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from the climate-needs-some-serious-debugging dept.
Pests to eat more crops in warmer world
Insects will be at the heart of worldwide crop losses as the climate warms up, predicts a US study. Scientists estimate the pests will be eating 10-25% more wheat, rice and maize across the globe for each one degree rise in climate temperature.
Warming drives insect energy use and prompts them to eat more. Their populations can also increase. This is bound to put pressure on the world's leading cereal crops, says study co-author Curtis Deutsch.
"Insect pests currently consume the equivalent of one out of every 12 loaves of bread (before they ever get made). By the end of this century, if climate change continues unabated, insects will be eating more than two loaves of every 12 that could have been made," the University of Washington, US, researcher told BBC News.
Increase in crop losses to insect pests in a warming climate (DOI: 10.1126/science.aat3466) (DX)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 09 2018, @07:27PM (1 child)
Let me propose another alternative. We can simply wait until there is no more oil that can be profitably pumped out of the ground.
I just hope we have some alternative way of meeting baseline power generation requirements without dino juice when that happens. That way we can continue to make use of technology after the dino juice runs out.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday September 10 2018, @04:49PM
You're going to be waiting a stupendously long time. Sure, there's a finite amount of oil on the planet Earth. But, what does it matter to current generations, if we run out of oil in 2,000 years? Yes, profitability matters, and will more likely instigate a change than some true scarcity of the resource. I'm still waiting on affordable solar panel for my house. We'll cross the affordable electric car bridge when I can get affordable electric to power my electric car.
"Why We'll Never Run Out of Oil"
http://discovermagazine.com/1999/jun/featoil [discovermagazine.com]
"The Earth is not running out of oil and gas BP says"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/11971280/The-Earth-is-not-running-out-of-oil-and-gas-BP-says.html [telegraph.co.uk]
"What if we never run out of oil?"
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/what-if-we-never-run-out-of-oil/309294/ [theatlantic.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"