

The drying trend has important consequences for the Western Australian wheatbelt. The growing season has become shorter and drier in the northeastern part of this area, and yields in this region have declined (Stephens et al. 2009). By 2050, changing rainfall and higher temperatures could result in yield losses of more than 30% (van Gool 2009).

We are fast running out of time to change our habits, and I suspect we have supassed the time to make big changes for our benefit. The challenges now I believe will be in learning how to manage what is coming over the next decades.

I now have 3 large shaded areas for growing vegies, those fruits that need it are also shaded, and next year it's water tanks all over the place.........what have you got planned or already in place?