Climate and Ag in the news
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One criticism of the trend in rising temperatures put forth by skeptics is that recent temperatures are being pushed up by growing cities, which tend to be warmer than the surrounding countryside. Even in my hometown of Athens GA you can see temperature differences of up to 10 degrees F from downtown to the rural…
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With the Atlantic already heating up and the first tropical wave seen moving near the Southeast, it is time to get serious about preparing for the next hurricane season. It starts officially on June 1, but we often see some activity before then, so now is the time! This coming week is National Hurricane Preparedness…
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Weather conditions that are getting warmer, more variable and more extreme are causing farmers to think about new ways to farm. One way is to move cultivation indoors where light, rainfall, and other factors can be controlled and production can occur all year. E&E News posted an interesting story about a huge indoor production facility…
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Even though the tropical season in the Atlantic Basin is still a month away, the National Hurricane Center issued their first outlook of the year today for a wave which has a 20% chance of developing into a tropical storm over southern Florida in the next five days. Even though this is not likely to…
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While a lot of the Southeast has been quite dry in the last few weeks, North Carolina has been fighting wet conditions. This has caused problems for wheat farmers, who are seeing problems with pests like mites and fusarium wilt. Farmers there will need to monitor their crops carefully so they can head off worse…
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One of the arguments against human-induced warming of the earth is that changes in solar output are driving temperature variations. And on a glacial time scale, that is true. But how about more recent changes? The Royal Meteorological Society has a new podcast and briefing paper which addresses this issue and the science behind it.…
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Bloomberg Businessweek had an interesting story this week about how beef producers in Florida are working to develop cattle that are better adapted to hot conditions and still produce good-tasting meat. The article points out that cattle don’t like hot weather and that as temperatures have climbed, cattlemen are trying to create breeds that are…