November 21st, 2007 by admin
The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows many ways that food production will be hit as the world warms up.
One of the least known is the conclusion that carbon dioxide emissions have already increased the acidity of ocean surface water by 30 %, and could treble it by the end of the century. This is said to be the most profound change in the chemistry of the oceans for 20 million years and is expected to disrupt the entire web of life of the oceans, reducing productivity.
Fish has been a very important part of many people’s diet and a significant contributer to the total food available to humans. Wild fish is already under threat due to over fishing so that with this additional problem of acid oceans, the per capita availability of wild fish is bound to fall as populations rise. In turn this will contribute to Peak Food.
Posted in Collapse of Fisheries | 1 Comment »
As population levels continue to increase and fish stocks collapse, we are going to have to face the fact that per capita availability of fish is going to drop drastically in the next 20 years. This is a great pity from the point of view of feeding a world running low on food and the oil and other resources needed to produce food. Wild fish is one of the few foods that has no fossil energy inputs up to the point of harvest and is a very important protein source for millions of people.
A new book by Callum Roberts called The Unnatural History of The Sea, says that 200 years ago the North Sea probably held two million tons of cod. Now it is almost certainly less than 40,000 tons.Prof Roberts says that at least half of human fishing capacity has to be somehow taken out of circulation and one third of every ocean has to be turned into protected recovery areas.
I don’t think there is any possibility of this happening at a time when other high protein foods are becoming more expensive and scarse. We will continue until there is almost no fish left, adding to the other food supply problems now building. If several of these problems start having a big effect together, food shortages will cause panic, hoarding and speculation, making a bad situation a lot worse.
