De-Isolate: The Water-Food-Shelter Nexus

Abstract

Climate change is a natural cyclical phenomenon and throughout our planet's existence there have been sustained periods of heating and cooling. These periods are often referred to as "ice ages" and "interglacials" respectively. Scientists attributed warms oceans and carbon dioxide released from the oceans as the reason for global warming in the past. However, human activities of the recent past, mainly the burning of fossil fuel has seen an amplification of global temperature at a scale never seen before. This unprecedented change in our environment, as per scientists will have adverse side effects and have a long-term impact in our world. The most likely effects of climate change will be; heatwave, drought, glacier melts, sea level rise, erratic precipitation and erosions depending on a particular geographical location. The socio-economic impact of climate change could be a severe one too. Heat and drought could have major impact on agriculture, food and forests. United Nations data released in 2016 suggests that by the year 2050, more than 50 percent of the world's population will face a dearth of fresh water sources. It is also predicted that water scarcity will most likely result in diseases, unemployment and poverty. Energy use is also likely to increase with the greater need for air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winters. In cases where a region can't cope with these consequences, mass migration in search of better conditions is also likely. Physical and economic infrastructure will be tested by severe weather, flooding, wildfires and other phenomena. Data published by the United Nations in 2014 estimated that more than 50% of the world's total population lives in the urban areas and soon that number is likely to increase to 60%. In conjunction with climate change, this will mean more strain on already stretched resources in urban ecosystems. Also, with data suggesting that many people will migrate due to unemployment and poverty because of climate change, it is highly likely urban regions will have to accommodate that population too. The intertwined nexus of freshwater shortage, food, water and energy security is an issue we are already grappling with today, which is likely to be exacerbated in the future. These issues cannot be reviewed and analyzed as separate phenomena, but rather as a single intertwined phenomenon. The solution of the problem, hence, should be treated as the same.