High food prices said foretaste of climate shocks

(March 11, 2011) Leaps in food prices linked to drought in Brazil or floods in Australia may be a foretaste of ever greater shocks to be caused by climate change, according to a commission named on Friday to find ways to fix the problems. The international group of 13 experts will try to come up with ideas in the next 10 months to help agriculture cope with global warming, blamed by the United Nations panel of climate experts mainly on mankind's emissions of greenhouse gases. John Beddington, Britain's chief scientific adviser who will chair the commission, said it would advise governments on issues such as U.N. climate negotiations and in preparing an Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in mid-2012. "Extreme weather like the droughts in Russia, China and Brazil and the flooding in Pakistan and Australia have contributed to a level of food price volatility we haven't seen since the oil crisis of 40 years ago," he said in a statement. World food prices hit a record high last month adding to poverty, according to the United Nations. The phenomenon is a factor in triggering uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt which have spread across the Arab world.