The special report of the IPCC also found that the current pattern of climate degradation will cause systematic reduction to renewable surface water in dry subtropical regions, thus agitating competition over water4. The steady increase of the earth’s temperature has direct effect on the patterns of water vapor concentration, precipitation and stream flow disturbing the process through which fresh water is generated. Also, the extreme weather events damage water reserves complicating the availability of fresh water. A prime example would be the damage the storm surge and rainfall during Harvey, Irma, andMaria hurricanes caused to the drinking water reserves5. Also, mountain glaciers and snow pack huge sources of freshwater are melting at unprecedented rate. With higher temperatures, the freezing over of these natural water reserves isdecreasing every year.
 
Posing a Threat to Food Security
According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), “Climate change will affect food security through its impacts on all components of global, national, and local food systems. Climate change is real, and its first impacts are already being felt.2“Issues of food security disproportionately affect more vulnerable populations, concentrated mostly in Africa. The Advisory Group on Climate Finance (AGF) reports that at a recent conference in Sudan, the FAO’s African representative maintained that undernourishment appears to have increased significantly in the African continent and that it is closely related to climate change and the crop failure due to intense droughts and floods3. That is not to argue that the African food security is a crisis caused only by climate change. However, it is to highlight that it had been‘made worse’, quoting FAO. Moreover, the tremendous increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to an increased level of absorbed carbon dioxide in the oceans which causes hyperacidificationof water disturbing its ecosystem and thus the whole food web.
 
Causing Severe Health Problems
Further climate deterioration will negatively affect many social and environmental factors that impact health by decreasing access to clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food, and secure shelter6. For example, extreme heat waves cause deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as well as increases aeroallergen levels which can trigger asthma. Increased global temperature can also affect the pattern of infection particularly of water-borne diseases and infections contracted through cold blooded animals like snails and insects. Marginalized populations, who have little to no access to healthcare, will be hit hardest, but the effects of decreased wellbeing of entire populations will have long lasting effects on the global community.
 
Climate Migration
Either due to rising sea levels or food and water insecurity, climate change inevitably results in populations fleeing increasingly uninhabitable locations. An inter-agency study jointly produced by
WFP, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB) with the collaboration of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Organization of American States (OAS), found a correlation between the droughts in countries of what is known as the ‘dry corridor’, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and the increase in illegal migration from these countries to the United States7. The outlook of climate migration is not only across national borders. According to the World Bank, internal displacement due to climate change may grow to over than 140 million refugees by 20508. The rise of scientific agreement around the evidence of climate change and the gravity of the implications have made it a focal point in international bilateral and multilateral engagements, as well as a contentious topic in domestic politics. Work around climate change has expanded to include economic, military, and political dimensions, taking it beyond the environmentalist debate, to include a broad spectrum of policy areas. According to the UN, climate change is the defining issue of our time, and we are at a defining moment9.
 
Source: Synerjies - CLIMATE CHANGE BEYONDTHE SCIENCE Report