Climate and Ag in the news
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Chris Robbins of iWeatherNet.com posted some interesting statistics on trends in lightning fatalities earlier this week. They show a significant decrease in lightning deaths from 1940 to the present. I think a lot of this can be attributed to the public information that has been stressed by the National Weather Service and other meteorologists. But…
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The Sightline Institute published a unique resource on climate change back in 2013 that just came to my attention. Dr. Greg Johnson, a Northwest oceanographer, published a set of 19 illustrated haikus which summarize the latest IPCC report on changing climate. Take a look at the beautiful artwork and see how succinctly this very large…
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The US Department of Agriculture has an interesting website with ten case studies documenting their plan to help farmers and foresters plan for climate change. Here is some of the information from the web site. You can read more at: https://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=climate-smart.html ——————————————————————————————————- The effort relies on voluntary, incentive-based conservation, forestry, and energy programs to reduce…
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I’ve seen a few stories recently about impacts of adverse climate on crops in other countries. AgWeb reported that France’s wheat harvest will be the worst in 28 years after rain and an overcast spring dropped yields precipitously. Excess water drowned the roots of the plants and fungal diseases were rampant, which the lack of…
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A new study by UGA scientists shows that over the last three decades, the area of Georgia’s coast covered by spartina, or marsh grass, has decreased by 35% based on satellite measurements. They attribute the decline to frequent droughts over the period, combined with increasing temperatures and increased snail activity in the latter half of…
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NOAA released their annual “State of the Climate” report today for 2015, and it confirms that 2015 was the warmest year ever recorded on Earth. This year’s warmth was helped by the strong El Niño which also warmed the Pacific Ocean. You can read about it in NOAA’s Climate.gov newsletter here. You can see a…
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The National Hurricane Center has just announced that they will begin issuing advisories on Tropical Storm Earl, currently located in the western Caribbean Sea and moving west towards Mexico. It is not expected to affect the Southeast or the rest of the US. You can get more information at https://www.nhc.noaa.gov or at https://www.spaghettimodels.com.