How's That Climate Treating You?

The Guardian has an interesting article that offers just one alternative for survival in an ever warming planet.   Vegetarianism is certainly something that many could, and possibly should, consider.  The article makes some valid points about food costs in water and the ability of our current system to addressing those costs.  Seventy percent increase in food production needed over then next 48 years, combined with a disappearing fresh water supply, and dwindling land availability does not make for a bright future as it stands now.

Some of the comments at the end of the article suggest that the melting polar caps will solve the water imbalance but, clearly these people have spent little time trying to get to either of the poles where travel is difficult even before considering trying to collect and transport unmelted ice.  You would have to harvest that ice because if you wait for it to melt, most will end up in the oceans and will be of limited use.  This does not even consider the fact that removing those ice caps will have even greater devastating effects on global warming.

The oceans themselves may hold the key to our water needs but, the technologies needed for desalination on a large enough scale have not been advanced enough.  The only immediate hope for the oceans providing more fresh water is through greater numbers of weather events that would disperse this water as part of the natural water cycle.  That would be a lot of weather events and of course soil erosion and flooding become the new issues.

The problem with the vegetarian solution, though, is that many of our vegetables that give us the healthiest nutritional values also require a lot of water, especially when grown in drier, less arable lands that most of the population will be forced to live.  The solution to this problem will require countries to actually engage in greater food trade to sustain populations and preserve lands for farming.  Sorry locavores.

It ain't easy living on a warming planet with a rapidly growing population.

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