WASHINGTON — Global wheat markets reeling from Russian droughts, thousands of cattle killed by heat in Kansas, and countless crop acres wiped out by floods in Pakistan are glimpses of what can be expected as the world struggles to battle climate change.

But as concerns mount over extreme weather hitting global food systems this year, governments are no closer to forging a pact to fight climate change.

When temperatures rise as a result of smokestack and tailpipe emissions, droughts, heat waves, and floods become more frequent and more intense. The temperatures create ‘more and more hot extremes and worse unprecedented extremes and that’s what we’re seeing,’ said Neville Nicholls, a climate scientist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

As the number of extreme weather events mount, they will likely create havoc in agricultural markets and could lead to food riots in poor countries like those in 2007 and 2008 when prices hit records on rabid market speculation.

Yet global talks to battle emissions are grinding to a near halt after the U.S. Senate failed to pass a climate bill and the administration of President Barack Obama also failed to push for one.

As the United States, the top major emitter per capita, fails to forge […]