Things are fried elsewhere, too, as you can see from the global map above. These locations are suffering from drought:
Colombia – Drought has affected hydroelectric generation.
India – south – Heatwave coupled with drought cost lives
Malawi – Food crisis declared as crop yields fall off due to drought
Mongolia – Severe winter sandwiched between droughts devastates livestock
Morocco – Wheat crop output fell by 50% due to drought
Mozambique — Floods in the north and drought in the south damaged crops; a “red alert” now issued over food security.
Oceana (S Australia/Papua New Guinea) – Human trafficking reported, with girls sold in exchange for rice in Papua New Guinea due to drought-caused crop failures.
Venezuela – Country experiencing electricity shortages due to drought
Vietnam – Livestock are dying due to drought
Zimbabwe – Country is participating in a co-operative food aid program due to severe drought.
This is only a partial list of drought-affected countries; Mideast and Mediterranean countries, Thailand, more of the African continent, and the southwest U.S. also suffer from drought.
Some drought is due to cyclical trends like the current El Nino event, but much of the drought is deeper than the average cycle, and some of it is simply climate change. Many places are already facing agricultural crises, and others have been facing them for years now.
While the map above doesn’t reflect it, forecasts predict dryer-than-average conditions across the crop-growing region of the middle U.S. as well as a return to dryer conditions in California.
We are overdue for discussions about global food security as climate change worsens. We can start now.
Back to regular morning roundup programming tomorrow — see you then!
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