Global warming's affect on crops?

Question

Do you worry about global warming's affect on our already high food prices? I know some say global warming isn't happening, but the last two summers have been our hottest on record. It gets hot earlier and our crops are literally brown, dried out all the time. I live in the midwest, and worry about what I see. Global warming is also causing more strange weather, more severe fronts, like the freeze that ruined fruit crops in Florida. There have been quadruple the amount of natural disasters this decade than in decades past. This plus the fact that much of our corn oil is going to ethanol which has shown that it adds more CO2 to the atmosphere contributing to global warming. I guess I shouldn't worry about the U.S. so much as more and more of our food is being grown in factory farms elsewheres since land taxes make it so $$ to farm in the States, and people demand things so cheap. I'm just worried about it. We've hardly gotten any snow this winter, AGAIN. It gets milder and milder

Answer 1

Oh, yes global warming  is a great worry, it is not only the effects on food prices, but the effect of disease that are prevalent, especially here in the uk, , which will obviously make the problem worse.

  Weather fluctuation is obviously a cause here, but much can be combatted if man gets its act together!

Answer 2

You are so wrong!

For one the hottest decade on record was the 30's.

Were I live we have gotten almost as much snow as we did in the seventies. It has been colder than it has been in like thirty years.

FYI: Warmer climates = longer growing seasons = more crops. I come from a farming community so I would know!

Plants love a Green House! COLD KILLS plants. Everyone knows that!

Answer 3

Earth is a big complex system. The result of GW is:  change is on the way, we just do not know what changes (where and when). Look beyond the hype, beyond the weather, beyond a quarterly report and beyond today. President Bush has made a choice of energy (ethanol) over food and feeding the starving people around the world; this is a choice China has rejected. The fact is Bush wants to buy food from out side the USA to send to starving people since our grain is not available. We have the technology to advance Solar Concentrating Electric Power Plants, wind, wave, small hydro-electric, geothermal, and nuclear energy. We must have a pollution surcharge where we pay the real price (health effects, global warming and cleanup) for oil, natural gas, coal, cigarettes, cooling towers, cars, trains and airplanes. Raising the price of fossil fuel today gives us more time to solve these problems and helps pay for the 20 Trillion Dollars worth of renewable energy over the next 10 years. Humans have 50 trillion dollars worth of stuff that runs on cheep oil, natural gas, or coal.

I attended the Focus the Nation at Sierra College on. The event was the 2% Solution, a 2% reduction over 40 years to solve global warming. Oil is a nonrenewable resource and we are running out-but not soon – anyone willing to pay $30 per gallon for gas. The problem is the oil will be gone in less than 30 years at present rates of consumption without projected increases and shortages (gone at least to run cars, heat homes, power electric plants or air travel). The 2% Solution is ok for the USA for a 10 year plan to cut 20%, but I would prefer a 5% Solution over the next 10 years for a 50% reduction. At the same time, we have to be building renewable energy so at the end of 10 years we can cut an additional 20%. With the peak of oil in the 1970’s, peak natural gas in the 1990’s, having mined cheep coal, the peak of ocean fishing in the 1980’s, and the peak of uranium in the 1990’s, humans must stop procrastinating and make real changes to keep earth sustainable including in the energy debate, finance and regulation. Global warming projects over the next 90 years that carbon dioxide will skyrocket as human’s burn more fossil fuels, but where is this fuel? We have to come up with what will take its place and cleanup our mess. One of the big problems we have is at some time Yellowstone will blow its top again, as the magma move closer to the surface, creating a nuclear winter. After that we will not have to worry about the destruction of the ozone layer, global warming or pollution.

Many of mankind’s advancements cause earth surface to warm, destroy the ozone layer, kill off endanger species, heat cities, and in some way cause more dramatic destruction.  Blacktop and buildings (roads, roofs and parking lots-heat cities), deforestation (air pollution, soil erosion), duststorms (increase hurricanes and cyclones, cause lung diseases), fires (cause pollution, mud slides, and deforestation), refrigerants (like CFC's) and solvents (including benzene destroy the ozone layer raising skin cancer rates) and plastics; cars, airplanes, ships and most electricity production (causes pollution including raised CO2 levels and increased lung and other diseases); these human problems we must fix to keep life on earth sustainable! Humans have destroyed half of the wetlands, cut down nearly half of the rain and other forests, and advance on the earths grasslands while advancing desertification which increases duststorms. But with that we must understand we have never seen what is now happening before. CO2 has never lead to temperature change, but temperature change has led to increases in CO2. The models have to be made as we go along with current evidence! But again adding a small amount of CO2 to the atmosphere enlarges the earths sun collection causing warming; increase water in the atmosphere and it forms clouds cooling earth but sometimes causing flooding. Even natural events are warming earth and causing destruction. The sun has an increased magnetic field causing increases in earthquakes (more destruction), volcanoes (wow, great destruction), and sun spots. Lighting produces ozone near the surface (raising air pollution levels). The USA Mayor's have taken a stand and I believe are on the right track, we can have control and can have economic growth. The sun is available to produce energy, bring light to buildings and makes most of human’s fresh water. Composting is the answer to desertification. New dams are the answer to fresh water storage, energy and cooling earth by evaporation, we need many small ones all over (California needs 100 by 2012 and we are far behind).

Now what USA Presidential candidate is giving you the facts so you can make an educated decision of which one to vote for?

Education is why I founded CoolingEarth.org, a geoengineering web sight where you can learn more about earth, the atmosphere, and how to sustain life on earth’s surface. Watch for changes in the sight coming soon.

This is a grassroots movement. We need as many people as possible working on these problems. Please email me with your ideas as I would like your help. Your answer is embedded in this short essay I have written. The charity needs many helping hands and minds-would you like to help there? I am working on Patents-need more help. Need help with Designing. I have a job as an engineer, another as a contractor, another as a county worker, but enjoy spending  time teaching on YA. I have cut my employers electric costs by 5 million dollars-you do the math and figure out how much CO2 that is. But like I am saying on YA, we have the technology, we lack the government support. And right now that is what all of us need to work on.

LMurray

Answer 4

The first large problem will be water needed to grow crops.  California produce appears on tables across the country.  Its water supply relies on declining snowpack in the Sierras and the Rockies.

"There is a 50 percent chance Lake Mead will run dry by 2021 and a 10 percent chance it will run out of usable water by 2014"

"We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it was coming at us," said marine physicist Tim Barnett.

"Make no mistake, this water problem is not a scientific abstraction but rather one that will impact each and every one of us that live in the Southwest," he said.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...

Answer 5

Global climate change will probably have a great effect on crop output.  Some areas will receive less rain than normal, some areas may receive more than normal.  Deserts will probably expand, leaving us with less cropland.  Also, there may be flooding in a lot of areas, due to more extreme weather (hurricanes, typhoons...).  Also, there may be increased pests, crop diseases, and weeds in warmer climates, which would also decrease crop yields.  But these are long term possible effects, I'm not sure if food prices will be effected in our lifetime, but probably in our children's and grandchildren's.