He went on to describe how, as of July 25, weather stations around the world have reported 122 record highs in the last month, as opposed to only two record lows. The hottest overnight minimum temperature ever recorded in history—108.7 degrees Fahrenheit—was just a few months ago, on June 26, in Quriyat, Oman, Grantham noted.
"Some climate scientists have predicted that the flow of weather has been changed so that longer spells of heat and rain should be expected," he wrote. "And both of these are exactly what we have been getting."
While much attention has been placed on how the rising sea levels caused by climate change will impact coastal populations, Grantham noted that there's an even more serious consequence: the impact on the world's food supply.
"The more serious problem posed by ocean level rise will be the loss of the great rice-producing deltas: the Nile, the Mekong, the Ganges, and others, which produce about a fifth of all the rice grown in the world," he wrote.
With the increased number of droughts and floods, and the other ways rising temperatures decrease agricultural productivity, Grantham argued that "agriculture is in fact the real underlying problem produced by climate change."
Grantham also detailed other threats to the food supply, including soil erosion and toxins and pollutants in the soil, air and water, which are decreasing biodiversity and leading to what some are calling the "sixth great extinction." He noted one recent study in Germany finding that over the past 27 years there has been a 75 percent decline in the total quantity of flying insects. "These are our pollinators," Grantham wrote. "They have just gone missing."
In closing, Grantham noted it's not too late to reverse the tide. GMO, he said, is devoting assets to green technologies. People should also vote for "green politicians," he said, and do small things that can add up, like using LED lighting, buying fuel-efficient appliances, and buying electric cars. Grantham also urged people to take fewer jet flights and make greater use of video conferencing, and to consider having one less child.
"We will need all the leadership, all the science and engineering, and all the effort, and all the luck we can muster to win this race," he wrote. "It really is the race of our lives."