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The problem is that about a quarter of the world population - 2 billion people - currently make their living through traditional small-scale farming. If it turns out that climate change rapidly expands the viable area for growing quinoa, that's great for Peru and Bolivia and the world food market, but it's not going to help a subsistence farmer in Vietnam who finds their rice fields no longer grow enough to live from.

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> but it's not going to help a subsistence farmer in Vietnam who finds their rice fields no longer grow enough to live from.

But what if those farmers switch from rice to some other subsistence crop better adapted to the new conditions?

Because changing the crop a whole country lives of requires enormous changes in the agricultural infrastructure. Years of trial and error and lots of valuable knowledge farmers have about growing the currently common crops would become less valuable.

Point is: It would lead to lower crop yields, at a higher cost.

That's doesn't mean instant death for all humans on the face of the earth. But it's still something we want to avoid.

Acting to prevent climate change is a cost saving measure.

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