Experts issue concerning forecast about disruptions to food supply in next five years: 'Far more severe'

The next five years are likely to be hotter than we've ever experienced, with the potential to disrupt everything from daily routines to global food systems. The ripple effects could be dangerous and costly, but there are tools to help us prepare.

What's happening?

In late May, the World Meteorological Organization, an agency of the United Nations, released a new report full of serious warnings, according to CBC News.

The WMO's analysis indicates there is an 80% chance that at least one of the next five years will be the hottest on record. The global average temperature during that period is 70% likely to exceed pre-industrial levels by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a critical limit set in the 2015 Paris Agreement and one that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said "crossing [would risk] unleashing far more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall."

The WMO report additionally noted, per CBC, that from 2025 to 2029, global temperatures are projected to hover above historic averages by between 2.2 and 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit. And the Arctic is predicted to warm at a rate more than 3.5 times the global average.

Why is this forecast concerning?

Some of these increases may seem small, but they can supercharge extreme weather events to catastrophic effect.

Although destructive weather patterns have always been a part of life on Earth, human-induced warming can act like steroids. "Every additional fraction of a degree of warming drives more harmful heatwaves, extreme rainfall events, intense droughts, melting of ice sheets, sea ice, and glaciers, heating of the ocean, and rising sea levels," the WMO said in a written statement.

For example, accelerated glacier loss and ice melt in the Arctic can lead to rising sea levels. These load up storm surges with huge amounts of water, rocking coastal towns and reaching further and further inland.

Parts of Alaska and Northern Europe may see more rain, while the Amazon could face worsening drought, according to the CBC's coverage of the WMO's predictions.

The agency also emphasized that rising global temperatures can cause ocean currents to slow, crops to fail, and diseases to spread more widely and rapidly.

What can be done about rising global temperatures?

Some municipalities are investing in cooling strategies, like tree planting and reflective building materials. Neighborhoods have also launched resilience hubs in an effort to ready communities for the shocks to come. There are even structural and functional changes that can be made to individual homes.

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Upgrading to a heat pump or installing solar panels, for example, can help lower monthly bills while reducing the use of the dirty energy sources that produce heat-trapping gases and drive temperatures and sea levels higher. Installing solar panels along with a battery system can also boost a home's resilience to the power grid outages that have become fairly regular symptoms of extreme weather events.

Such upgrades can feel intimidating for homeowners, but there are resources that can help. EnergySage, for one, offers a free service that lets consumers compare quotes from vetted local installers, saving customers up to $10,000 on solar panel installation.

Home-based shifts like this can also feel "too small" or "not enough" to combat the devastating effects of human-caused climate change. But learning about clean, renewable options together with friends, family, and neighbors can be a force multiplier, making info-gathering more approachable, renovations more possible, alternatives more normalized, and environmental benefits more widespread.

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