Farmer suicides rise in India as climate warms, study shows

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Katy Daigle, Associated Press
Updated 4:25 pm, Monday, July 31, 2017


NEW DELHI (AP) — When Rani's husband died by drinking pesticide, he left the family in debt. But even if they could pay off the loans, Rani said their farming days are over.

"There are no rains," said the 44-year-old woman from drought-stricken Tamil Nadu, one of hundreds of farmers protesting in the capital for more government support. "Even for drinking, we get water only once in 10 days."

A new study suggests that India will see more such tragedies as climate change brings hotter temperatures that damage crops and exacerbate drought. For every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming above 20 degrees C (68 degrees F) during the growing season in India, there are 67 more suicides on average, according to the findings published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS.

The message "is that farming is an inherently risky occupation, with annual incomes often held hostage to the weather, and it's getting riskier in the era of climate change," said Vikram Patel, an Indian psychiatrist and mental health expert with Harvard Medical School in Boston who was not involved in the study.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/science/article/Farmer-suicides-rise-in-India-as-climate-warms-11720979.php

[The_jackalope]

1. The thin white line of the extinction tsunami comes over the horizon...

Climate change will hit the food producers of the world first. Crop failures will hit the rest of us shortly afterward.
We've only got a generation or two left. We should be getting our affairs in order.

[jb5150]

2. First the plants die,

then the animals that eat the plants die, then the animals that eat the animals that eat the plants die.

I wish I could say I'm optimistic, but I'm not.