Droughts bad for food production, say UN scientists

Joey Sawyer/Sociology 202/ Sunday/ January 27/ 3:00 pm

According to an article on www.guardian.co.uk there is a global problem on the rise. This problem is caused primarily by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels. These gases are able to trap heat from the sun closer to the earth, thus raising the global temperature, which in turn alters global weather patterns over a long period of time, or "climate", as the meteorologists call it. This article was primarily concerned with the change in rainfall in various parts of the globe. Rainfall allegedly has a direct relationship to the amount of food persons and peoples living in subsistence farm settings around the world have access to.
Official government officials that make money researching these sorts of things agree that 34 countries are having some sort of drought that is leading to a food shortage. The most affected areas are in Africa, particularly east Africa. Sudan is deteriorating as well as Ethiopia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Eritrea. The Kalahari desert is predicted to spread its sand across much of southern Africa and the vegetation containing it dries up. Several countries in central America are also suffering from droughts. Southern Asia too, the list goes on.
It is a cruel coincidence that our habits and way of life have indirectly caused impoverished nations to suffer worse than they ever have before. As we continue driving to work everyday and complaining about gas prices, they are having increased desertification, some of the lowest crop production in ten years, and a constantly increasing population. These droughts are predicted to incur a need for aid for 30 million people around the world, half of which will go hungry without it. This half happens to be primarily in Africa. If all the people affected recieve the food they need to survive from outside help, it is likely the population will increase and the source of the problem will not go away fast enough to make up for it, so the problem of starvation will only get worse. Is it our responsibility to feed these people? Some may say yes because of religious views. Some may say yes because it was our environmental impact that worsened their situations. Some may say yes simply because it makes them feel good to think that they are helping someone that needs help. Some may say the population itself needs help. It needs regulation of some kind. They may say it is less humane to string along an increasing population of starving people with enough food to create more starving mouths to feed and no more.
I think a lot of Americans are beginning to question the sustainability of our own way of life in the "global north", But it may also be prudent to question the sustainability in the starving nations with nominal health care. Perhaps coming together as a world of people requires more effort than handing out sacks of extraneous grain the government bought from a huge subsidized farm.