The durable Thomas Malthus, who helped economics gain its nickname of the dismal science with his belief population growth would forever strain the food supply, takes a cameo role as the New York Times’ “Economic Scene” column reviews the U.N. report on climate change. “(T)he new report is much more pessimistic about the prospect of extra grain production in the globe’s temperate zones,” says the Times, which uses the food-price spike of 2008 as an example of how food fears transmute into political unrest. It also notes the repeated success of agriculture in meeting food needs. Craig Hanson of World Resources Institute says, “Climate change is a food security issue…not just an environmental issue.”