Experts worry warmer Earth will slash farm yields

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Urgent action is needed to make sure a warming climate doesn't slash crop yields, heighten the risk of famine and deepen poverty for the world's most vulnerable, international experts said on Monday.

"Climate change is not just in the future. It's happening now," said Cynthia Rosenzweig, a NASA scientist and co-chair of an international panel on climate change, told a meeting of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Researchers held in Washington.

The group brings together experts from 15 agricultural research centers around the world funded by states, international organizations and private foundations.

By now, the threat of global warming is a familiar one: many scientists believe rising global temperatures, exacerbated by combustion of fossil fuels, will bring warmer, wetter and more violent weather. That in turn is expected to raise sea levels and threaten the life and livelihood of millions, especially in coastal areas.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/agriculture_climate_dc

[villager]

1. well, you know, if farm states just keep voting Republican

surely none of this will happen.

[warrens]

6. Farm states turning Dem

Illinois, Iowa, Montana, etc.

[villager]

9. true, some of them are now realizing *which* side has been lying to them...

n/t

[yellowcanine]

2. Not to worry. Rush says the earth "heals itself."

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. Yes, but in order for her to do so

She'll have to rid herself of the parasitic species of homo sapiens.

[Crunchy Frog]

8. The Earth does heal itself,

but not with any concern for the creatures inhabiting it. The Earth will do fine, humanity likely not so much.

[brokensymmetry]

4. My, my. At the same time, we expect corn ethanol...

to solve the fuel crises. And we pave more
land to build more McMansions.

We gonna crash. Crash so hard and so
badly words cannot begin to describe it.

[RC]

7. Not to change the subject, but...

The farmers in the Red River Valley growing sugar beets for Crystal Sugar had to plow under 8% of their crop because Crystal Sugar does not have the capacity to process all of the bumper crop.
Now why can't they use the sugar in these sugar beets to make ethanol?

[brokensymmetry]

5. My, my. At the same time, we expect corn ethanol...

to solve the fuel crises. And we pave more
land to build more McMansions.

We gonna crash. Crash so hard and so
badly words cannot begin to describe it.