Central Illinois is lucky to have a leading scientist on the UN’s Panel on Climate Change. He gave a local interview on how climate change could impact farmers if no action is taken.
Under a higher-emissions scenario, Illinois summers could be like those currently in eastern Texas, said Don Wuebbles, a professor in the UI's Department of Atmospheric Sciences.I've visited family in East Texas many times and never saw any cornfields.
(Family members not pictured...mavericky)
Weubbles goes on to say,
"Basically we're talking about very extensive warming," he said. "Chicago has two days of about 100 degrees (Fahrenheit) and a dozen above 90 (degrees Fahrenheit)."In other words, think of the hottest year you've been to the Illinois state fair in August and imagine that lasting all summer long.
By the end of the century, with a high-emissions scenario, Chicago could have a month of temperatures at 100 degrees or more and an entire summer of temperatures around temperatures at 90 or above, he said.
Environment Illinois used a federal study on the impacts of climate change to report how it's already costing Illinois agriculture and how much worse it could get. It shows that global warming could cost Illinois corn growers $243 million per year and $1.4 billion nationally.
Among other impacts, heavier rainfall, floods, and unpredictable severe whether will harm corn crops. As I wrote last week, the planting season was severely delayed for area farmers this season due to heavy spring rainfall, which is one of the impacts specifically named in the federal study.
The complaints rural Congressmen make about the ACES bill look pretty silly compared to how much farmers have to lose if no action is taken. If those Congressmen had been on the sinking Titanic they would have refused to get on a lifeboat because their hair might get wet.
Illinois farmers need to decide if they want to do something about climate change or else start learning how to herd cattle and grow peaches.