Letter: Climate and food

Sir: Your reporting from the international conference on climate change held last week in Exeter plays down the impact of climate change on food supplies.

Yet all "civilisation" stems from the dawn of agriculture only 10,000 years ago, in the period of stable climate and sea levels which is now ending, and from the food surpluses that farming produced. Even this was subject to constant Malthusian control until the industrial revolution, funded by natural capital (fossil fuels), temporarily released some privileged countries from poverty only 250 years ago.

Now there are 80 million more mouths to feed each year; and soil erosion, freshwater depletion, salination of irrigation schemes, and submergence of fertile coastal areas are all accelerating. The irrelevance of conventional "indefinite growth" economics to this problem is shown by a new joke emerging last year at an American conference, when an economist said "Climate change will only have a small impact on the US, because it will only affect agriculture, which is only 3 per cent of GDP".

"Mr President, the people have no food!" "Well then, let them eat GDP - financial services, tourism, iPods ..."

ROGER MARTIN

Wells, Somerset