A chilling global warming forecast

[jpak]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-warming2-2008jun02,0,5120050.story

There's always a new report about global warming, but the one released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with its charts on optimal temperatures for soybeans and peanuts, is downright creepy in its detail. This isn't your usual futuristic fodder, with vague but dire predictions. The USDA report is more frightening because it states matter-of-factly the practical changes in farming, forestry and water that are transforming the landscape now and will do so again over the next few decades.

The Senate is scheduled to vote this week on a sweeping bill that would require carbon emissions to be slashed 70% by mid-century. Its chances for passage are slim; President Bush opposes it, as he has opposed all meaningful attempts to curb global warming, on the grounds that it would harm the economy. He ought to read the USDA study, along with a similar but more comprehensive report released last week by his science advisors, which specifies the effects of global warming and its very real costs.

The USDA analysis points out the quandary we're already in after decades of inaction: The impacts during the next few decades are unavoidable. "Much of this change will be caused by greenhouse gas emissions that have already happened," the report says. In other words, we have to plan for adjusting to climate change, as well as preventing it from spiraling into a crisis in this century and beyond.

Though the report stops short of making recommendations, it implies the need for major shifts in agriculture. And there was some good news, though not as much as the bad. Northern latitudes will experience milder winters -- good for cattle -- and longer growing seasons, but also longer lifetimes for harmful pests. The South might grow too hot for traditional crops such as peanuts and watermelon. The eastern United States will get more rain, but weeds, flourishing in the presence of increased carbon dioxide, will migrate north. Crops that require cold snaps are in trouble.

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[fed-up]

1. links to pdf of USDA Final Report from article k/r/bookmarked

http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap4-3/final-report/default.htm

Home Library Synthesis and Assessment Products Product 4.3 Final Report
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Updated 27 May 2008
The effects of climate change on agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity in the United States

Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3




See also:

Press release (dtd 27 May 2008) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Full Report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Synthesis & Assessment Product 4.3 Home page from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).

A Report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research

CONVENING LEAD AUTHORS: Peter Backlund, Anthony Janetos, and David Schimel

MANAGING EDITOR: Margaret Walsh

[jpak]

2. I planted soybeans and yams (in Maine) this spring - just to see what the summer brings

Cool today here (50's) but too freakin' hot (90's) this weekend.

Now if I could only get the woodchucks to eat the slugs....

[fed-up]

3. have you grown yams before? BF just planted 6600 sweet potato slips in Northern CA

he doesn't have nice sandy loam like they suggest, has loamy clay, but we are giving it a shot anyway

let me know how your yams do in Maine

next on his list of things to buy is an old, banged up 8x40' cargo container to partially bury and hill soil around so he has a cool place to store the crop once it is harvested in the fall

[jpak]

4. Nope - just an experiment

Only planted 2 - I'll let you know if they sprout...

:hi:

[Laxman]

5. Global Warming is just a myth!

I've been growing Southern Magnolias and Crepe Myrtle up here in the hills of Northwestern NJ the past couple of years. I just hope that I don't have waterfront property anytime soon.
Check out the changes in the USDA map at the link below that the geniuses in the * administration have been sitting on. Slide the bar all the way to the right. Most of NJ goes into the balmy zone 7.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2008-04-23-gardening-map_N.htm