EDITORIAL: Food for thought on climate change

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A recent report by the Fraser Institute points out that climate activists who demand governments cut greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural production risk world food security by pushing up the cost of fertilizer and other farming costs.

“It turns out that the impact of cutting emissions harms food production much more than climate change does,” the report says.

“Surprisingly, a green, low-carbon world produces less and more expensive food and makes over 50 million more people hungry by mid-century.”

This becomes a more pressing issue now, with ardent “net zero” crusader, Prime Minister Mark Carney, at the helm.

The author of the study, Bjorn Lomborg, points out that Canada is the world’s fifth-largest food exporter of agricultural goods and the fourth-largest exporter of wheat.

Claims that carbon cuts are a priority because climate change is causing world hunger are alarmist and far from true.

“Over the past century, hunger has dramatically declined. In 1928, the League of Nations estimated that more than two-thirds of humanity lived in a constant state of hunger,” the report says.

Since 2008, less than one-tenth of the world’s population has gone hungry, although the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have increased that percentage slightly from 7% to about 9% in 2023.

“Since 1990, the average number of children dying has declined dramatically from 6.5 million to 2.5 million each year. This is an incredible success story,” the report says.

Better farming techniques have resulted in the increased production of food at a lower price, the report says.

While the impact of climate change is often depicted as being catastrophic, in reality it will have only a slight impact.

“In reality, it means that things will get much better slightly slower.”

In an increasingly uncertain world, where tariffs and counter-tariffs threaten the underpinnings of our economy, it’s important to maintain our core industries, such as agriculture, the auto industry and oil and gas on a competitive basis.

Maintaining this country’s food and energy security isn’t just good economics. It’s vitally necessary as we face seismic shifts in geopolitics. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed just how precariously Europe relies on Russia for energy.

We must not buy into net zero folly. Canada must maintain its independence and self-sufficiency both in food and energy.