Thursday July 19, 2007

Expert says rising sea levels pose threat to rice

This article belongs to the Global food crisis story arc.

news.yahoo.com :

Rising sea levels triggered by climate change pose an "ominous" threat to some of the world's most productive rice-growing areas, the International Rice Research Institute has warned. "Some of Asia's most important rice-growing areas are located in low-lying deltas, which play a vital role in regional food security and supplying export markets," senior climate scientist Reiner Wassman told the IRRI magazine Rice Today. "With Vietnam so dependent on rice grown in and around low-lying river deltas, the implications of a sea-level rise are ominous indeed."

Rice is the staple cereal of nearly half the world's 6.6 billion people. Wassman said the impact of global warming on the key cereal would depend on the patterns of change in rice-growing regions. But he warned a threatened rise of between 10 and 85 centimetres (four to 34 inches) in sea levels over the next century could have "enormous" impacts on some countries, including key rice exporter Vietnam. Wassman also said more frequent or more intense droughts, cyclones and heat waves posed "incalculable threats to agricultural production."

See also :

1. Build dykes to protect against rising sea levels: experts
2. Melting Greenland ice could raise ocean 7 meters
3. Water found under Antarctic ice to raise sea level forecasts
4. Threat of 16 feet rise in sea level
5. 1 in 10 at risk from rising seas, storms: study

(2007-07-19 12:58:49 SGT) [Env] Permalink

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