Climate and food for thought

Wheat kernels stand in a field during the summer harvest on a farm in Kony village, outside Gyor, Hungary, on Thursday, July 26, 2018. A heatwave and lack of rainfall is pummeling crops across Europe as far as the Black Sea. Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg

OUR world and our planet are changing. Rapid urbanisation, modern diets, emerging technologies and uncertain employment are changing the world that we live in. We need new skills to keep up with the speed and nature of change in both, not in isolation but together. Do our existing educational, research and institutional structures provide the agile skill sets that we need to manage change at both the societal and environmental scale? If not, we need to equip individuals, communities and countries with the skills and knowledge needed to adapt to change and become more resilient to its impacts.

Climate change is an existential challenge that affects us all. However, its greatest impacts are in tropical regions that girdle the planet and where most of us live. Malaysia lies at the heart of the tropics. In fact, by their location, virtually all Muslim-majority countries are on the frontline of changing climates. We can neither move nor hide from climate change but must adapt to its impacts. While science and new technologies may help, it is ultimately people and communities that must become more climate-resilient. Nowhere is this more evident than in the food we eat and the way that we produce it.