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Science Weekly

What will we eat in a post-1.5C world?

Science Weekly

The Guardian

Science

4.21K Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We now know that global temperatures are likely to temporarily rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels in the next five years. Breaching this crucial threshold will give humanity an insight into what the next few decades could bring. It will undoubtedly have serious consequences in all aspects of our lives, including what we eat. In the second of our special series of episodes looking at what a future world might look like, science editor Ian Sample explores how our diets could change as the Earth heats up. Ian talks to Kew’s kitchen gardener Helena Dove about climate-resilient vegetables, visits Tiziana di Costanzo’s insect farm to try mealworms and crickets, and hears from Solar Food’s CEO, Pasi Vainikka, about making food from bacteria, electricity and air. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Guardian.

0:02.0

We now know that we're almost certainly going to breach 1.5 degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels in the next five

0:16.0

years, sending the world into what the UN has called uncharted territory.

0:21.2

This continued heating is going to have massive consequences

0:25.4

for almost every aspect of our lives, including what we eat. We got a flavor of that earlier this year when UK supermarkets struggle to keep salad

0:36.4

ingredients like tomatoes and cucumbers on the shelves in part due to unseasonable weather

0:42.1

in Spain and Morocco.

0:44.0

Asda and Morrison's limiting the number of fruit and vegetables customers can buy

0:49.0

because of a sudden shortage of certain products.

0:52.0

This time of year we import most of our fresh produce from abroad, places like Spain and Morocco,

0:58.0

where the weather has been so bad that it's hit the harvest. Across the country fruit and vegiles are

1:05.4

increasingly bare. Tesco has joined Aldi, Asda and Morrison's in

1:09.8

introducing rationing. Not only is the climate impacting our food, but food is impacting the climate.

1:20.0

Studies have found that food systems are responsible for a third of human-produced greenhouse

1:24.8

gas emissions.

1:27.6

So how do we feed 8 billion people without destroying the planet, and what will the future of our food look and taste like?

1:38.0

I'm the Guardian Science Editor Ian's sample and this is Science Weekly.

1:45.0

Rising temperatures doesn't just mean droughts and heat waves.

1:51.0

The weather is becoming more unpredictable. The timing and length of the seasons is changing,

1:57.0

meaning our crops are no longer growing in their optimal conditions.

2:01.0

It's time to rethink what we're growing and where.

2:05.0

So I went to meet Helena Dove, the kitchen gardener at London's Royal Botanic Gardens in queue,

...

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