C l l i i m a t t e C h a n g e a n d I I t t s A f f f f e c t t o n O u r r F o o d a n d W a t t e r r
S u p p l l y
Mid Term Essay By:
Cossi Ahikpo, Bree Cameron, Anosha Hamidi and Trishka Simmons

Climate Change and Its Affect on Our Food and Water Supply
Mid Term Essay
Part A- Discuss what you feel was the most important contemporary social/political issue addressed since the beginning of the course.
Climate Change…A Major Concern
Our planet is constantly changing. It is not the same planet people used to live on decades ago; we are living on right now. All this, to say that at every moment, the natural order of things is changing due to human activities and other natural phenomenon. Well, centuries ago people talked about ice ages. Now ,the evolution of things make many people and scientists start talking about global warming and the greenhouse effect gases on the environment, particularly in the areas of agriculture and food supply and overall climate change. Why is that? How does this thing happen? What are human’s responsibilities? What should be done to protect and save our plant?
Do all those questions seem too many? No, when we take a close look at them, we can see that they are all related and they seem to be major issues in our contemporary society. To live a decent life, humans should care about the environmental phenomenon.
After discussing various positions on this subject, supported by diverse sources, we will give our team personal positions on the issue discussed above and why.
To survive on the earth, humans practice many activities. The main one is related to agriculture; growing crops, and eventually makes a profit from it. According to http://education.yahoo.com
, agriculture is
: “The science, art, and business of cultivating soil, producing crops, and raising

livestock; farming.” Before we move on further, let’s define the two terms that will be the main focus. On one hand we have agriculture (farming and land use) and on the other we have climate change (greenhouse gases, global warming). Anyone should wonder why we set the discussion line like this. How can the climate affect the agriculture and contribute to the well-being of our planet? This is all our essay is about. To be precise, the chapter 3 of the textbook State of the
World , 2009 Edition will be very helpful.
In fact, this chapter briefly relates the two elements we cited earlier. It starts with the farmers activities in northern Mindanao, the Philippines. This is just an example, and it could be any other country in the world. The actions of these farmers not only enriched their landscapes and enhanced food security, but it also helped to “cool” the planet by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and storing carbon in soil and vegetation. This is our point; it is somewhat of a domino effect. The climate change, affects the ability to produce crops, but the lack of good, eco friendly production of crops contributes to the climate change.
Part B – Discuss various positions presented on the issue either in your textbook, video, outside readings or other sources.
Greenhouse Gases
To better understand the connection, it is necessary to understand the underlying culprit to the change in the climate, greenhouse gases, or GHG for short. To understand the expression
“
Greenhouse Gases
” we need to refer to a process called transmission.
Transmission , according to the textbook Physical Geography , a Landscape Appreciation 9 th edition by Tom L. Mc
Knight and Darrel Hess, is a process whereby electromagnetic waves pass completely through a medium, as when light waves are transmitted through a pane of clear, colorless glass. And the greenhouse effect is at work in the atmosphere. A number of gases in the atmosphere, known as greenhouse gases , readily transmit incoming shortwave radiation from the sun but do not easily

transmit outgoing longwave terrestrial radiation. The most important greenhouse gas is water vapor, followed by carbon dioxide. Many other trace of gases such as methane also play a role, as do some kinds of clouds.
Most of the world’s carbon is on land, then the atmosphere.
About 1,600 billion tons of this carbon is in the soil as organic matter and some 540-610 billion tons is in living vegetation. Life is possible on the planet because of the double actions of carbon and atmosphere. Plants also use carbon to produce food and resources that sustain the rest of the biota. The land use and fossil fuel burning are the two major sources of the increased CO2 in the atmosphere which is changing the global climate. One thing is to develop proper ideas; another one is to have the means to reach them.
For most regions of the world, the cost of making economic changes to accommodate an increasingly anemic planet is astronomical. A country like Africa is dying under the weight of their climate change woes, one such specific weight is the issue of drought.
On July 20th of this year, in the Christian Post, research is showing that in countries in eastern
Africa like Kenya has suffered almost 3 consecutive years from insufficient rainfall, causing depleted livestock herds, crop failure and raising the price of food ultimately.
Prices of food are rising in a country that cannot afford the cost. The economy will suffer even more than it is now and ultimately, will not be able to support the demand unless more aid is given by groups. Groups such as Luthern World Relief , focuses on regions like Kenya to help support the increase of planting drought resistant crops, train communities how to conserve water by digging new irrigation systems, boreholes, and helping to purchase tools for the farmers.

Since rainfall is not something that we can control, such organizations like Luthern World Relief are making great strides to make better use of not bringing drought resistant seeds to affected areas, but also seeking out untapped water resources underground as well. Drought resistant seeds have had a slight set back in its development stage in the United States. Bio Engineers are predicting that drought resistant seeds being transported to Kenya, planted by farmers, and grown self sufficiently will unfortunately take another 8 to 10 years. That means that the villages will have to rely on the emergency food aid programs once again to help push back the problem of hunger once again.
Part B (cont)
Emissions of CO2 Must Be Controlled
Another such issue in the minimization of CO2 in the atmosphere as a means of combating climate change is to absorb and store carbon in the soil. In scientific terms, the process is called, carbon sequestration. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, carbon sequestration is “the process through which agricultural and forestry practices remove carbon dioxide (CO
2
) from the atmosphere.” Intentionally using methods that will either trap CO2 or reduce smaller amounts of the substance into the atmosphere is key to this approach.
Currently, there have been several methods indicated and practiced, although not widespread, that have the effect of reducing the emission of CO2 in the environment. One such method is to plant trees or grasses near streams to prevent soil erosion and nutrient “run off”. Land management too helps to reduce the GHG emissions by simply rotating grazing. Lastly, bio fuel, the number one culprit in the emissions of GHG, can be substituted with biomass or a carbon based fuel so that the burn-off will not produce such a harmful effect to the atmosphere.

Part B (Cont)
Devegetation Must Be Incorporated
In today’s world extensive areas are being devegetated on large scales. The growing population and growing demand for goods manufactured from wood is the main cause of this issue. Devegetation has enormous adverse affects on people and environment. It causes tremendous loss in income, especially in income of poor people in underdeveloped and developing countries. The poor suffer from it the most, because their main source of income is farming.
It is also a serious threat to our ecosystem and wildlife. Forests serve as homes for wildlife.
Disappearance of forests and grasslands causes alterations and disturbances in the natural habitat of wildlife. This in turn causes disturbance in the ecosystem, because plants, animals, and humans in an ecosystem depend on each other.
Devegetation imposes direct threats to biodiversity due to the loss and fragmentation of natural habitat. We are losing diversity in wildlife due to the damages devegtation causes to their survival. Most species cannot survive once they lose their natural habitat, thus they disappear.
Plants hold the soil firmly, so they prevent soil loss during floods and rain. This contributes to the soil fertility, and soil becomes rich in minerals, which is crucial for healthy growth of the plants. When forests and grasslands are cut off, this accelerates soil loss due to rain and floods.
The soil becomes less fertile and not suitable for plant growth. That why it affects the income of

farmers. Because farmers cannot grow healthy and enough grains, vegetables and fruits for sale, and this may result in famine in most parts of the world.
The demand for water has been increasing rapidly with the fast growth of population throughout the world. Devegetation causes scarcity of water, thus depriving the poor from basic necessities such as drinking water.
Forests and grasslands are major reservoirs of carbon. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the air. Industrialization is increasing at a fast pace, which requires more and more absorption of carbon dioxide by natural means. When forests disappear atmosphere carries more carbon and less oxygen. This results in polluted air, which causes variety of fatal diseases, and contributes to global warming. The natural balance of green house gases gets disturbed, and more heat gets absorbed by the earth.
The rising need for restoring vegetation has been realized by different governments of the world.
Vegetation is being restored by cheaper means. The main challenge is to create policies, investment priorities, and supporting institutions to create incentives for farmers and forest owners etc. Farmers and communities who manage land and forests are the central players. So vegetation can be restored as a win-win investment, out of which both parties gain a profit.
Product markets have also been recognizing the values of climate. They are minimizing the methods and materials used for production that causes deforestation.

Part C
Our Team Opinion
As a team, we think that growing plants can remove huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and store it in vegetation and soil in ways that not only stabilize the climate but also benefit food and fiber production and the environment. In addition, government and nongovernmental agencies need to mobilize the financing and social organization needed to combat the present affects of our climate changing and invest in the development of technologies and management systems that are unknown.
Consumers and buyers should be educated on the adverse affects of deforestation. Every product should have a label of raw materials used to manufacture it. If consumers realize that their choice of the product is affecting the environment the demand for the product will decrease. Consumer choice has a huge impact on the climate.
Realities like hunger, poverty and disease challenge the priority of climate change, but the planet truly is a finite creation, capable of running out of resources that humanity uses to continue to produce, and consume for the purpose of confronting these types of problems.

Part D
 http://education.yahoo.com
,

State of the World , 2009 Edition

Physical Geography , a Landscape Appreciation 9 th
edition by Tom L. Mc Knight and
Darrel Hess,
 http://www.epa.gov/sequestration/ag.html

"Prolonged Droughts Add to Woes of Millions in East Africa." – Leichman, Aaron J.