Drought
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The Star reported this week that increases in extreme weather and climate conditions often attributed to changing climate have increased stress on farmers. Farmers can see their entire crop wiped out by one extreme event, and an increase in these extreme events makes financial ruin more likely. The article describes some of the impacts recent…
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Yahoo News published an article a few days ago on the importance of research on identifying new plants and seeds when dealing with land changes like droughts, forest fires, and changes in local climate. Restoration of the land will provide a home for native species and can also provide food for livestock. In the article…
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After several years of drought, Californians were looking forward to a wet El Niño season to refill their reservoirs and recharge their water systems. But while northern California has seen much more rain than in the last few years, southern California is still suffering from a major lack of water, and drought conditions as well…
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The WaterDeeply web site has a new article describing the ravages that multiple years of drought are taking on forests and trees in California. According to the article 120 million trees there are at risk of dying due to the severe drought. This is a huge concern because of its potential for making wildfires in…
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BBC News published a news story this weekend discussing the likely changes we are likely to see in US agriculture if warming trends continue. The story was based on a recently published study of how extreme events like the Dust Bowl of the 1930s would affect agriculture if it happened in a warmer climate in…
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While for many farmers, drought causes severe economic hardship, a new study of California farmers shows that some of them are doing very well economically in spite of over four years of drought, according to an article in AgWeb yesterday. Some of the profits come from the surging value of crops like almonds, while others…
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NASA’s Earth Observatory blog posted an interesting story yesterday about the impacts of South Africa’s current severe drought on maize farmers. Drought is often seen in this region when a strong El Niño occurs, so it was not unexpected, but is more severe than usual. Due to the dry conditions, farmers have not been able…