Half of world’s population could face climate-induced food crisis by 2100

Rapidly warming climate is likely to seriously alter crop yields in the tropics and subtropics by the end of this century and, without adaptation, will leave half the world’s population facing serious food shortages, new research shows.

To compound matters, the population of this equatorial belt — from about 35 degrees north latitude to 35 degrees south latitude — is among the poorest on Earth and is growing faster than anywhere else.

"The stresses on global food production from temperature alone are going to be huge, and that doesn’t take into account water supplies stressed by the higher temperatures," said David Battisti, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor.

Vince Stricherz [email protected]

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