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agricultural-adaptation-limits

The challenges and slow pace of adapting farming practices and locations to changing climate conditions, constrained by economic, social, and environmental factors.

1 chapter across 1 book

The Uninhabitable Earth (2019)David Wallace-Wells

Chapter 5

This chapter explores the profound impact of climate change on global food security, emphasizing that rising temperatures will drastically reduce staple crop yields while the global population and food demand increase. It highlights the limitations of agricultural adaptation, the erosion of fertile soil, and the complex interplay between economic development, fossil fuel-driven industrialization, and environmental degradation. The chapter also situates climate change as a fundamental challenge that shapes all future efforts to sustain humanity, underscoring the inequities of climate justice and the difficulty of reducing emissions linked to food production and consumption.