It is obvious that climate change is
happening, floods, droughts, extreme storms, along with rising
temperatures is no longer a prediction, it is here and now. Of
course, as is always the case in this capitalist world, when things
go wrong it is always the poor and the low waged that pay the highest
price. The adverse conditions are creating havoc with our
agriculture, which transfers into higher prices for our food. It is
symbolic of the insanity of this greed driven capitalist system, that
as food prices are rising across the planet, and people can't afford
the food the help to grow, or serve in restaurants, governments
across the world are dismantling social services.
One problem that we don't hear
much about is the drought in California. According to the U.S.
Drought Monitor, 67% of the state of California is classified as
“extreme”, a further 9% is “exceptional”, this means wells
running dry, no where for cattle to graze, forcing farmers to sell
off their livestock, creating a shortage of dairy produce, glut of
meat and then a shortage meat. Some scientists claim that 2013/14 is
the driest season for 434 years. California is the top agriculture
producer in the U.S. And one of the largest in the world, producing
beef, dairy produce, wine, and some of the largest fruit and
vegetable crops.
Why should we worry if California
goes dry? Well America is a large, rich and powerful country, when it
runs out of food, it starts to suck in more from an already suffering
world, creating greater shortages and higher prices. Europe is not
exempt from the effects of climate change, scientist state that in
southern Europe, from southern France through Spain, Portugal, Italy,
Greece and to the Balkans, stream and river minimum flow could fall
by as much as 40% and in periods of drought that could increase to
80%. This of course would result in food shortages in this area,
being exacerbated by the the mighty dollar sucking in food from this
and other areas.
It is also very obvious that if
we continue to let “market forces” sort things out, a group of
rich people will make a killing from the food crisis, the rich will
feed very well indeed, as they usually do, and the poor will go
hungry and increase in numbers. Tackling climate change is only one
part of the solution, but is to little avail if we don't sort out the
system of distribution of the world's food. At the present the food
is there to see to our needs, the problem is who owns it, and who
decides its distribution method. The “market” is no more than a
euphemism for a “bunch of greedy rich bastards”, do we really
want them to be in control of OUR survival?