Climate Change Update: More Than 500,000 Deaths Around the World by 2050 due to Food Scarcity

Climate change is one of the leading causes of natural catastrophes our world is facing now. But a new research published in the British medical journal The Lancet showed how it can dangerously affect the world's future food supply and can cause about half a million death globally over the next 35 years.

"The immediate cause of the reduction in fruit and vegetable consumption are the climatic shocks: basically, less can be grown, that leads to farmers probably using more land, and also the prices go up, said Dr. Marco Springmann, an expert from the Oxford Martin Program on the Future of Food. "As a combination of less production and higher prices there will be a reduction in the consumption," he added.

The study which was conducted by the researchers from University of Oxford included 155 countries. As posted by Health News Line, the result of the study showed "the devastated effects of climate change on agriculture could result in overall decline in food availability across the globe."

As to the research, of all the nations which have been included in the study, China and India will most likely have the highest number of deaths, about three-quarters, of the world's total expected death rate. China will have almost 248,000 deaths while India is said to have about 136,000 deaths by 2050, as posted by Zee News India.

The researchers suggest unless everyone would help and act on the issue by slowly reducing the emission of greenhouse gasses in the world, no one can stop the tragic fate to happen on this planet. "Low- and middle-income countries will probably be hit hardest," Springmann said.

Meanwhile, North East Today reported about 800 million people nowadays are undernourished which means they can't meet the standard dietary requirements their body needs, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. Because the world's population is expected to rise from seven to nine billion in the next few years, food supply should also increase in order to cater their needs especially with regards to their food and nutrition.