Climate change and N. America farms to be studied

AMES, Iowa, Aug 31 (Reuters) – Iowa State University researchers will join a study of climate change to produce mid-century projections by late next year of the likely regional effects on North American farms from global warming.

“There is no question now that the climate is changing on a global scale,” said Gene Takle, an Iowa State University professor of geological and atmospheric sciences who will lead a study to project North American climate from 2040 to 2070.
Iowa and Illinois are the epicenter of the U.S. Midwest farm belt, which produces the world’s largest exportable surpluses of corn, soybeans and wheat and vast amounts of meat, dairy products, poultry and vegetables.

Takle said in an interview with Reuters that the research should give farmers, water managers, environmental engineers, transportation specialists and other professionals a better idea of what the climate will be in the years ahead.

“If the climate is changing, you can’t stop it over the next 50 years,” Takle said. “What’s coming is coming and we better be prepared to adjust to it.”

Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week said that greenhouse gas emissions pushed U.S. temperatures in 2006 close to a record high.

Reuters AlterNet