All the big enviro blogs will write about this and Grist is doing a coverage round-up. The flat-earthers accuse scientists of using scare tactics but I rarely see the most frightening possibilities get major news coverage. Read the report before bedtime if you want to give someone nightmares.
One of the fun features on the new site breaks down impacts by region. The Midwest section summarizes some of the impacts for farmers.
Spring flooding is likely to delay planting. An increase in disease-causing pathogens, insect pests, and weeds cause additional challenges for agriculture.What a funny coincidence that news in Decatur the last few weeks is about farmers not being able to plant corn due to heavy spring rainfall. A crop specialist from the U of I extension said planting was "the farthest behind we'd been in 15 or 20 years..." A columnist noted,
It's been an unusually wet spring, and farmers have been hard pressed to get corn planted this year in between rains. As a result, fields were not worked until much later in the season and weeds grew.Get used to it. Given reports like this, maybe the US Farm Bureau will rethink their opposition to the Waxman-Markey climate change bill. Their president said the bill "is little more than gambling with U.S. jobs and productivity."
It reminds me of the old saying, "don't eat your seed corn." They're thinking about the short-term costs of taking action but doing nothing is gambling with the long-term livelihood of all farmers.