Climate and Ag in the news
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Allison Floyd of Growing Georgia had an article this week discussing the increasing interest in Southern pecans due to the California drought. As we’ve discussed previously in this blog, California is one of the main sources of nuts in the US (and the world), but the nut orchards require a lot of water to maintain…
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Most of the stories I’ve published lately have dealt with the drought in California. And it’s no wonder, since California is the primary region for a lot of agriculture in the US. But other areas of the west are also suffering from the extended drought in the region. Here are a couple of stories about…
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The rain this week may prevent peanut growers from getting out into their fields to start planting. Arguably, it’s a little early this year since 4-inch soil temperatures are only around 70 and are unlikely to warm up much under all the cloudiness and rain we are going to see for the next few days.…
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The Pacific Decadal oscillation, or PDO, is a long-term oscillation in Pacific Ocean temperatures. It is one of several known swings in ocean temperature between two phases, a “cold” phase and a “warm” phase. The most well-known natural oscillation like this is the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, which changes phase every 3-5 years. The PDO is…
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Have humans already changed the climate of earth? As Cliff Mass of the University of Washington describes in his blog this week, “The answer is emphatically yes.” But the changes are due to much more than just the addition of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Our changes also have to do with…
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April 2015 marks the 200th anniversary of the most powerful volcanic eruption in modern times, the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. This eruption is discussed in awe in climatology classes because of what we now know about the impacts of volcanic activity on climate–it depresses global temperatures for up to five years after a…
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Allison Floyd of Growing Georgia posted an article on Thursday describing some of the agricultural effects that this winter and spring’s weather has had on crops around the state. You can find the article here. In the article a number of Extension agents and producers discuss the impacts of the late cold snap on fruit…