Britain imports half its food, and we are predicted to see our population increase by 10 million. The failure of the monsoon in India this summer is already pushing up global food commodity prices such as those of wheat, sugar and rice.
And we are likely to see other less pleasant effects in Britain: floods, storms and heatwaves will become more common. This is why the British government has suddenly started making worried noises about British "food security". While it's hard to imagine Britain going hungry, we are certain to see food prices rise, and we may find that the cheap meat we've come to expect for so long reverts to being the sort of luxury it used to be.
If Britain had to grow all its own food, it's said, we could do it — but at an immense price: it would mean an end to any wild or forested land in the parts of the country where farming is possible.
But this is nothing compared with the changes that are happening or imminent in the tropical world. Rice production, the staple food of most of Asia, is already moving northwards, forcing millions of people to change ways of living that have sustained them for centuries. Along the coastal fringes of Asia, people's lives are changing radically, as a huge increase in storms coupled with a rise in sea levels which is now predicted to be a metre this century brings salt to their fields and makes growing rice impossible.
Half of the poorest billion people in the world live in South Asia, as do many of the 5 million children who die every year of diseases caused or exacerbated by malnutrition. According to a report by the Asian Development Bank, 1. In Africa and parts of Latin America predictions are just as hair-raising. Maize is one of the world's four most important food crops and the staple of more than a quarter of a billion east Africans.
It's a hugely important food for animals as well.
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Maize is vulnerable to water problems and to temperature changes. As Andy Jarvis, an award-winning crop scientist, puts it: "When you look at the graph, under even small average heat rises, the line for maize just goes straight down. Among the luxuries of living in our comfy corner of the world, is the fact that climate change still seems to be a problem of the future, something that we need to worry about less for ourselves than our grandchildren. But for many millions of people the devastation caused by changing seasonal patterns and unpredictable weather is already a clear and present danger.
First-person accounts collected by Oxfam from agricultural workers around the world all say the same. Whether they're in the east African savannahs, the Peruvian altiplano or the fertile coastal wetlands of Indonesia, all complain that the seasons have become less certain, rainfall unpredictable and that their crops or their animals have suffered. There are new pests and diseases. While it is still not possible to say with certainty that this is caused by human beings burning fossil fuels, it is undeniable that catastrophic changes are going on in the climate system.
Filter the news with a climate change alert for a few months, and you watch a stream of worrying official statistics trickle in — all of them bad news. Tanzania and other east African countries report already an average warming of 1. Chinese meteorologists say that parts of their country have experienced the same. These figures may not seem enormous, but their effect is dramatic. And India is the world's second largest producer of wheat. Where's the good news?
Well, there is still enough land to feed us all.
If we act now to help countries adapt and prepare for the changes that are coming, it's possible that some of the most distressing effects — mass migration, conflict, starvation on a huge scale — could be diminished. There is a model. The world population quadrupled during the 20th century, and agriculture faced up to the challenge: global food production doubled between and , in the so-called green revolution.
That increase happened primarily through the use of artificial fertiliser in countries such as India and China. And in technology lie many hopes. A recent programme of government subsidy for new seeds and fertiliser in Malawi raised the maize yield in that famine-prone country from an average 1.
In Iowa in the US, the average rain-fed maize yield is 10 tonnes per hectare. Genetically modified crops may provide some answers, and already there are efforts to produce new crop strains for the new world: maize that will tolerate less water and more heat, rice that can put up with a saltier soil. But there may be more traction in less hi-tech solutions. Clearly, encouraging billions of poor world farmers to buy fossil-fuel-based fertiliser is no more sustainable than burning all the oil.
There are many voices arguing that the only sensible way to increase food production is through organic and sustainable measures. While water is generally agreed to be one of the most potent sources of conflict in this coming century, we still use it very badly. At the moment we are losing our groundwater very quickly, destroying soil nutrients, and farmers are going into debt because they are dependent on fertiliser and other inputs.
Hi- or low-tech, these efforts will need funding by the rich world. In Denmark, people jump off of their chairs in unison at midnight. This symbolizes jumping forward into the new year and leaving bad things behind. Though the origins of this tradition are unknown, the same thing is also practiced in Romania. Finland : Going to a fortune-teller can either be a fun or harrowing experience. But one Nordic New Year tradition involves reading the future for yourself.
Finnish people melt tin horseshoes, pour the molten metal into cold water, and use the resulting solid to gain insight into the coming year. Its shape and shadow supposedly tell all, and a broken piece of tin is considered a sure sign of bad luck. It involves ringing a bell exactly times. Buddhists believe that we humans are entrapped by different desires that keep us suffering.
The chimes symbolize purification from the accumulation of these passions over the previous year. Chile : In the small town of Tulca, Chile, it is tradition to spend the last night of the year at a sleepover at the cemetery. Building the scarecrow is a family activity. Rather than simply setting them on fire, the dolls are typically stuffed with fireworks in order to really get the festivities cranking. The traditional Scottish folk song was transcribed not written by beloved poet Robert Burns in After that, it became a common song of celebration—for weddings, graduations, funerals, etc.
The band, which came from a part of Ontario settled by Scots, often covered the song, partially to promote one of the sponsors of their radio show, Robert Burns Cigars. The tradition began as part of a day New Year Festival which was celebrated in March called Akitu, during which citizens of Babylonia would swear an oath to the sitting king or allegiance to a new one.
The Romans did a similar thing, also in March, devoting themselves to the Emperor. In the mids, the Methodist Church used the New Year to encourage its members to renew their commitments to God. Nowadays, most resolutions are neither oaths to kingdoms or religious tradition. Invented in ancient China, fireworks were originally made from dried bamboo stalks. When thrown in a roaring fire, they would emit loud bangs. These were later filled with gunpowder which was also a Chinese invention to enhance the explosive effect.
Finally, the bamboo was replaced by paper another Chinese invention. Some historical accounts credit the Mongols, while others believe they were invented independently. Since the beginning, fireworks have been used to scare away evil spirits and enemies. Because the holiday is often associated with starting anew, fireworks have long been a part of New Year celebrations, setting up partygoers for a positive year to come.
Today, the tradition of setting off fireworks as part of New Year celebrations in pretty much a staple all around the world. Champagne, some people claim, was originally an English invention as opposed to a French one.
The world is going to get hungrier this century, and on a scale that will make the famines of the s look paltry. Have you read? Held every year around the beginning of June, Pride in Tel Aviv will certainly not disappoint! The world map below shows the latest data published by the United Nations for life expectancy. I went on the special edition of the Hong Kong Pub Crawl , and had an absolute blast partying it up in the the nightlife district of Lan Kwai Fong. Today it's Kingsday and our city will turn orange.
Using techniques translated from making cider, they began to make sparkling wines of which Champagne is one variety. This invention also required creating stronger glass bottles that could withstand the pressure built up inside by the fermented drink. Later, Champagne became the popular drink of choice for celebrations by the royal courts of Europe. It eventually became a worldwide phenomenon in the late s, when the price began to drop and producers started marketing the drink to common folks.
Amazingly, the practice has been around for millennia, beginning with the Roman festival of Saturnalia. Lots of meaning has been attributed to the kiss over the years.
In Roman times, it was more an act of basic debauchery. German and English folklore cited that the first person you encountered in the New Year and how that encounter went would set the tone for the rest of the year. Attendees of masked balls in Europe used it as an act of purification after removing their masks.
We value analogous things and celebrate in our own ways. At a moment when division and dissidence seems inevitable, we still have each other. The financially unfortunate combination of travel enthusiast, freelance writer, and vegan gardener, Jonathon Engels whittled and whistled himself into a life that gives him cause to continually scribble about it. He has lived as an expat for over a decade, worked in nearly a dozen countries, and visited dozens of others in the meantime, subjecting the planet to a fiery mix of permaculture, music, and plant-based cooking.
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