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The latest federal report on climate change warns of the specific hazards of agricultural production in the Midwest, which includes a significant portion of the Kansas and Missouri economies.
Increased temperatures and extreme weather events such as floods and drought will have serious consequences for crop and livestock production, according to the fourth national climate assessment released the day after Thanksgiving.
"Any climate change poses a major challenge to agriculture because of increased crop losses, declining livestock productivity, and altered pressures from pests, weeds, and diseases." ", Says the chapter of the report devoted to agriculture. "Rural communities, where economies are more closely linked to agriculture than to other sectors, are particularly vulnerable to climate-related climate volatility."
But the report, endorsed by 13 government agencies, gives hope that agriculture will be able to adapt to climate change with "planting decisions, farming practices and the use of technology."
Feedback from Missouri Farm Bureau and Kansas Farm Bureau was not immediately available.
The report on agriculture summarizes four key messages:
▪ Food production will decline in areas of more frequent and prolonged drought. The changing patterns of participation associated with high temperatures will intensify forest fires, accelerate the depletion of water supplies for irrigation and broaden the distribution and incidence of pests and diseases for crops and livestock.
▪ The degradation of critical soil and water resources will increase with runoff caused by extreme rainfall.
▪ Increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme extreme temperatures will contribute to heat exhaustion, heat stroke and heart attacks in people, as well as to heat stress livestock that will result in heavy economic losses.
▪ People in rural areas will be limited in their ability to respond to the effects of climate change because of poverty and the limited resources of the community.
The opening statement of the climate study categorically contradicts the skepticism of President Donald Trump, who withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreements.
"The Earth's climate is now changing faster than any point in the history of modern civilization, mainly because of human activities," says the report, released as a result of a recent alert of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, according to which a significant opportunity for action for humanity may soon be fleeing.
On Monday, Trump told reporters that he had read "some" of the report. Regarding the conclusions on global warming that is hurting the US economy, he said: "I do not believe it."
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