How Does Climate Change Affect Agriculture

The idea of climate change, for many, is an opinionated subject with much discussion of whether it is a real issue or just a natural phenomenon. However in recent years it is clear to see that trends in the Earth’s climate and surface temperature has spiked to levels never seen before. Despite all the evidence of the high levels of greenhouses gases and the rise in temperature, many still believe that

Climate change is not a new concept. It has been mostly referred to as global warming in the past. As much as people would like to file this issue away as something to deal with at a later date, it simply cannot wait. This problem we face is costing us billions of dollars, forests and wildlife are being eliminated, and people are dying. Starting to sound like a big deal, right? Future generations will be affected the most. People who do not even exist will have to pay for what we, all people, have done to this earth. To begin to make changes, one must realize the severity of the issue. Bill Mckibben, author of “Recalculating the Climate Math,” conveys that “We’ve already raised the world’s temperature by one degree—enough to melt almost half the ice in the Arctic, kill off huge swaths of the world’s coral, and unleash lethal floods and drought. July and August tied for the hottest months ever recorded on our planet, and scientists think they were almost certainly the hottest in the history of human civilization” (Page 3 of 5). Global climate change is a serious problem because it increases natural disasters and is the cause of extreme weather.

Climate change is known as one of the greatest threats to the planet. It is not only a threat to the planet environmentally, but it is a threat socially and economically. As we all could feel, see, and know, the weather patterns globally and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been increasing over an extended period of time. Although it may seem like it’s not a dramatic change since it is data from over a large amount of time, it is considering the fact that the large amount of time is not that large as it should be. Climate change is nothing new to us. It’s happened many years ago in the past because a variety of reasons but as the years go on, the rate on charts are just getting higher. As much as I would like to blame this predicament on nature, humans has a fault as well. We release thousands of greenhouse gases into the air through many procedures, but there are things that we cannot entirely control. However, whoever’s fault it is to blame I believe that if we work together and think we will more likely be able to find effective solutions for this problem.

As Earths average temperature increases every year, the discussion of climate change has become a significant topic in the scientific community. Human activities such as powering factories, running automobiles or something as simple as burning wood for heat, emit dangerous greenhouse gases. What makes these greenhouse gases so detrimental is that they absorb the heat radiating off of Earth and keep it in the lower atmosphere creating a “blanket” of warmth around the Earth’s surface. This causes a drastic increase in the Earths average temperature. Due to the rise in temperature, the polar caps have been melting faster than ever, this is dangerous not only because of the risk of floods and sea level increase but ocean water will become less saline and ecosystems will be destroyed, impacting humans just as much as marine life. In the article, Understand faulty thinking to tackle climate change by George Marshall, Marshall states that most people in our world today do not care about climate change because it will not affect them, “Which points to the real problem: climate change is exceptionally amorphous, … no deadlines, no geographic location, no single cause or solution.” (Marshall 2014). Because the author makes it clear that climate change is indeed a great plight, and fails to be acknowledged by people, it is a significant matter that should be discussed

Climate change has the potential to transform food production, especially the patterns and productivity of crops, livestock, and fishery systems; and to reconfigure food distribution, markets, and access (Nelson et al., 2009). Chen et al. (2012) observed that climate change has already had a negative impact on Asia through extreme temperatures, frequent flooding and droughts, sea level rise, and increased salinity of water supplies for rainfed agricultural areas. Most Asian countries are quite dependent on their domestic supplies of rice. The International Rice Commission (2003) indicates that Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam are the major producers of rice, producing more than 70% of the world’s volume. The Asian rice-producing countries tend to consume most of their domestic rice production. Nevertheless, Thailand and Vietnam are able to export some rice to neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Dasgupta et al. (2009) identified ten developing countries whose land areas are most exposed to the potential threat of a one-meter rise in sea level. Among the countries most affected by sea level rise are Bangladesh, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam and these are all rice-growing and rice-consuming countries. Using a partial equilibrium global rice trade model, Chen et al. (2012) investigated the potential impact of sea level rise combined with climate-induced crop yield change on global rice

There is no doubt that climate is a considerable element of agricultural production. However, along with climate change, extreme weather has tended to be more frequent and more intense, which has affected farming destructively. As a result, the drought that occurred in sub-Saharan Africa has become continual and long duration, which resulted in poor harvests. In addition, climate change restricted weather risk management. Similarly, long-time climate change is threatening agricultural development in Australia and has reduced agricultural production capacity and challenged traditional farming and irrigation measures. Interestingly, in most rural areas of Australia, farmers acknowledged “a changing climate”, rather than “climate change”.

Antarctic’s ice melt and accelerating sea level rise, the growing number of large wildfires, intense heat wave shocks, severe drought and blizzards, disrupted and decreased food supply, and extreme storm events are increasing to happen in many areas world wide and these are just some of the consequences of global warming. The fossil fuel we burn for energy coal, natural gas, and oil plus the loss of forests due to disforestation, in the southern hemisphere are all contributors for climate change. In the past three decades, every single year was warmer then the previous year and the warmest 12 years were recorded since 1998. We are overloading our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and trapping the heat and

Climate change is the single biggest environmental and humanitarian crisis of our time. Our Earth’s temperature is climbing at an alarming rate. Earth 's average temperature has risen by 1.4°F over the past century, and is projected to rise another 2 to 11.5°F over the next hundred years. The planet is seeing the devastating effects of a warmer earth; warmer oceans, melting ice caps, and rising sea levels. As these and other changes become more pronounced in the coming decades, they will likely present challenges to our society and our environment.

According to scientific research, the average temperature of the earth has risen by between ten and twenty degrees Celsius (M.L. Weitzman, 2008). These high temperatures could well be described as a ‘recipe for disaster’, and could produce results that would be catastrophic on a global scale. What is more alarming however, is that there is already a lot of evidence of predicted results of climate change, for instance, in Australia especially, severe draughts have been common in farming areas in the last few decades, there has been an increase of intense and extreme weather events, for example floods, flash floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and tornados, almost all of the natural disasters listed have occurred for ‘unknown’ reasons in the past few years. Rises in sea water level and temperature due to higher acid levels caused by global warming, threaten the existence of species and in some areas, entire eco-systems resulting in the loss of natural biodiversity. ‘Climate change is pushing the world to the verge of environmental and economic collapse, whether global deniers want to believe it or not’ (N. Klein, 2011).

This is a global issue, however the greatest impact would be on Canada, where we are technically advanced in farming. There was a study that showed the relationship between weather related disasters and crop yields from over the globe. The authors of the study outlines how the world’s food supply is vulnerable because of climate change. This creates a strain on the world as there needs to be food grown that would supply the growing population. Navin Ramankutty (the senior author on the study and a professor of global food security and sustainability) states, “The food system is already stressed in many ways.” He also says that with climate change, we are adding more stress on it. Navin and his colleagues at UBC and McGill University took information from a database that had 2 800 weather disasters in 177 countries from 1964 to 2007. The results that they got indicated the impacts on food production from heat waves, and droughts. The study found that recent droughts impact on food production increased by 7-per-cent compared to the droughts from the decades past. This was the effects of climate change. Dr. Ramankutty’s study warns the world food

Climate change is one of the major issues surfacing earth over the past century. The earth’s temperature has increased over the years leading to detrimental effects on the economic and life sources of people, especially that of agricultural production and livestock. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2014), defined climate change as a change in global climate patterns apparent from the mid late 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, (2007) predicts that by 2100 the increase in global average surface temperature may be between 1.8° C and 4.0° C. With increases of 1.5° C to 2.5° C, approximately 20 to 30 percent of plant and animal species are expected to be at risk of extinction. Moreover, the IPCC (2007)

An issue that is felt throughout the world is Anthropogenic Climate Change formally known as Global Warming. This word wide problem is one that needs to be addressed immediately as well as long term. Anthropogenic Climate Change is the rise of the earth’s temperature caused by human activities. The continuing rise in the earth’s temperature will cause extreme change in our earth’s ecosystems. The predetermined course to our ecosystems relies on climate change and its effects on ecosystems and life as we know it is at a vulnerable state. Anthropogenic Climate Change shifts relations with human life and presents severe biodiversity in

Soon after the new year began, 2014 was officially declared the hottest year on record. Perhaps this data would not be enough to indicate a trend on its own, but it is reported that the ten hottest years on record have all occurred after 1997 (Gillis 2015). This trend is alarming to scientists, as it confirms that the Earth is in fact warming on a global scale. As climate change continues, there are various problems that the world’s nations are going to have to address. As previously mentioned, climate change is already causing extreme weather deviations. As the temperature continues to rise, there will be more intense and frequent droughts, floods, hurricanes, and heat waves (National Wildlife Federation). Soon enough, people are going to have to start combating these effects of climate change and looking for new ways to protect themselves from the weather at its worst. Not only will severe weather deviations put people in more danger, but so will the bad effects on our health. Lack of clean water, impaired foods, amplified heat exposure, and accelerated spread of blood-transmitted diseases are all plausible risks associated with global warming (Bowen, Ebi, Friel, and McMichael 2013). These inevitable magnitudes of global warming are the root of what makes climate change a social

Naturally, every human being depends on the natural resources that the planet Earth provides. Whether we consume a variety of foods or just a small meal, we are benefiting from what the earth produces. In other words, this planet is generous with humanity. In contrast, the daily actions humans make contribute to the mistreatment of this precious planet. What is the maltreatment? The high carbon dioxide emissions humans produce, damage the Earth. Is there a specific solution to lower those emissions? How does climate change affect agriculture? Climate change impacts agriculture negatively because of the carbon dioxide emissions; this can be lowered with the implementation of bicycle lanes in the transportation system.

Our global climate change has not always been a top concern for scientists, politicians or even our very own view on the rapid rates of global warming data. The drastic change and harm that has occurred to the nature around us has become a huge concern that must be dealt with appropriately and done so in a timely manner, with rapid glacier melting that has caused rising sea levels or the .15-degree temperature increase per decade since the 1900`s we can noticeable see the change our earth has endured due to humans. Even the smallest change of a degree in temperature not just in the U.S but globally has effected many aspects of Earth itself. Just a couple of years ago in the year 2014 our planet reached