Thousands of Inner Mongolians have been forcibly moved off their traditional pastures in the past few years as China fights desertification, the ecological disaster that has triggered massive dust storms across northern China. The Mongolian herders, like millions of other impoverished people around the planet, have become environmental refugees.

Soaring prices for basic foods are beginning to lead to political instability, with governments being forced to step in to artificially control the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products. The FAO is expected to say that global food reserves are at their lowest in 25 years and that prices will remain high for years.

Much of the western U.S. may be headed into a prolonged dry spella "perfect drought" that could persist for generations.  The West already has been dry for six years and is looking to be dry again in 2007. But that's nothing compared to what has happened in the region in the past In a study published today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers Colorado found the Southwest suffered a six-decade megadrought from 1118 to 1179.

The place where most of the world's people could first begin to feel the consequences of global warming may come as a surprise: in the stomach, via the supper plate. A group of agricultural experts are increasingly worried that global warming will trigger food shortages long before it causes better known but more distant threats, such as rising sea levels.

The level of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is likely to grow more than expected as soil bacteria, in response to rising temperatures, break down more organic material and produce more CO2, according to results by an international research team.

Global warming could melt almost all of the top layer of Arctic permafrost by the end of the century. Scientists say the thaw would release vast stocks of carbon into the atmosphere, threaten ocean currents and wreck roads and buildings across Canada, Alaska and Russia.

Melting snow has triggered the warmest summers across Arctic Alaska in at least 400 years, setting in motion tree and shrub growth that will accelerate warming by two to seven times as the century unfolds.

A vast expanse of western Sibera is undergoing an unprecedented thaw that could dramatically increase the rate of global warming -- and could produce a scenario climate scientists have feared since first identifying "tipping points.

Illinois is going through its worst dry spell in nearly 20 years. And because the state accounted for nearly one-fifth of the nation's corn crop last year, the market is watching closely.

Since 1962, Baker and his colleagues have been recording soil temperatures as deep as 42 feet below an open field on the north edge of the university's St. Paul campus. The measurements show sub-surface soil temperatures have increased more than 3 degrees Fahrenheit, a much faster rise than would be expected in a more stable climate.

Worldwide production of essential crops such as wheat, rice, maize and soya beans is likely to be hit much harder by global warming than previously predicted, an international conference in London has heard. The benefits of higher levels of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, will in fact be outweighed by the downsides of climate change.

The closest look yet at climate change in the United States predicts trouble for many U.S. farmers. While  corn production in the Northern Plains should increase,  productivity would drop through the Midwest's Corn Belt and Southeast -- where researchers project a  one-third loss to the agricultural economy if farmers don't prepare for climate change -- and a one-fifth loss even if they do change crops to reflect warmer conditions.

One in every five species of wild flower could die out over the next century if levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere double in line with predictions, scientists said. A study of the impact of global warming on plants has found that most of the environmental changes are likely to result in a substantial loss of plant life. Even though plants need carbon dioxide to survive, the research found that higher levels of the gas reduced numbers of wild flowers by 20 per cent, and cut overall plant diversity by 8 per cent.

Since the 1940s, harvests across the United States have become ever more bountiful as farmers have planted better varieties of crops, generously fertilized them, and gained the upper hand against pests and weeds. But over the past 2 decades, they have had a little help: A new study shows that a surprisingly high percentage of the improvement in yield was due not to farm management but to climate change.The finding suggests that food production in the United States may be more vulnerable to shifts in climate than was previously suspected, a fact that could affect global food security.

Researchers at Stanford University concluded that elevated atmospheric CO2 actually reduces plant growth when combined with other likely consequences of climate change -- namely, higher temperatures, increased precipitation or increased nitrogen deposits in the soil.