WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new series, The Hunger Reports, released today by Bread for the World Institute warns that climate change is already impacting global hunger as well as agriculture in the United States.
“Many Americans do not think of climate change as a cause of hunger,” said Asma Lateef, director of Bread for the World Institute. “Yet changing climate patterns are resulting in droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events across the globe. People are no longer able to grow food in places they have been farming for generations. Climate change is a contributing factor to the strife and famine we are witnessing today.”
To make matters worse, it’s the people who were already poor and marginalized who are now being hardest hit by the effects of climate change. If left unabated, climate change will continue to increase hunger and poverty around the world. Climate change not only affects people in Somalia and other countries suffering hunger crises, but also environmental conditions in the United States.
“Climate change is a sort of amplifier of all the weaknesses and fractures within our world already. It makes it much, much harder to cope with what are already very difficult problems,” said Bill McKibben, environmentalist and founder of 350.org in a new video released today. “The most fundamental human needs, food, water, are now at risk in a way that they've never been at risk before.”
The Hunger Reports video, “Too Wet, Too Dry, Too Hungry,” debuts in time for the celebration of Earth Day and the National March for Science, both on April 22, and the People’s Climate Movement March on April 29. The video anchors a new series based on the award-winning Hunger Report 2017: Fragile Environments, Resilient Communities, published by Bread for the World Institute.
“Progress in recent decades shows that ending hunger is possible within our lifetimes,” Lateef added. “However, the world will not be able to end hunger without addressing the causes of climate change. And we must help people become more resilient to the damage already caused by changing climate patterns.”
Watch “Too Wet, Too Dry, Too Hungry” at www.hungerreports.org.
Bread for the World (www.bread.org) is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad.