Nearly a third of the world's crop fields and livestock rangeland will be unsuitable for food production by the end of this century if climate-warming emissions aren't heavily curbed, a report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says.
Simultaneous crop failures in the world's breadbaskets and livestock deaths from extreme heat are just a few of the disasters that may befall the world's food system by 2050 as the planet warms. Such scenarios would lead to higher prices and put an additional 80 million people at risk of hunger.
"The future looks dark if we do not take action," said Rachel Bezner Kerr, an IPCC lead author and global development researcher at Cornell University. "No region will be spared."