Guest “no it isn’t” by David Middleton

Food under threat: Struggle to harvest

Climate change pushing the world into hunger?

PUBLISHED NOV 11, 2018

As South-east Asia’s population grows rapidly, decreasing rice yields as well as the increasingly erratic weather brought by a warming world will place ever more stress on a region where millions still do not have enough access to food

Jose Hong

South-east Asia is the world’s rice bowl. But climate change, with its unpredictable rainfall and warming seas, is causing harvests to dwindle.

[…]

The Straits Times

I stopped reading right there and went here: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAOSTAT and downloaded rice yield and production data for Southeast Asia.

Dwindle…

Climate change, with its unpredictable rainfall and warming seas, is causing harvests to dwindle.

No it isn’t.

Southeast Asia, Rice Yield (hg/ha)

Southeast Asia, Rice Yield (hg/ha)

Southeast Asia, Rice Production (tonnes)

Southeast Asia, Rice Production (tonnes)

2016 marked the sixth hottest most productive year on record for Southeast Asia rice harvests, 97% of the record harvest in 2013.

Thailand’s rice production has fallen off since their record-high 2012 harvest; however nothing has “dwindled.”

If Southeast Asia rice harvests are dwindling, global temperatures are plummeting…

HadCRUT4 global temperature anomaly since 1961 (deg. C). Wood for Trees