Our future crops will face threats not only from climate change, but also from the massive expansion of cities, a new study warns.

Amid deadly wildfires in California and increased flooding along the U.S. East Coast in 2019, most Americans say the effects of climate change are already upon us — and that the U.S. government isn’t doing enough to stop it, according to a new public opinion survey.

Who would consider the impact of orchard trellising on a  carbon footprint?

The fossil fuel industry, political lobbyists, media moguls and individuals have spent the past 30 years sowing doubt about the reality of climate change - where none exists.

Theo de Jager, President of World Farmers Organisation, brings the perspective of farmers to the climate change debate. This guest-post is part of Farming First’s ‘Farmers Taking Action on Climate Change’ campaign for the COP25.

Climate change is altering conditions that sustain food production, with cascading consequences for food security and global economies. Recent research evaluated the simultaneous impacts of climate change on agriculture and marine fisheries globally.

There is clear evidence that agriculture in South Africa has evolved to take natural climate variation into account.

Over the years, climate change has been disruptive to farmers, interfering with planting seasons, driving post-harvest losses up and causing livestock deaths and diseases as prolonged droughts and excess rainfall heavily toll on the many regions, especially those in Africa.

Earth’s climatic future is uncertain, but the world needs to prepare for change.

There’s an assumption in the agricultural industry that the yields and prices of crops will vary according to local conditions as well as supply and demand in local and international markets.

Climate change no longer seems just a future threat. In 2019, major fires in Australia, Russia and California burned over 13.5 million hectares of land – an area four times greater than the size of Belgium.

Climate change seems to be our biggest long term problem, coming closer every day. Our newspapers and social media are full of it. Greta Thunberg talks about nothing else and leaders lash out at her saying she is naive. ‘It’s not so simple,’ they say.

This quotation is from the end of Stephen M. Gardiner’s book A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change. The book argues that climate change is already an ethical failure, as we have not yet succeeded in putting measures in place to deal with climate change.

It’s often seen as the silver lining set against the dark clouds of climate change: As precipitation patterns change and cold parts of the planet warm up, the quantity of potential farmland could grow immensely.

Agriculture plays a key role in food security in Africa. It is also crucial to the economic sector, accounting for between 40%-65% of jobs. Farming is expected to remain an important livelihood for decades to come.

The early rains have failed this year amidst a multi-year drought in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia, leaving the countries at risk of a major food crisis. While the region has a track record of similar weather conditions over the past 140 years, is it possible that this looming disaster could be ascribed – at least in part – to climate change?

This March  the International Day of Forests is putting the spotlight on the great variety of animal, plant and other life supported by the world’s forests with the theme, “Forests and Biodiversity: Too precious to lose.”

The impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems are already evident. Poleward shifts in the geographic distributions of species, catastrophic forest fires and mass bleaching of coral reefs all bear the fingerprints of climate change.

Climate change could lead to sudden loss of biodiversity in Africa and other regions of the world sooner than predicted, with negative impacts on people’s food security and income, a study says.