Newly planted rice saplings have been underwater since July after torrential rain battered northern India, with landslides and flash floods sweeping through the region.
Last month, India, which is the world’s largest exporter of rice, announced a ban on exporting non-basmati white rice in a bid to calm rising prices at home and ensure food security. India then followed with more restrictions on its rice exports, including a 20% duty on exports of parboiled rice.
The move has triggered fears of global food inflation, hurt the livelihoods of some farmers and prompted several rice-dependent countries to seek urgent exemptions from the ban.
I can completely understand why India has made the choice to ban rice exports, because they’ve got to put their first priority on keeping their own people fed. But it’s making the whole global food situation worse.
I keep having this sinking feeling we’re going to experience something like the Bronze Age Collapse - part of the reason all the Bronze Age societies collapsed so suddenly wasn’t just the Sea People, it was that they were all so interconnected trade-wise that when one society collapsed, all of them did because supply chain links snapped. I feel like climate change is our current-day “Sea People,” only so much worse.
We really ought to be strengthening our supply networks. And it’s really frustrating that we’re not.
We already saw a glimpse of what can happen under covid lockdown. And that was a controlled shutdown. What happens if the supply chain breaks unexpectedly?
We really ought to be strengthening our supply networks.
Not even that, producers and consumers need to stop being dependent on one crop.
stop being dependent on one crop
Could probably just translate that to
people need to stop being fat
The comparison is more apt than appears at first glance. The debates continue, but attacks by the Sea Peoples, or war, is only one of the hypothesized contributers to the collapse. Others include: a pandemic, environmental shifts caused by a volcanic eruption, and drought.
Were you watching The Fall of Civilizations recently?
I don’t even know what that is - is a documentary or something?
Yeah, a series of high quality documentaries on YouTube. The first episode IIRC was about the bronze age collapse.
India and US elections are right around the corner, both governments wants to appease the crowd. Hope people will vote responsiblely.
Man, we are so utterly fucked. It’s so damn frustrating that this is still just the very beginning of extreme weather caused by climate change. 10-20 years from now is going to be pretty fucking bleak for much of the world.
We basically are. The only good news is that young conservatives believe in and want to do something about climate change, so when the current crop of oil-funded deniers die off, we have some hope to limit the damage. That said, I’m seriously considering moving up north away north as far away from the equator as possible, and to an area with fresh water and farmland.
Then buying a gun. Never thought I’d need one after I left the Army, but as things get worse, I suspect that more violence will result due to scarcity and more likely: stress related to perceived scarcity that doesn’t exist. It’s always the fear that’s more dangerous than the reality. We can probably get by with easy to grow, nutrient-dense foods that are boring to eat, like beans. It’s the stress of not being able to eat “tasty” food that’ll probably get people to snap. Gunfights over steak, etc.
If we’re dependent in any way on “the next generation of conservatives” for anything, we should just stop any kind of hoping now.
There is no validity, utility or future for conservatism. We can’t address the issues we have in this world till that philosophy is dead and buried.
I love beans.
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Don’t go too far north or you’ll be engulfed in forest fires.
That said, I’m seriously considering moving up north away north as far away from the equator as possible, and to an area with fresh water and farmland.
Just move to a civilized, developed country. The places best prepared to deal with climate disasters are the countries that can throw money at it. Desalination plants, hydroponics, border security, police, army - this is what will let you survive, not fresh water and a gun. This crisis will put pressure on every country. Countries up north have to import a lot of food and also have issues with drought (look at UK), disappearing permafrost (Russia, Sweden) and immigration (UK again).
The only good news is that young conservatives believe in and want to do something about climate change,
No. Almost no one, except maybe the most progressive young people, wants actually do anything about it. To actually stop climate change we would have to seriously lower average standard of living in a developed countries. We would basically have to shrink the entire economy, put most people on some sort of UBI, and make sure they have basic necessities and not much more. No one is ready for this. Most people are not even willing to switch to electric cars because it will take them a bit longer to drive 800km when they go on holiday twice a year. Nothing will be done.
You are spreading disinformation.
Climate change can be significantly reduced or prevented entirely while maintaining or improving the quality of life for everyone except perhaps for the elite.
- A rapid transition to 100% renewable electricity, which is considered to be very achievable with current technology.
- Transition to electric-powered systems for heating, most likely ground or air source heat pumps, and investment in insulating buildings.
- Rapid substitution of private cars for cheap, clean, comfortable, electric-powered public transport, wherever possible.
- The transition of the majority of over-land shipping to using electric rail rather than road.
- The transition to cleaner fuels or electricity for oversea shipping.
- Globally transitioning to a diet which is almost entirely plant-based.
None of these steps is particularly hard or expensive. Around a trillion (1,000,000,000,000) dollars are invested in fossil fuels annually which is money that could be put to better use right at the outset.
If the economic, political or societal structures we have makes the execution of these changes difficult or impossible, then it falls to us to bring about a change in those structures.
I think you’re a bit delusional. All those things take years if not decades. Where I lived they struggled to get rid of carbon furnaces because:
- lobbying from manufacturers
- a lot of people that use those live in social housing so it’s city’s responsibility and city didn’t have money for it
- even with subsidies changing a furnace is a big cost so people were avoiding it
- people were uncertain about the new regulations and future prices (what do you install? electric? gas? pellet? which one will be cheaper in 5 year time?)
It’s not enough to theoretically have money for something. To actually implement it you have to overcome a lot of opposition and people will strongly oppose to :
- electric cars - just look at comments anywhere. “What? I will have to charge my car for 30 minutes instead of 10? Unacceptable.” (I do have an electric car)
- heat pumps - same, people complain that they might not work ideally when it gets very cold once a year. (I do have an heat pump)
- plant based diet - people do like their meat
Everything else will require lots of money and time. Those are huge project and implementing them will take decades. What will happen to truck drivers? How long will it take to replace current ships fleet? Where will you get all the lithium from? People are protesting new mining projects in Europe and USA. People are even complaining that the entire country side is being covered by solar panels.
Yes, we have money to do it all but the change will be slow and we’ve run out of time already.
I was once told that anyone who claims that they agree with your idea, but they think it isn’t feasible because “average people wouldn’t accept it” is either astroturfing or ignorant. From the head spinning levels of disinformation in the original post, it’s pretty clear which side you fall on.
Well, if someone told you this than it must be true. Hard to argue with such a great argument.
No way you were in a combat related occupation and didn’t own a personal firearm. If you had a desk job then what was the point of mentioning the Army?
I call bullshit.
edit: It’s been over 24 hours and he’s done nothing to displace my assumptions. This isn’t my first day on the internet.
some pretty insane assumptions there mate
some pretty insane assumptions there mate
Perhaps, something about it set off my bullshit radar.
I think your radar needs some fine tuning
It’s been over 24 hours and he’s done nothing to displace my assumptions. This isn’t my first day on the internet, I’ve seen this shit before.
Just a reminder that this is the result of the greenhouse gases emitted a generation ago, and that since we went from 355ppm to 420ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. The war in Ukraine and global food shortage is a blip in what’s to come.
I wonder, what will be the big event that will change the world pespective on climate change?
People are aware, but they are not really worried. I think is very difficult make a transition to a ecofriendly way of life, mostly because of the grow factor, if someone use less efecient production models, they will lose profit.
Anyway I hope we get really smart with solutions soon otherwise get used to the old feudal ways.
I really want to be wrong but I think climate change will never as respected as it should, the disasters that come after will probably just be blamed on any minority that’s available at that moment.
Again I hope I’m wrong.
The world needs a climate insurance market. A better climate is worth something to everyone - we need to coordinate on funding a defense. And it’ll have to be p2p because the people we’re defending against won’t like that.
And so began the war for water and food. It will not be a war with only guns and classical battles. It’s about power, influence, treasons, etc.
A war were the basic human has nothing to say and will be neglected. It’s about the upper level, the corporations and the capital will dictate who has access to food and water.
It’s time to stop the infinite grow of the capital which isn’t sustainable on earth and elsewhere. This will make possible to take care of our environment and the planet to feed everyone correctly.
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So a rough estimate of 1600 kcals per pound of rice, 10 billion pounds, assuming daily intake of 2000 kcals, that’s roughly the yearly calories of about 22 million people (assuming I didn’t fuck up somewhere). To put it in perspective.
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to the tune of over 5 million tons annually, that’s 10 billion pounds of rice per year.
Not quite ;)
Citation needed.
5 million tons annually is 5 million tons per year, not 10 billion. “Annually” means per year.
How do you even get to a conversion factor of 2000?
Are you reading what @tallwookie wrote properly?
1 ton ≈ 2000 pounds, so 5 million tons would be ~10 billion pounds
Nope, full-on brainfart! Thank you for the correction :)
He said pounds, a ton is 2000 lbs
The law of unintended consequences. Do these farmers stop growing rice, banned export, and grow something else profitable. I’m guessing a government ban suggests price controls or curbs.
You can’t change your crops that quickly.
Also, rice is probably still plenty expensive enough.
In India, the benefits of higher prices is rarely passed to the farmers. middlemen/ brokers hoard prodcuts and make hay.
Rice is one of the few crops where the govt sets a Minimum Selling Price (MSP) and farmer prefer it knowing their crop will atleast get them some returns. for most of the agri products, there is no MSP, and farmers have no way of knowing whether the crop they’ve borrowed money to plant and have slaved to grow & reap will fetch them any money. When even returns are not assured, profits are a distant dream. The financial situation of farmers caused by inconsistent returns is so terrible that almost all farmers are deep in debt and since
the 1970s an estimated 30 Indian farmers have been killing themselves everyday due to debt.The situation is so dire that as of 2018, the Indian government has not published data on farmer suicides since 2015.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The move has triggered fears of global food inflation, hurt the livelihoods of some farmers and prompted several rice-dependent countries to seek urgent exemptions from the ban.
Economists say the ban is just the latest move to disrupt global food supplies, which has suffered from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as weather events such as El Niño.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has encouraged India to remove the restrictions, with the organization’s chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, telling reporters last month that it was “likely to exacerbate” the uncertainty of food inflation.
Indian farmers account for nearly half of the country’s workforce, according to government data, with rice paddy mainly cultivated in central, southern, and some northern states.
The World Meteorological Organization last month warned that governments must prepare for more extreme weather events and record temperatures, as it declared the onset of the warming phenomenon El Niño.
El Niño is a natural climate pattern in the tropical Pacific Ocean that brings warmer-than-average sea-surface temperatures and has a major influence on weather across the globe, affecting billions of people.
The original article contains 1,060 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 83%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I can’t live in a developsd country with prices going up. May be I should move to India? Has anyone ever been to india ? How is it?
Plenty of Indians would gladly trade places with you
I wouldn’t mind hey. I just googled best places to visit in India and Kashmir, Mizoram, Manipal looks dope af.
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good bit, but dale wasn’t quite that stupid
