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Climate Change Threat To US Crops and Water
The US south-west, a region that is experiencing one of the fastest rates of population growth, faces dramatic challenges in the next 50 years from drought, wild fires and changing ecosystems caused by global warming, a report from the Bush administration warns.
The paper, commissioned by the US department of agriculture, looks at the likely impact of rising temperatures caused by higher emissions of CO2 during the next 25 to 50 years on America's agriculture, land and water resources and biodiversity. It warns that the country will be affected in strikingly different ways, with most of the negative impacts falling on the south-western and western US.
Climate change, it says, has already led to visible shifts. Much of the east and south of the country now receives more rainfall than a century ago, while the south-west has less. That process, and the changes in plant and animal life that follow, are likely to increase as temperatures rise by 1-4C, the report says. Among the most alarming threats will be an increase in wildfires and a spread of invasive grasses and other weeds that will be difficult to control with current pesticides.
The report is based on a survey of existing scientific research and forms part of a series of investigations into climate change ordered by President George Bush in 2003.
Its message is particularly worrisome for a region that happens to have some of the highest population growth rates in the US. Some 50 million people live in the south-west and towns such as Las Vegas and Phoenix are expanding rapidly with an influx of retiring baby-boomers attracted by the relatively cheap cost of land and the warm winters.
Water levels are already falling in some parts through rising demand, and according to the report, that pressure can only increase, as it predicts that by 2060 rainfall will be down by a fifth. As temperatures rise, growing seasons will extend, but the $200bn farming sector will have to contend with more severe summer droughts, widening arid areas, and the spread of weeds. Diseases that strike both crops and farm animals will extend their reach.
The scientists who produced the report warn: "Many plants and animals in arid ecosystems are near their physiological limits for tolerating temperature and water stress, and even slight changes in stress will have significant consequences."
© 2008 The Guardian
Comments
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26 Comments so far
Show AllI have a problem understanding climate change?? Are you oblivious of the fact that you are just pissed at me and I never knew why? Your very first blog about me was nothng but venom and hate.
That post I first wrote was sarcasm.
Climate change??? This is climate change, don't worry about crops and water. We'll have ample water, but we won't be here to surf.
http://www.energybulletin.net/3647.html
and
http://www.healthylakes.org
And for the trolls who always say Atcheson's link is only one man's opinion, read this one, for it proves his opinion published four years ago was absolutely correct.
http://www.farnorthdcience.com/2997/09/26
We'll have lots of water, ___ salt water.
Which troll will arrive first?
They're hiding today.
Try some of your wisdom this time. You might catch some education.
But never acknowledge any fair questions.
You guys are funny!!!!!
But the topic isn't......Hi KEM!
Bye KEM.....
That lst link I posted won't open, this one does.
http://www.farnorthscience.com/2007/09/26
Obviously "climate change" is not a big issue with progressives and no new Obama threads today. Dang, what to do???
There are also hundreds of lakes in the Arctic which are now ice free for the first time in millions of years and the methane is boiling out.
It's good to see that the truth is finally being seen here... that this whole CO2 caused climate change thing is just a joke and should not be taken seriously.
Give ~Geo 522~ the blue ribbon.
KEM: At least you care! The topic is close to my heart, too, and almost too painful to look at because it will be our children and THEIR children who pay the greater price.
Kem - That link you posted is great -
http://www.farnorthscience.com/2007/09/26
I think everyone's been concentrating on the election (as we're supposed to do, it's safe because none of the major candidates have much to say about climate change). Say "climate change" to the average American and they start crying about the cost of gas. Perhaps we deserve what's about to happen to us.
I have a very difficult time with those who deny it is happening ~GRANDMA~. A ten year old kid can understand it. Hell, we can see it with our own eyes, one doesn't have to be a scientist to observe all of the mountain glaciers in the world are melting away or have already disappeared, just one of many obvious clues.
The Arctic's Methane gas is the most serious issue humanity faces and has ever faced. It's not a joke. I actually hate ~Geo522~`and a few other denyers here and we've never met. ____ Of course I never met Bush either.
Hi ~Rebel~, how ya doin?
I see Kathy is back. We missed her.
One note about the above article: "Among the most alarming threats will be an increase in wildfires and a spread of invasive grasses and other weeds that will be difficult to control with current pesticides."
Change is a constant in any system. Change will create new niches for new organisms to survive in. The arrival of something new due to the formation of a new niche does not necessitate the use of biocides in a misguided attempt to hold the system at a steady state. Among other things, biocides will mean bare soils (erosion), loss of soil fertility, and loss of soil carbon to the atmosphere.
Proactive approaches:
Water Catchment Strategies for Drylands
Increased Drought tolerance and Resistance to Salinity Through Fungi [Note that this article mentions Glomus species of mycorrhizal fungi, which are producers of glomalin. Glomalin is a very resilient form of soil carbon which lasts 7 to 42 years and comprises 27% of carbon in healthy soils.]
Apocalypse in the Oceans
http://www.alternet.org/environment/86789/?page=1
12 of the previous 18 comments are the opinions of CD's self-proclaimed expert on Global Warming. Of course, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one but some are more odious than others.
I never say I'm an expert on anything Misanthorpe. I just agree with the authors of the links I post. Then you insult me and often with vulgar langueage, instead of debating the opinions given by the scientists I agree with.
Good link there about over fishing the oceans ~Misantohrpe~. You got any others, maybe one about saving the three toed sloths? A little off topic, but interesting and important.
Here's a link for you. I'm surprised you haven't discovered it already, seeing as you are such an expert at talking out of your ass....The most recent topic is about Methane, so you should be in hog heaven:
http://www.ecoearth.info/
That's precicely what I'm talking about ~MESS~, you and your nasty disposition. When you say I'm an expert talking out of my ass, you are criticizing the scientists I refer. Obvously you are smarter than they are.
There are several thousand articles about methane gas on the net, I've read a couple of hundred. I only post the ones that are brief and to the point.
BTW, if I hadn't posted here there would have only been six posts in two days on this thread before you showed up to show your stuff and you would have had to insult someone else.
You obviously have a hard enough time understanding the english language, much less the science of climate change. If you hadn't posted here, threatening anyone who dared disagree with you, there might have been a discussion about the real subject of the article: The ongoing drought in the southwestern U.S. but you know better, quoting our resident expert "This is climate change, don't worry about crops and water. We'll have ample water, but we won't be here to surf." What you can't seem to understand is that it is YOU who have already decided what the most important issue is, and anyone with a divergent point of view is, in your limited mind, supposed to debate your favorite choice of scientist who seems to support your opinion. So we get another 14 of your ignorant troll baiting (because in your mind, anyone who dares challenge your opinion is a tool of the neocons). You, and your sycophants such as the always disgustingly saccarine Namaste, are an insult to the collective intellect and, as such, should always be ridiculed for what you are. As Gandhi said: "non cooperation with evil is a sacred duty."
`
And Plato said, ~"truth is the pleasantest of sounds"~.
You would not understand that ~Misanthorpe~.
http://www.energybulletin.net/3647.html