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Pests to Eat More Crops in Warmer World

posted by martyb on Sunday September 09 2018, @05:11PM   
from the climate-needs-some-serious-debugging dept.

takyon writes:

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)

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Original Submission

• Re:A few possible solutions (Score: 1, Touché) by khallow on Monday September 10 2018, @12:26PM

  by khallow (3766) on Monday September 10 2018, @12:26PM (#732728) Journal

  Ok. We have, for example: voluntary migration and market pricing of real estate (enough on their own to handle adaptation to rising sea levels), emission credit markets, a fair amount of conservation and environmental non profits, many competing educational and research institutions, and a huge variety of products that attempt to mitigate or fix various environmental ills in our personal or professional lives.

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