New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman returns to the Middle East, this time to Cairo, where he traces the roots of the Arab spring to droughts and heat waves in places as far away as Kansas and Russia. He tells viewers, ’Bread’ is the first word in one of the most popular chants of the revolution. I want to know why. In Egypt, the word for bread, aish, also means life. Friedman learns that close to 50 percent of Egypt’s wheat supply is imported. In 2010, due to a series of extreme weather events around the world, the production of wheat decreased, and its price doubled in the months before the Egyptian revolution. Youth leader Ahmen Maher tells Friedman, If the people can’t find bread, they will make a revolution. Digging into the science behind the heat waves, Friedman checks in with climate scientists at Oxford. Professor Myles Allen, tells him that humans caused global warming made Russia’s 2010 heat wave three times more likely than it would have been otherwise. There’s a strong link between rising temperatures and the risk of heat waves. So we can make a clear case for the risk of that heat wave which occurred in Russia and other heat waves which occurred around the world, being increased as a result of human influence on climate. And, Friedman tells viewers, Earth could warm by more than 9 degrees F (5 degrees C) by 2100 if we don’t aggressively reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. At those temperatures, scientists project that yields for some crops could drop by 25%. ” Not only does reducing meat consumption through Meatless Monday help to significantly reduce your personal contribution to greenhouse gases, but it also conserves grains that are normally fed to livestock, which is an inefficient way to produce food compared to eating the grains themselves. momscleanairforce.org/years-living-dangerously-7/
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 16:52:26 +0000
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