ROME, Sept 14 (Reuters) – The number of people in the world suffering chronic hunger has declined for the first time in 15 years, due to improving economic conditions and lower food prices, the United Nations’ food agency said on Tuesday.

However the article continue to warn about possible sudden shortages of food due to environmental reason such as the sudden downpours, mudslides, floods, heat waves, droughts, wildfires and ruined crops that are closely matching the prediction of climate scientist.

Recently, Russia imposed a grain export ban last month after a drought ruined swathes of crops while Pakistan is still grappling with floods which have destroyed over 3.4 million hectares of crops.

My advice to all politicians to plan far far ahead of time & anticipate the worst case scenarios, what are the back up plans in cases such as below.

1. 30% to 50% of all food imports got disrupted due to high demand by other countries.
2. Sudden spike in food prices due to inflation & demand.
3. Local crops failed due to unforeseeable environmental disaster(s)
4. Spike in prices of fertilizers (natural gas), pesticides (oil) and all other fossil fuel related cost of food production.

Possible solutions to politicians

1. Diversify food imports from more countries, don’t place bets on a single food source.
2. Have governmental level food stockpile to last at least a month or 2 for essential personnel (police, army, hospitals, paramedics)
3. Nation wide rationing exercises to be conducted to prepare citizens what to do during a food shortages.
4. Encourage any kinds of farming for food to it’s citizens with subsidies on farming equipments, knowledge courses and land sales prioritize to “farming” more than profit making.
5. Do not panic your citizens with loud news about possible food shortages but encourage “stagger” food hoarding for monthly usage but purchased over multiple trips spread across weeks explaining to them that food may expire at the same time for people who buy all at once. This may loosen the panic food hoarders that over hoard their food (that they can’t finish in time) and allow others to buy their food without this artificial demand.
6. Prepare for food vouchers / coupons either in paper format (in case electricity goes down) or digital format that register how much quantity a family can get during a rationing exercise. A family can register themselves via an application on smart phones or Internet to get their digital vouchers in terms of a code to exchange for food in designated collection points with their Identity cards or passport.

There are more to discuss but my brains are hurting now haha…time to rest.

A GRIM prediction of a world teetering on the edge of apocalypse has come, not from the lips of soothsayers or lunatics, but from space scientists. In a report funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) and issued by the US National Academy of Sciences earlier this year, space scientists warned of a massive solar storm wreaking havoc on Earth in 2012.

A solar storm – essentially plasma balls spewing from the surface of the sun – can distort the Earth’s magnetic field. A particularly big one can destroy the tens of thousands of expensive and hard-to-build transformers in power grids worldwide. This will plunge major cities like Singapore into blackouts, which are expected to last months, or even years, as new transformers are painstakingly manufactured.

Meanwhile, with no power, modern life grinds to a standstill. In the first moments of this catastrophe, trains will collide and planes will crash, as their communications systems fail. Satellites will crash back to Earth like meteors. Hospitals, with their life-sustaining support systems, will see some of the most urgent needs at first.

But eventually, millions may die from hunger and thirst. With no power, food cannot be processed or delivered. Water cannot be pumped from reservoirs into homes. Back-up generators will help, but only for a few days before their fuel runs out.

As sewage systems fail, diseases will break out. Horses will replace cars, the financial system will collapse and, in a silver lining of sorts, there will certainly be no more e-mails for you to clear.

- Read the full article at The Electric New Paper:

Yes, this is related to the solar storms that is currently causing some “warming” in many planets recently but predicted to peak in solar activities in 2012 as “planet x” passes.

Knowing

What we can do is to find underground caves in desperate search for safety to be away from the burning sun just like the ending of the latest blockbuster movie “Knowing” or the best case scenario is global blackout for a few months pushing millions of people into 3rd world country in a concrete city like Singapore.

Those who cannot find food & water will simply perish easily in this kind of apocalyptic future with massive & immediate job losses (who will work without electricity?) and total chaos will erupt.

My hope is Singapore will band together and “prepare” for any contingencies by being as self sustainable as possible and buy ALL kinds of renewable energies available that is suitable for Singapore.

The government should not hinder the work of invention with patent laws & the inventions should not be profit driven but survival driven…this is a global disaster not just Singapore alone….and everyone have their parts to play…

Do you want to be the victim or the provider? You decide.

Drought

According to Channelnewsasia:

BEIJING: China warned Tuesday of a severe impact on the nation’s winter wheat crop if there was no rain within the next 15 days to relieve the worst drought in half a century.

“Right now, this is the critical period for the growth of winter crops,” E Jingping, a top drought relief official, told a news conference.

“If in 15 days there is no precipitation, the situation in the winter wheat zone will be more severe and the next stage for drought-relief operations will be abnormally difficult.”

Read the full article at Channelnewsasia:

- China now is suffering serious drought that may affect their wheat & rice crops if the rain doesn’t comes in 15 days!!

This means a shortage of wheat & rice is about to happen soon causing wheat & rice prices to soar.

The Australia drought had a more serious consequences of sudden bushfire that may had killed in excess of 200 people, destroyed four major towns and dozens of hamlets, razing 922 homes and leaving 4,200 people homeless, the CFA said. More than 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) of land were devastated.

I have a solution for China but may not work 100% due to high cost & energy required, the idea is to use large number of solar powered desalination plants at the coast and irrigate the newly desalinated fresh water supply directly towards the crops.