Russia just announced that they are going to cease exporting wheat for the remainder of the year, because of the extreme drought they're now experiencing. Wheat prices have soared.
Let's assume that the historical Russian heat wave and severe drought are due to anthropogenic climate change. (I know there are all sorts of caveats, but let's assume.) Here are the input numbers:
- rise in wheat prices in last month: 300 cents/bushel
- U.S. wheat consumption (2008): 137 lb/person/yr
- U.S. population: 309.913 million
- pounds of wheat in a bushel: 60
Do the arithmetic and we find that the cost to the country is $175 M/month, or $2.1 B/yr.
That's just for wheat. For just the US.
Global production/consumption is 607.0 Mmt/yr. Do the same calculation as above and you find that this rise in wheat prices costs the world $67 B/yr.
1 comment:
You've Hidden The Decline(TM) in your figures, as everyone knows that CO2 is life and feeds plants and a warming world means more food for the worrrrrld!
Best,
D
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