BBC NEWS | UK | Global crisis 'to strike by 2030' - 0 views
-
Growing world population will cause a "perfect storm" of food, energy and water shortages by 2030, the UK government chief scientist is warning.
-
Demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion, he is due to tell a conference in London. Climate change will exacerbate matters in unpredictable ways, he will add.
-
"It's a perfect storm," Prof Beddington will tell the Sustainable Development UK 09 conference. "There's not going to be a complete collapse, but things will start getting really worrying if we don't tackle these problems."
- ...2 more annotations...
-
The United Nations Environment Programme predicts widespread water shortages across Africa, Europe and Asia by 2025.
-
Improving agricultural productivity globally is one way to tackle the problem, he adds. At present, 30-40% of all crops are lost due to pest and disease before they are harvested. Professor Beddington says: "We have to address that. We need more disease-resistant and pest-resistant plants and better practices, better harvesting procedures. "Genetically-modified food could also be part of the solution. We need plants that are resistant to drought and salinity - a mixture of genetic modification and conventional plant breeding.