Introduction

Global temperatures are changing quickly, and it ishuman activity that is the main cause (IPCC, 2013,2014). This is part of a longer-term and rapidlyacce lerating trend toward even greater warming.Farming practices are implicated in both mitigation(stopping and/or curbing of the drivers of climatechange) and adaptation (adjusting to the impacts ofclimate change) in regards to global warming.Indeed, farming of various kinds (that includenon-food purposes) and food production specifically(including its transportation and consumption) areinextricably intertwined with climate changeissues.

This chapter provides a summary of the links and issuespertaining to farming, climate change andcriminality. It does this by first, exploringcontemporary farming practices in relation to thecauses of climate change. The key drivers of globalwarming are greenhouse gases (including andespecially carbon dioxide emissions) anddeforestation (McGarrell and Gibbs, 2014). Yet, asdemonstrated throughout the chapter, foreknowledgeof the harm is no guarantee that harmful activitieswill be stopped. This is followed by considerationof the consequences of climate change for farmingand food production. These involve profound shiftsin the availability of water through to theclimate-induced migration of humans and non-humanspecies. The third section discusses emergingconflicts associated with the scarcities generatedby localised, long-term changes in climate andweather patterns. The origins of climate-relatedcrime are embedded in and an outcome of the existingpolitical economy – the anthropocentric causes ofglobal warming are simultaneously inseparable fromthe dominant mode of production, globalcapitalism.

The impacts of farming on climatechange

The profound impact of human activity on the globalenvironment, especially over the last couple ofcenturies, has been said to denote a new geologicalera, the ‘Anthropocene’ (Shearing, 2015). Thisdevelopment, originating with the industrialrevolution in Europe, has been driven andunderpinned by powerful forces (nation-states,companies, armies) as they have pursued specificclass and state interests. It has been achievedthrough global imperialism, colonialism andmilitarism that have served to entrench a dominantcapitalist worldview and the material basis forproducing and utilising natural resources in aconsumerist manner (Greig and van der Velden,2015).