Journalist Matthew Fleischer argues in today’s Los Angeles Times that if we don’t curb climate change, Russia will control our food supply:
Melting of permafrost will further open up previously marginal or even unworkable lands to agriculture. Melting Arctic ice will create new shipping routes along Russia’s northern coast and will open up previously inaccessible oil and gas reserves. Russia’s warming has already helped the country hit record harvests of rice, corn and sunflower seeds in recent years. Continued warming could conceivably allow the country to become the world’s bread basket — and control the planet’s food supply.
Russia is, of course, fully aware of these possible rosy global warming scenarios. Putin has said that “two or three degrees” of climate change could be good for Russia, in that it would reduce heating costs and increase crop yields.
So we’re now using carbon reductions as a WMD? Fleischer doesn’t mention that other parts of the world, like the northern continental United States, Alaska, Greenland, and Canada will also benefit from a warmer world and keep Russia’s power in check.
And, actually, if UN population projections are to be believed, the world will need as much food and oil as it can get. Bring on global warming to save the starving children of the future!