| After this summer how can anyone doubt the | | | | to make progress in producing enough food - at |
| accumulating evidence that something major and | | | | affordable prices - to do something about the |
| alarming has been happening to global weather | | | | scandalous situation in which more than a billion people |
| patterns? | | | | on the planet suffer from malnutrition if not outright |
| Unprecedented monsoon weather has put vast areas | | | | starvation. |
| of Pakistan under water and displaced some 20 million | | | | Of course, for some, it's all just another opportunity |
| people while mudslides have destroyed whole villages | | | | to make money. Speculators on the commodities |
| and towns in China. Russia, meanwhile, is one of 16 | | | | markets must be rubbing their expensively manicured |
| countries that have declared this summer its hottest | | | | hands with glee at the fortune to be made in pushing |
| ever and is facing the loss of a third of its wheat | | | | up the price of such basics as wheat. Well, there's no |
| crop. | | | | money to be made in sub-prime mortgages any |
| A huge piece of ice has broken off from Greenland, | | | | more and investors expect a return on their |
| while Niger is suffering from famine and once again | | | | investment. |
| the loss of its crops. | | | | There have, however, been a few bright spots in the |
| Is 2010 just one isolated and extreme summer? | | | | week's news. |
| Actually it's not if you look back over the last decade | | | | They include an agreement between the US and |
| and remember from the Tsunami across S Asia in | | | | Brazil that Brazil's £13.5 million of debt will be |
| December 2004, the hurricane that destroyed much | | | | converted into a fund to protect Brazil's coastal |
| of New Orleans, major earthquakes in China and Haiti, | | | | rainforests. Ecuador, too, has announced a scheme to |
| flooding in the Irrawady Delta, Indonesia, and massive | | | | lock up as much as a fifth of its oil reserves if rich |
| fires in dry weather in Greece and other parts of | | | | nations compensate it with £3.6 billion, half of |
| Europe because of dry, hot summers. | | | | the oil's value, payable over a ten year period. |
| To the British-born environmental campaigner Lewis | | | | If agreed the scheme would protect its Yasuni |
| Pugh, who was recently interviewed by Riz Khan, on | | | | National Park, one of the most bio-diverse areas of |
| the TV Channel Al Jazeera, there's no question that | | | | rainforest in the world. The UN Development |
| the whole planet is at risk. | | | | Programme has agreed to administer the project's |
| This is a man who has swum all the oceans, across | | | | trust fund and several EU countries are supporting |
| the North Pole, where once there was ice, and in the | | | | the idea. |
| Himalayas to highlight what is going on - and says he | | | | In London Ahmed Djoghlaf, secretary general of the |
| has witnessed for himself the changes that are | | | | UN Convention on Biological Diversity, also spoke out |
| happening in even the remotest parts of the planet, | | | | against countries cutting their protection of |
| not just once but every time he goes back to these | | | | biodiversity because of the current global economic |
| places. | | | | crisis, warning that destroying nature increases |
| He is in no doubt that the situation is urgent and of | | | | economic insecurity, not to mention countries' ability |
| such overriding importance that all governments | | | | to produce enough food. |
| should be putting it at the top of their agendas. | | | | There are plenty of innovative ideas for improving |
| Yet there is pessimism already about the possibility | | | | the world's food production, from Genetically Modified |
| of agreement on action on global warming from | | | | crops, through cloning to the Biopesticides |
| November's next climate summit due in Cancun, | | | | Developers' work on producing more environmentally |
| Mexico. | | | | friendly, bio-pesticides, fungicides and yield enhancers |
| US chief negotiator Jonathan Pershing is quoted in a | | | | to contribute to increasing farm production |
| BBC online article on August 7 as saying that many | | | | sustainably without damaging the environment. |
| developed countries are back-pedalling from the | | | | The sad thing is that too often governments are still |
| progress that was made at Copenhagen last | | | | relying on old and arguably discredited methods of |
| December. | | | | pulling their countries out of recession. |
| He, too, warned that the extreme weather and | | | | While they are, perhaps understandably, focused on |
| events of this summer were "consistent with the | | | | the current state of their own economies, if they |
| kind of changes we could expect from climate | | | | don't soon change focus to the global situation the |
| change" and that we need to act quickly. | | | | question is what, eventually, will they have left to |
| All this is putting ever greater pressure on our abilities | | | | govern? |