ANNALS OF SCIENCE
CLIMATE BY NUMBERS
Can a tech firm help farmers survive global warming?
It was nearly impossible to drive the back roads of southern Indiana this summer without being lulled into a trance by the monotonous perfection of the cornstalks. They lined every route, forming a canopy that stretched for miles, strong, straight, and taller than any Hoosier. In late August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture stated publicly what the growers had known for weeks: this year’s crop would almost certainly be the largest in American history.
…..
Unpredictable weather is hardly rare, or new. For thousands of years, floods, droughts, tornadoes, heat waves, and early frosts have been agriculture’s unyielding enemies. But even the most sophisticated farmer would have trouble planning for the vagaries of today’s climate.
Michael Specter: Can the Climate Corporation Help Farmers Survive Global Warming? : The New Yorker
I think he meant to say the anals of science. It is tough planning for a record corn crop, because it makes prices go down.
I used to play “hide and seek” in a corn field, we never found each other.
Thank goodness we had a drought this year, or the corn prices would have collapsed
/sarc
And at this site all the unhappy wheat harvester. 🙂
http://www.allaboardharvest.com/
Scroll down and see all those unhappy faces. /sarc
Meanwhile they are real happy –
And the effects of climate change have the Canadians almost weeping –
http://digitaljournal.com/article/358845
A subtlety here — the same author has, this week, suddenly had to defend the fact that his buddies at The Climate Corporation were just bought (for $930 million!) by Monsanto. Amazing to see a greenie defending Monsanto — which his new article notes (three times) is “the most evil company in the world.” But his noble friends, who took the billion dollars for the most noble of reasons, will remain independent he says.
===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle