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Increasing inequality is already making shortages worse

Nature volume 459, page 31 (2009)Cite this article

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Sir

Wendy Barnaby is hasty in her conclusion that water shortages can and will be resolved through international trade and economic development (see Nature 458, 282–283; 2009). She predicts that nations will be able to adapt to water shortages as they develop, by switching to industries other than agriculture and by importing their food from elsewhere. But this assumes both that developing nations will be able to afford food and that food itself is not also a limited resource being threatened by global warming.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of California, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, 92521, California, USA

    Thomas H. Meek

  2. Women's Studies Department, The George Washington University, 837 22nd Street NW, Washington, 20052, DC, USA

    Laura A. Meek

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  1. Thomas H. Meek
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  2. Laura A. Meek
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Meek, T., Meek, L. Increasing inequality is already making shortages worse. Nature 459, 31 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/459031b

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