VOA标准英语2011--Climate Change Threatens World Food Prod

Climate Change Threatens World Food Production

Higher temperatures and changing rainfall patterns resulting from global climate change will threaten food production in many parts of the world - especially regions in the tropics already struggling with food security, according to a new report.
How climate change affects you depends on more than just how it affects your local weather. It also depends on how much the weather matters to your livelihood¹, and how well you can cope with the changes.
Identifying food insecurity hotspots
Philip Thornton, with the International Livestock² Research Institute, is one of the authors of the new report, a joint³ effort by a group of international agricultural research centers. Thornton and his colleagues wanted to find what they called "hotspots" of future food insecurity: places with the greatest exposure to climate change, highest sensitivity to its impacts, and the least ability to cope with them.
Other studies have looked at the effect of climate change on growing conditions in certain regions. But Thornton says figuring out how that interacts with other factors affecting food security is a challenge.
"It's very difficult to look directly at things like sensitivity of the food systems to climate change impacts, or even the coping capacity of populations to address the impacts. And so we used proxies⁴."
They used a region's cropland area as a proxy⁵ for sensitivity to climate change because changes in the weather would have bigger impacts on areas with more farmland. To examine coping capacity, they looked at national data on the prevalence of children stunted⁶ by malnutrition⁷.
They combined this data with climate change models that predict the impacts on temperature and rainfall by 2050 to come up with maps of the most vulnerable areas of the tropics.
'Double whammy'
For example, higher temperatures are expected to shorten growing seasons in the tropics. The report looks at areas expected to lose more than 5 percent of the growing season and finds about 370 million people highly vulnerable to this impact.
That area includes much of South Asia, especially India; Nigeria, Niger, Mali and other parts of West Africa; and parts of Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia and other areas of East and Southern Africa.
These are regions, Thornton notes, where hunger is already a problem. "It's almost like a double-whammy, if you like."
Other criteria⁸ give smaller impacts. But the basic outlines are the same.
Kansas State University professor Chuck Rice was a member of the 2007 U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He notes that some of the countries most sensitive to climate change and least able to cope with it, also have among the highest rates of population growth, which puts yet another strain on their food security.
"I think that really pushes the need for increasing funding, not only for research but for outreach efforts to develop mitigation, but also adaptation strategies."
Experts say those strategies include switching to more drought- and heat-tolerant crops, better water management techniques and insurance for crops and livestock to help farmers cope with the climate changes expected during the coming decades.

1 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。

2 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

3 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

4 proxies   

n.代表权( proxy的名词复数 )；（测算用的）代替物；（对代理人的）委托书；（英国国教教区献给主教等的）巡游费

参考例句：

• SOCKS and proxies are unavailable. Try connecting to XX again? socks和代理不可用。尝试重新连接到XX吗？ 来自互联网
• All proxies are still down. Continue with direct connections? 所有的代理仍然有故障。继续直接连接吗？ 来自互联网

5 proxy   

n.代理权，代表权；（对代理人的）委托书；代理人

参考例句：

• You may appoint a proxy to vote for you.你可以委托他人代你投票。
• We enclose a form of proxy for use at the Annual General Meeting.我们附上委任年度大会代表的表格。

6 stunted   

adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的

参考例句：

• the stunted lives of children deprived of education 未受教育的孩子所过的局限生活
• But the landed oligarchy had stunted the country's democratic development for generations. 但是好几代以来土地寡头的统治阻碍了这个国家民主的发展。

7 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

8 criteria   

n.标准

参考例句：

• The main criterion is value for money.主要的标准是钱要用得划算。
• There are strict criteria for inclusion in the competition.参赛的标准很严格。