http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-09-05T182136Z_01_MOL565920_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT-HUNGER-DC.XMLClimate change raises risk of hunger - scientists
Mon Sep 5, 2005 7:21 PM BST
By Patricia Reaney
DUBLIN (Reuters) - About 50 million more people, most of them in Africa, could be at risk of hunger by 2050 due to climate change and reduced crop yields, scientists predicted on Monday.
Roughly 500 million people worldwide already face hunger but rising levels of greenhouse gases could make the problem worse.
"We expect climate change to aggravate current problems of the number of millions of people at risk of hunger, probably to the tune of 50 million," said Professor Martin Parry of the Hadley Center of the UK Meteorological Office.
"The greatest proportion, about three-quarters of that number, will be in Africa."
Parry told the British Association science conference that it would take huge reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases -- about 20 times those required by the Kyoto Protocol -- to avoid the additional risk of hunger.
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