I'm going to post this link in a couple of threads here, because it is a very gestalt picture of the coming climate disaster and there's a lot of overlap, but from a human perspective, and much of what this ProPublica article reports is stuff many on here have seen for years.
This is a wonderful article about the future of farming in California, but many thoughts also apply to the entire globe from Stephanie Pincetla professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and founding director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA. Â
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How to farm in a dry world
For California agriculture to survive, we will need nothing short of a revolutionary re-envisioning of the future. The alternative is extinction.
A new agriculture for the post-hydrocarbon era will have to rely on local and regional resources. People will have to eat more seasonally and eat fewer high-energy dense foods, such as meat. Different regions across the U.S. and the world will have to return to growing what can be grown in those places, supplemented by hothouses heated with compost in cold regions. This means California will no longer be a large exporter of food, domestically or internationally. California agriculture will be primarily destined for Californians.
The Central Valley is currently ground zero for the problems California will face if we continue to follow the path we’re headed down now. There, small towns are shrinking or have disappeared. Housing is substandard. The valley reeks of pollution from Highway 99’s heavy truck traffic and diesel-burning locomotives in addition to the tractors and irrigation pumps that contaminate the water and air.
This will be the story of our state unless we develop a different ethics of practice. The driving force of this new ethics is about loving a place, and I see glimpses of it in the Ojai Valley and those who learn to farm within the limits of this small place. This means learning about an area’s groundwater resources, how to reinfiltrate stormwater effectively when it does rain, ensuring there is enough mulch to maintain soil moisture and build soil fertility, planting locally appropriate plants in gardens and treating water as precious and life-giving.
A new path for California will have to be revolutionary in its vision — as it will mean dissolving current systems and insisting on mutualism and collaboration for new social organizations. But such a vision can be possible if we decide this is the future we want, and resolve to follow a new ethic, one that is aimed toward nurturing life and the land.
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https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=e519fca6-9a48-4eb5-b5c5-76afac854479
In addition to these badly needed improved farming practices, intellectually and intuitively I think that due to climate change, a great deal of agriculture will move indoors and become vertical. I visited an indoor facility that was a converted warehouse that had layers of trays of plants suspended over one another. Much less water was needed because it drips down and little is wasted, no pesticides are required, no dependence on good weather, are some the advantages. The major challenge is the amount of energy these facilities consume but perhaps green energy can provide it, eventually.
Jason Clay is considered a world-class expert on agriculture. He has some interesting ideas:
https://www.brinknews.com/how-to-repurpose-your-stranded-assets/