Study: Farmers and scientists divided over climate change

[OKIsItJustMe]

Last edited Wed Nov 12, 2014, 10:31 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2014/Q4/study-farmers-and-scientists-divided-over-climate-change.html

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Study: Farmers and scientists divided over climate change[/font]

November 11, 2014

[font size=3]WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Crop producers and scientists hold deeply different views on climate change and its possible causes, a study by Purdue and Iowa State universities shows.

Associate professor of natural resource social science Linda Prokopy and fellow researchers surveyed 6,795 people in the agricultural sector in 2011-2012 to determine their beliefs about climate change and whether variation in the climate is triggered by human activities, natural causes or an equal combination of both.

More than 90 percent of the scientists and climatologists surveyed said they believed climate change was occurring, with more than 50 percent attributing climate change primarily to human activities.

In contrast, 66 percent of corn producers surveyed said they believed climate change was occurring, with 8 percent pinpointing human activities as the main cause. A quarter of producers said they believed climate change was caused mostly by natural shifts in the environment, and 31 percent said there was not enough evidence to determine whether climate change was happening or not.

…[/font][/font]

You may wonder why those numbers don't add up to 100%
Here are the farmers’ responses:
8% - Climate change is occurring, and it is caused mostly by human activities
33% - Climate change is occurring, and it is caused more or less equally by natural changes in the environment and human activities
25% - Climate change is occurring, and it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment
31% - There is not sufficient evidence to know with certainty whether climate change is occurring or not
3.5% - Climate change is not occurring

https://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/2014/prokopy-climatetable.pdf
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00172.1

[GliderGuider]

1. Cool! Next, let's interview bricklayers about their views on quantum physics. nt

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Well, perhaps not quantum physics, how about good old fashioned Newtonian physics?

Last edited Wed Nov 12, 2014, 12:16 PM - Edit history (1)

Let’s say that some bricklayers are trying to build bridges using principles which are physically unsound.

Wouldn’t you like to know what proportion of them thought that they could do that?

http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources/agriculture.html

[font size=5]Total U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Economic Sector in 2012[/font]


[font size=5]Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agriculture[/font]

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/usinventoryreport.html

[RiverLover]

5. Interesting. I guess that 10% is mainly industrialized animal production?

"The FAO report found that current production levels of meat contribute between 14 and 22 percent of the 36 billion tons of "CO2-equivalent" greenhouse gases the world produces every year. It turns out that producing half a pound of hamburger for someone's lunch a patty of meat the size of two decks of cards releases as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as driving a 3,000-pound car nearly 10 miles."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-greenhouse-hamburger/

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Mainly industrialized animal production?

No.

http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources/agriculture.html

… Management of agricultural soils accounts for over half of the emissions from the Agriculture sector.

…

[caraher]

3. Meh

What do you expect when they're basically surveying red state Republicans?

[RiverLover]

4. I guess alot of farmers watch Fox in their downtime. ~nt