Climate variability and vulnerability to climate change: a review

The focus of the great majority of climate change impact studies is on changes in mean climate. In terms of climate model output, these changes are more robust than changes in climate variability. By concentrating on changes in climate means, the full impacts of climate change on biological and human systems are probably being seriously underestimated. Here, we briefly review the possible impacts of changes in climate variability and the frequency of extreme events on biological and food systems, with a focus on the developing world. We present new analysis that tentatively links increases in climate variability with increasing food insecurity in the future. We consider the ways in which people deal with…

• IA
  Irish Aid
• EC
  European Commission
• AA
  Australian Agency for International Development
• ID
  Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical
• CO
  Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers
• IF
  International Fund for Agricultural Development
• DF
  Direktion für Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit
• EC
  Environment Canada
• DI
  Danish International Development Agency