Introduction - Climate Resilient Agriculture for Ensuring Food Security - page 7

Fig. 1.3 The earth continues to build up heat (ocean, 93.4 %; atmosphere, 2.3 %; continents, 2.1 %; glaciers and ice
caps, 0.9 %; Arctic sea ice, 0.8 %; Greenland ice sheet, 0.2 %; Antarctic ice sheet, 0.2 %)

The climate is changing and it is having an
impact on agriculture production. One of the
most impactful changes is water, either too much
or too little of it in different areas of the world. It
is projected that deserts and areas susceptible to
drought will increase. At the same time, heavy
precipitation events that often damage crops will
become more frequent.
Effects of the climate change can be seen already.
The southwestern region of the USA, for example,
is very dry, whereas other regions have more rainfall
and fl ooding. Wet springs delay the time for grow-
ing seeds, because it is too wet to plant. In other
regions, the grounds warm up later than before
which leaves less time for growing seeds.
Scientists predict that areas of the world that
are hot and dry today - such as sub-Saharan
Africa - will likely become hotter and drier in the
future. Africa is one of the most seriously affected
regions, where water scarcity and climate change
disproportionately affect sub-Saharan Africa.
Most of the global warming is going into the
oceans (Fig. 1.3 ). It takes time for the ocean to
release its heat into the atmosphere. The world's
northern freezer is on rapid defrost as large vol-

Ocean, speeding the melt of sea ice. Indeed, the
warming in the oceans has been occurring for
quite some time.
Rapidly rising greenhouse gas concentrations
are driving ocean systems towards conditions not
seen for millions of years, with an associated risk
of fundamental and irreversible ecological trans-
formation. Changes in biological function in the
ocean caused by anthropogenic climate change
go far beyond death, extinctions, and habitat loss:
fundamental processes are being altered, com-
munity assemblages are being reorganized, and
ecological surprises are likely.
Global temperatures have warmed signifi -
cantly since 1880, the beginning of what scien-
tists call the “modern record.” As greenhouse gas
emissions from energy production, industry, and
vehicles have increased, temperatures have
climbed, most notably since the late 1970s.

1.3 Impacts of Climate Change

Historical records of temperature show that
although temperatures vary naturally between ice