Miller Magazine Issue 109 / January 2019

57 COVER STORY MILLER / JANUARY 2019 if many governments comprehended the significance of this issue whereas many people are aware of this change. States decided that climate change is an important problem and should be prevented within the shortest time after the 1992 Rio Conference. This agreement is named as United Nations Framework Convention on Cli- mate Change (UNFCCC). However, it is difficult to tell that states took a serious step so far. It is decided to keep climate change under two degrees during the 21st Con- ference of Parties gathered in Paris in December 2015. In fact, it is underlined to limit the warming with 1.5 deg- rees in order not to face with the negative effects of the climate change. After the Paris Agreement, states acted to see benefits of limiting the warming with 1.5 degrees and harms the limitation will bring in case of failure when it is understo- od that the limitation will yield serious costs. At the beginning of Oct. 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – a United Nations body – an- nounced its report about the limitation. Climate change affects food and nutrition. This effect manifests itself through changes in the existence, quality, accessibility and distribution of food. In 2016, at least 815 million people, which mean 11 percent of the world population, faced with malnutrition, but the malnutriti- on has not equally distributed to the world. In parallel to the decline in food safety, the malnutrition has oc- curred more in Africa (20%), Southeast Asia (14.4%), and the Caribbean (17.7%). If the world gets warmer by 2°C instead of 1.5°C; food safety, nutrient content and nutrient’s yields, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture will worsen due to extreme weather events. It is estima- ted that it would be very difficult to carry out the UN Sustainable Development Targets, especially eradicating poverty and inequality, considering the effects of clima- te change on yield, arable field, pests, price, and food supply. If 2°C global warming instead of 1,5°C occurs, it will create huge risks in crop yield and generally in nutriti- on all around the world and regions particularly places between 40 degrees north and south latitude. The rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will increase the tem- perature and extreme weather events. That means there will be extreme rainfall during the hot and dry period. Thus, climate change may worsen the malnutrition and reduce the access to food and the quality of food pro- duct. The decrease in water used for agriculture and drin- king and the access to food based on water availability will be much less in 1.5°C compared to 2°C warming. If the Earth arms up by 2°C, the agricultural problems will be more severe especially in the Sahel region, the Me- diterranean, Central Europe, Amazon, and Western and Eastern Africa. Not all news is bad. Some studies have reported that the concentration of carbon dioxide in 2°C is more be- neficial particularly in poles when compared to 1.5°C. In contrast to the lower latitudes, production at higher lati- tudes may benefit from an increase in agricultural areas and an increase in crops and pastures. A similar situation can be said for high-latitude fishing, which will also be