Media ignores coming world famine
R.A.McCartney | 12.11.2014 17:08 | Analysis | Climate Chaos | Other Press
The mainstream media routinely ignore the threat of world famine in the coming decades, while focussing on economic predictions about the future. Here’s a complaint I made about this today to the BBC.
This complaint is about an item on the BBC Radio 4 program, The World At One.
The program had a long item about our growing population and the need for additional housing. The presenter talked about the situation in 30 years time, others talked about 50 or 100 years from now. The house builders representative talked about people “not facing reality” and “ignoring the needs of our children”.
It is completely irresponsible & stupid to talk about the need for more housing & ignore the need for more food. No one can convincingly explain how Britain will be able to feed its population by 2050. It can’t feed them from its own resources. Sir David Attenborough’s Optimum Population Group said a few years ago that Britain is only producing enough food from its own resources to feed 16m people. All the rest of our food is either imported, or depends on imports such as animal feed.
Where are those imports going to come from? Which country will send us food if it means their own people will starve?
According to a BBC Radio 4 Costing The Earth program a few months ago, by 2050 the world is predicted to need 70% more food than its producing at the moment, but its also predicted that it will be producing substantially less food by then, and more than 25% less by 2100.
The UN IPCC says climate change will cause a decline in food production which will “endanger food security and the stability of social structures”. Other scientists bluntly say we face global famine & a collapse of civilisation. You can google the paper “can a collapse of global civilisation be avoided?”
The program had a long item about our growing population and the need for additional housing. The presenter talked about the situation in 30 years time, others talked about 50 or 100 years from now. The house builders representative talked about people “not facing reality” and “ignoring the needs of our children”.
It is completely irresponsible & stupid to talk about the need for more housing & ignore the need for more food. No one can convincingly explain how Britain will be able to feed its population by 2050. It can’t feed them from its own resources. Sir David Attenborough’s Optimum Population Group said a few years ago that Britain is only producing enough food from its own resources to feed 16m people. All the rest of our food is either imported, or depends on imports such as animal feed.
Where are those imports going to come from? Which country will send us food if it means their own people will starve?
According to a BBC Radio 4 Costing The Earth program a few months ago, by 2050 the world is predicted to need 70% more food than its producing at the moment, but its also predicted that it will be producing substantially less food by then, and more than 25% less by 2100.
The UN IPCC says climate change will cause a decline in food production which will “endanger food security and the stability of social structures”. Other scientists bluntly say we face global famine & a collapse of civilisation. You can google the paper “can a collapse of global civilisation be avoided?”
R.A.McCartney