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Général de GuerreLasse

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2050 on: September 29, 2020, 04:18:59 PM »
Droughts in some places and rainstorms in others, hard work as a farmer. After the brutal weather changes of the last 2 years, if La Nina replays the same scenario (that of 2010/2011) for the next 2 years ...
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2012GL053055
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Alexander555

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2051 on: October 01, 2020, 09:19:29 PM »
Two million tons of rice gone, in Nigeria. That's like 10 kilos of rice for every person in Nigeria. https://watchers.news/2020/10/01/jigawa-nigeria-flood-crop-loss-2020/

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2052 on: October 03, 2020, 03:17:46 PM »
Climate change will continue to widen gaps in food security, new study finds
https://www.dailyclimate.org/climate-change-will-continue-to-widen-gaps-in-food-security-new-study-finds-2647877151.html
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In a new study published in Nature Food, researchers assessed global yields for 18 of the most farmed crops—wheat, maize, soybeans, rice, barley, sugar beet, cassava, cotton, groundnuts, millet, oats, potatoes, pulses, rapeseed, rye, sorghum, sunflower and sweet potatoes—crops that, all together, represent 70 percent of global crop area and around 65 percent of global caloric intake.

The authors found that climate change will not only hamper farmers' abilities to maintain current harvests, but that countries already facing food insecurity will be disproportionately affected. The researchers investigated temperature variations, but didn't examine climate impacts to precipitation patterns or other weather phenomena like flood or drought.

The most negatively impacted countries across most crops, their models found, were those in sub-Saharan Africa, and certain countries in South America and South Asia like India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Venezuela, among others.

vox_mundi

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2053 on: October 06, 2020, 01:37:00 AM »
Groundwater Depletion in US High Plains Leads to Bleak Outlook for Grain Production
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-groundwater-depletion-high-plains-bleak.html

The depletion of groundwater sources in parts of the United States High Plains is so severe that peak grain production in some states has already been passed, according to new research.

An international team of scientists, including experts from the University of Birmingham, has extended and improved methods used to calculate peak oil production to assess grain production in three US states, Nebraska, Texas and Kansas. They related the levels of water extraction from the Ogallala aquifer, one of the largest underwater reservoirs in the High Plains, over the past five decades, to the amounts of grain harvested in each state and used this model to predict future trends. Their results are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The scientists found that in Texas and Kansas, even taking into account advances in technology and improved irrigation methods, production levels peaked around 2016 before starting to decline. By 2050, if no yield-boosting technologies are introduced, grain production in Texas could be reduced by as much as 40 percent.

The decline is because rates of water extraction, coupled with delays in enforcing new policies on groundwater use and in introducing new irrigation and monitoring technologies mean the aquifers can no longer be sufficiently replenished to meet demand.

... The US High Plains produces more than 50 million tonnes of grain yearly and depends on the aquifers for as much as 90 percent of its irrigation needs. Taken as a whole, therefore, the model shows that continued depletion of the High Plains aquifers at current levels represents a significant threat to food and water security both in the US and globally.

"Overall, the picture we see emerging from these calculations is bleak," says Professor David Hannah, at the University of Birmingham. "The ultimate consequence of the aquifers continuing to be overused will be the decline and collapse of grain production. We have already seen this happen in Texas, where over the course of fifty years, peak water use has twice led to peak grain production followed by production crashes."



Assaad Mrad el al., "Peak grain forecasts for the US High Plains amid withering waters," PNAS (2020).
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/09/29/2008383117
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

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vox_mundi

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2054 on: October 12, 2020, 02:37:47 PM »
Fifth of Countries at Risk of Ecosystem Collapse, Analysis Finds
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/12/fifth-of-nations-at-risk-of-ecosystem-collapse-analysis-finds

One-fifth of the world’s countries are at risk of their ecosystems collapsing because of the destruction of wildlife and their habitats, according to an analysis by the insurance firm Swiss Re.

Natural “services” such as food, clean water and air, and flood protection have already been damaged by human activity.

More than half of global GDP – $42tn (£32tn) – depends on high-functioning biodiversity, according to the report, but the risk of tipping points is growing.

Countries including Australia, Israel and South Africa rank near the top of Swiss Re’s index of risk to biodiversity and ecosystem services, with India, Spain and Belgium also highlighted. Countries with fragile ecosystems and large farming sectors, such as Pakistan and Nigeria, are also flagged up. ...



Those countries with more than 30% of their area found to have fragile ecosystems were deemed to be at risk of those ecosystems collapsing. Just one in seven countries had intact ecosystems covering more than 30% of their country area.

Among the G20 leading economies, South Africa and Australia were seen as being most at risk, with China 7th, the US 9th and the UK 16th.

... “If the ecosystem service decline goes on [in countries at risk], you would see then scarcities unfolding even more strongly, up to tipping points,” said Oliver Schelske, lead author of the research.

Report: https://www.swissre.com/dam/jcr:4793a2c3-b50a-47c0-98df-ed6d5549fde8/nr-20200923-swiss-re-biodiversity-ecosystem-index-en.pdf

https://www.swissre.com/media/news-releases/nr-20200923-biodiversity-and-ecosystems-services.html
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

gerontocrat

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2055 on: October 12, 2020, 03:48:59 PM »
vox_mundi's post is somewhat timely. When the Gnomes of Zurich hit the alarm bells then one should be worried.

One-fifth of the world’s countries are at risk of their ecosystems collapsing because of the destruction of wildlife and their habitats,
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2056 on: October 12, 2020, 03:55:09 PM »
Wow, gerontocrat.
I clicked [like] on that post but I skimmed right over the Gnomes of Zurich part.
Is that good news? Does it mean that even Earth's equivalent of the Ferengi are getting worried, so there will be big changes to protect the environment now?

vox_mundi

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2057 on: October 14, 2020, 03:08:05 AM »
Atmospheric Dust Levels Are Rising In the Great Plains
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-atmospheric-great-plains.html



Got any spaces left on that 2020 bingo card? Pencil in "another Dust Bowl in the Great Plains." A study from University of Utah researchers and their colleagues finds that atmospheric dust levels are rising across the Great Plains at a rate of up to 5% per year.

The trend of rising dust parallels expansion of cropland and seasonal crop cycles, suggesting that farming practices are exposing more soil to wind erosion. And if the Great Plains becomes drier, a possibility under climate change scenarios, then all the pieces are in place for a repeat of the Dust Bowl that devastated the Midwest in the 1930s.

... Around the 2000s, the growth in demand for biofuels spurred renewed expansion of farmland to produce the needed crops. In an echo of the 1920s, this expansion replaced stable grasslands with vulnerable soil. Over five years, from 2006 to 2011, 2046 square miles (530,000 hectares) of grassland in five Midwestern states became farmland—an area a little smaller than Delaware.

At the same time, parts of the Great Plains experienced longer and more severe droughts in the 20th century. The future of drought in that region is, so far, uncertain, but the potential for a warmer, drier Great Plains has Lambert and co-author Gannet Hallar, associate professor of atmospheric sciences, bringing up the word "desertification" in relation to the potential future of the region.

The focus of the study by Lambert, Hallar and colleagues from the U, the University of Colorado-Boulder and Colorado State University, was to quantify how much the amount of dust in the atmosphere over the Great Plains had changed in recent decades.

All together, the data cover years from 1988 to 2018. Dust, they found, is increasing in the atmosphere over the whole of the Great Plains by as much as 5% per year.

"The amount of increase is really the story here," Hallar says. "That 5% a year over two decades, of course, is a hundred percent increase in dust loading. This is not a small signal to find."

The researchers further found correlations between dust in the atmosphere and crop timings. In Iowa, where soybeans have been a major expanding crop, increases in dust appeared in June and October—planting and harvesting months, respectively, for soybeans. In the southern Great Plains states, where corn is a more dominant crop, dust increases appeared in March and October—again correlating to corn planting and harvesting seasons.

That was remarkable," Hallar says, "in the sense of how clear the signal was."

"I think it's fair to say that what's happening with dust trends in the Midwest and the Great Plains is an indicator that the threat is real if crop land expansion continues to occur at this rate and drought risk does increase because of climate change," Lambert says. "Those would be the ingredients for another Dust Bowl."



Andrew Lambert et al, Dust Impacts of Rapid Agricultural Expansion on the Great Plains, Geophysical Research Letters (2020)
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020GL090347
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Tor Bejnar

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2058 on: October 14, 2020, 05:24:01 PM »
Quote
"The amount of increase is really the story here," Hallar says. "That 5% a year over two decades, of course, is a hundred percent increase in dust loading. This is not a small signal to find."
One problem with a 5% increase each year, is that doubling occurs in 14 or 15 years, not 20.  It's called compound interest in banking.

In "hundredth monkey*" thinking:  "1 and 1 and 50 makes a million"**

______
* - discredited research, but true with things like war hysteria, maybe what causes landslide elections
** - lyrics to an uplifting protest song.

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El Cid

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2059 on: October 14, 2020, 08:02:59 PM »
Atmospheric Dust Levels Are Rising In the Great Plains
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-atmospheric-great-plains.html



Got any spaces left on that 2020 bingo card? Pencil in "another Dust Bowl in the Great Plains."

This is totally due to detrimental agricultural practices, it has nothing to do with climate change. We did this.

wili

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2060 on: October 14, 2020, 08:07:52 PM »
"We did this"

Ummm, didn't we 'do' climate change as well.

And...how much do you know about the deep history of the Great Plains? Are  you familiar with the Sand Hills, for example? And with what happened the last time the earth was at it's current 1C above ~19th century temperatures?
"A force de chercher de bonnes raisons, on en trouve; on les dit; et après on y tient, non pas tant parce qu'elles sont bonnes que pour ne pas se démentir." Choderlos de Laclos "You struggle to come up with some valid reasons, then cling to them, not because they're good, but just to not back down."

Sebastian Jones

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2061 on: October 15, 2020, 06:08:26 AM »
"We did this"

Ummm, didn't we 'do' climate change as well.

And...how much do you know about the deep history of the Great Plains? Are  you familiar with the Sand Hills, for example? And with what happened the last time the earth was at it's current 1C above ~19th century temperatures?
I'm not familiar with the term 'deep history', let alone the deep history of the Great  Plains. I thought the Sand Hills were formed during the last glaciation. But, apparently, they are related to warm periods. Please educate us.

gerontocrat

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2062 on: October 15, 2020, 01:38:58 PM »
I failed a geography exam because I was at the back of the classroom reading "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck - a deeply human history of the consequences of the dustbowl years.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

wili

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2063 on: October 15, 2020, 04:42:51 PM »
During the Holocene Optimum about 8000 years ago, global temperatures were about what they are today, that is about one degree C above the immediate pre-industrial levels.

That was enough warming and drying (the typical pattern in the center of continents, as I understand) to push the delicate ecosystem of the Sand Hills over toward becoming moving sand dunes, basically turning the Great Plains into something resembling the more arid and desolate regions of the Sahara. This is covered in the first chapter of the book '6 Degrees'

It will probably take a while for this to happen again, and there are doubtless things that could be done to help stabilize the Sand Hills and slow down their degradation. But it is very likely that some time in the coming years or decades, the Great Plains will become more like The Great Desert.
"A force de chercher de bonnes raisons, on en trouve; on les dit; et après on y tient, non pas tant parce qu'elles sont bonnes que pour ne pas se démentir." Choderlos de Laclos "You struggle to come up with some valid reasons, then cling to them, not because they're good, but just to not back down."

gerontocrat

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2064 on: October 22, 2020, 01:55:29 PM »
The EU has voted for BAU. The consequences of intensifying industrial farming for wildlife and just about everything else, including us, will be profound. I was tempted to post this in the Holocene Extinction thread.

Let's have another round of drinks in "The Last Chance Saloon".

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/21/greta-thunberg-accuses-meps-of-surrender-on-climate-and-environment
Greta Thunberg accuses MEPs of 'surrender on climate and environment'
European parliament votes to continue payments to farmers with no green conditions attached

Quote
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish school strike pioneer and environmental activist, has accused MEPs of surrendering on the climate and environment by voting in favour of a watered-down reform of the EU’s common agricultural policy.

The European parliament voted late on Wednesday in favour of proposals put forward by the main political groups that will continue 60% of the current direct payments to farmers with weak or non-existent green conditions attached.

The changes backed by the parliament weaken an already heavily criticised proposal from the European commission on reform of the CAP, which accounts for one-third of the EU budget.

MEPs will continue to vote on a host of issues around future reforms up until Friday, as parliament sets its position before negotiations with the member states and the European commission.

Thunberg tweeted: “While media was reporting on ‘names of vegan hot dogs’ the EU parliament signed away €387bn [£350bn] to a new agricultural policy that basically means surrender on climate & environment. No awareness means no pressure and accountability so the outcome is no surprise. They just don’t care.”

Bas Eickhout, a Green MEP, said: “Climate change and ecological breakdown pose a severe threat to farming, our food system and our future on this planet and yet a large number of MEPs are wilfully ignoring the enormous scale of the problem.

“Unfortunately, the EPP, Socialists and Renew groups have watered down the already weak proposals of the commission by continuing with 60% of direct payments with very weak conditions.

“Without binding targets for more climate protection, less pesticides in the fields and less antibiotics in livestock farming, the CAP will stand as the very antithesis to the purpose of the Green Deal,” Eickhout said.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

vox_mundi

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2065 on: October 30, 2020, 04:38:53 PM »
Evidence Suggests More Mega-Droughts are Coming
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-evidence-mega-droughts.html

Mega-droughts—droughts that last two decades or longer—are tipped to increase thanks to climate change, according to University of Queensland-led research.

The revelation came after an analysis of geological records from the Eemian Period—129,000 to 116,000 years ago—which offered a proxy of what we could expect in a hotter, drier world.

"We found that, in the past, a similar amount of warming has been associated with mega-drought conditions all over south eastern Australia," Professor McGowan said.

"These drier conditions prevailed for centuries, sometimes for more than 1000 years, with El Niño events most likely increasing their severity."

Hamish McGowan et al. Evidence of wet-dry cycles and mega-droughts in the Eemian climate of southeast Australia, Scientific Reports (2020)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75071-z
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Bruce Steele

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2066 on: October 30, 2020, 04:59:06 PM »
Insects are making inroads into protein sources for animal feed. Factories that can control growing conditions for insects are getting investments and a company in France is building a mealy bug factory that can produce 100,000 tons of protein feed supplements a year.
 We do not have reduction plants for fish meal in Calif. because we don’t allow fish to be used for fish meal. Replacing the protein supplied by fish meal with insect based alternatives would take pressure off wild fish populations.
 
https://www.allaboutfeed.net/newproteins/insectmeal/

kassy

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2067 on: November 06, 2020, 02:29:10 PM »
To limit global warming, the global food system must be reimagined

...

If we stopped burning all fossil fuels this minute, would that be enough to keep a lid on global warming?

Acording to UC Santa Barbara ecology professor David Tilman, petroleum energy sources are only part of the picture. In a paper published in the journal Science, Tilman and colleagues predict that even in the absence of fossil fuels, cumulative greenhouse gas emissions could still cause global temperatures to exceed climate change targets in just a few decades.

The source? Our food system.

"Global food demand and the greenhouse gases associated with it are on a trajectory to push the world past the one-and-a-half degree goal, and make it hard to stay under the two degree limit," said Tilman, who holds a dual appointment at UCSB's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and at the University of Minnesota. The world's growing population as well as its diet are driving food production practices that generate and release massive and increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. According to the paper, left unchecked, agricultural emissions alone could exceed the 1.5°C limit by about 2050.

These findings are especially concerning given that we haven't stopped using fossil fuels, Tilman said. And with a 1°C average increase in global temperature since 1880, we've got only a slim margin before global warming results in widespread sea level rise, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss and other effects that will change life as we know it.

"All it would take for us to exceed the two degree warming limit is for food emissions to remain on their path and one additional year of current fossil fuel emissions," Tilman said. "And I guarantee you, we're not going to stop fossil fuel emissions in a year."

Reducing the emissions from food production, "will likely be essential" to keeping the planet livable in its current state, according to the scientists.

...

But, according to the paper's authors, global warming does not have to be an unavoidable impact of feeding the the world. Through early and widespread adoption of several feasible food system strategies, it is possible to limit emissions from agriculture in a way that keeps us from exceeding the 2°C limit by the end of the century while feeding a growing population.

The most effective, according to the paper, is a switch toward more plant-rich diets, which aren't just healthier overall, but also reduce the demand for beef and other ruminant meats. That, in turn, reduces the pressure to clear for grazing land or produce the grains and grasses (more farming, more fertilizer) required to feed them.

"We're not saying these diets have to be vegetarian or vegan," Tilman said. Widespread reduction of red meat consumption to once a week and having protein come from other sources such as chicken or fish, while increasing fruits and vegetables, in conjunction with decreasing fossil fuel use, could help keep the planet livably cool in the long run.

Another strategy: ease up on fertilizer.

"Many countries have high yields because from 1960 until now they have been using more and more fertilizer," he said. "But recent research has shown that almost all of these countries are actually using much more than they need to attain the yield they have." A drop of roughly 30% in fertilizer use would not only save the farmer money for the same yield, it prevents the release of nitrous oxide that occurs when excess fertilizer goes unused.

"About 40% of all future climate warming from agriculture may come from nitrous oxide from fertilizer," Tilman added. "So adding the right amount of fertilizer has a large benefit for climate change and would save farmers money."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201105183739.htm
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

kassy

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2068 on: November 08, 2020, 09:07:26 PM »
Shifts In Water Temperatures Affect Eating Habits Of Larval Tuna At Critical Life Stage

Small shifts in ocean temperature can have significant effects on the eating habits of blackfin tuna during the larval stage of development, when finding food and growing quickly are critical to long-term survival, a new study from Oregon State University researchers has found.

In a year of warmer water conditions, larval blackfin tuna ate less and grew more slowly, in part because fewer prey were available, compared to the previous year, when water conditions were one to two degrees Celsius cooler, the researchers found.

The findings provide new insight into the relationship between larval tuna growth and environmental conditions, as well as the broader impacts of climate change on marine fish populations. As the climate continues to warm, over the long term, increasing water temperatures may interact with changing food webs to pose critical problems for fish populations, the researchers said.

“There was a drastic difference in the fish between the two years. It was obvious tuna in one year had very full guts with much bigger prey,” said Miram Gleiber, the study’s lead author. Gleiber worked on the project as part of her doctoral dissertation at Oregon State and has since completed her Ph.D.

and more:
https://scienceblog.com/519460/shifts-in-water-temperatures-affect-eating-habits-of-larval-tuna-at-critical-life-stage/

Abstract:
https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa201/5956874?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

kassy

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2069 on: November 12, 2020, 03:23:23 PM »
Carbon speeds crop growth but often for little gain

More carbon dioxide speeds up crop growth with some key food harvests, but extra heat can hit the yield.

LONDON, 10 November, 2020 − Thirty years of experiments in testing crop growth, and notably the effects of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) on some human staples like rice, wheat and soya, have found that − given perfect growing conditions − they would increase yields by 18%.

But sadly, in “real world” conditions, any gains from carbon fertilisation are lost − because of the stress caused to crops by the 2°C temperature rise that the gas causes in the atmosphere. Even worse, the fact that crops grow faster does not mean that their nutritional value is greater – many showed lower mineral nutrients and protein content.

The work, 30 years of “free air carbon dioxide enrichment” (FACE), carried out by 14 long-term research facilities in five continents, is a blow to the hope that in a world with more atmospheric CO2 more people could be fed with less land under cultivation. Earlier results had held out the hope that this “fertiliser effect” would feed more people.

While commercial growers of plants like tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers have used increased CO2 to boost production in controlled conditions in greenhouses, it does not work so well in open fields where temperature and moisture content are affected by climate change.

Some crops do get a boost from more carbon in the atmosphere because it makes photosynthesis more efficient, but this is only if nutrients and water are available at optimum levels. This group includes soybean, cassava and rice, all vital in feeding some of the hungriest people in the world.

The author of the study, Stephen Long from the University of Illinois,  said that while it seemed reasonable to assume “a bounty as CO2 rises” this was not the case, because “CO2 is the primary cause of change in the global climate system. The anticipated 2°C rise in temperature, caused primarily by this increase in CO2, could halve yields of some of our major crops, wiping out any gain from CO2.”

His co-author Lisa Ainsworth, a research plant physiologist with the US Department of Agriculture, said: “It’s quite shocking to go back and look at just how much CO2 concentrations have increased over the lifetime of these experiments.

“We are reaching the concentrations of some of the first CO2 treatments 30 years back. The idea that we can check the results of some of the first FACE experiments in the current atmosphere is disconcerting.

Need for nitrogen

“Lots of people have presumed that rising CO2 is largely a good thing for crops, assuming more CO2 will make the world’s forests greener and increase crop yields,” Ainsworth said.

“The more recent studies challenge that assumption a bit. We’re finding that when you have other stresses, you don’t always get a benefit of elevated CO2. The last 15 years have taught us to account more for the complex interactions from other factors like drought, temperature, nutrients and pests.”

The poor quality of some of the grain, with less mineral and protein content, is also a blow to add to the crop growth doubts. The potential increased yield is also much smaller under conditions where there is low nitrogen fertiliser, typical of the world’s poorest countries.

However, the researchers are not all gloomy. Genetic variations in crops show that some strains can still benefit despite increased temperatures. If new crop cultivars are developed, then the future could be brighter, but work needs to start now, the scientists say. − Climate News Network

https://climatenewsnetwork.net/carbon-speeds-crop-growth-but-often-for-little-gain/
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Alexander555

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2070 on: November 12, 2020, 08:29:53 PM »
This is spreading fast in Europe. And as the planet warms further, these little guys will probably become the winners. As the lose of biodiversity impacts the resistance of plants to diseases, than it will have the same impact on animals and humans.  https://www.rt.com/uk/506524-bird-flu-outbreak-zone-england/

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2071 on: November 17, 2020, 01:36:57 PM »
'Famines of biblical proportions' feared in 2021 amid COVID-19 pandemic, UN food agency warns
https://6abc.com/hunger-2021-famines-of-biblical-proportions/7984522/
Quote
UNITED NATIONS -- The head of the World Food Program says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the U.N. agency a spotlight and megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars "we are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021."

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2072 on: November 17, 2020, 05:41:09 PM »
'Famines of biblical proportions' feared in 2021 amid COVID-19 pandemic, UN food agency warns
https://6abc.com/hunger-2021-famines-of-biblical-proportions/7984522/
Quote
UNITED NATIONS -- The head of the World Food Program says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the U.N. agency a spotlight and megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars "we are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021."

The downside of widespread lockdowns.

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2073 on: November 18, 2020, 12:27:38 PM »
'Famines of biblical proportions' feared in 2021 amid COVID-19 pandemic, UN food agency warns
https://6abc.com/hunger-2021-famines-of-biblical-proportions/7984522/
Quote
UNITED NATIONS -- The head of the World Food Program says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the U.N. agency a spotlight and megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars "we are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021."

The downside of widespread lockdowns.

I think the article focuses on wars as the primary causes of famine in these countries (they were not confined to Yemen or Sudan etc.). Climate change must have a lot to do with it as well. Maybe the soldiers should have been confined a little more. It is not misery that creates violence, it is violence that creates misery.
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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2074 on: November 18, 2020, 03:23:43 PM »
'Famines of biblical proportions' feared in 2021 amid COVID-19 pandemic, UN food agency warns
https://6abc.com/hunger-2021-famines-of-biblical-proportions/7984522/
Quote
UNITED NATIONS -- The head of the World Food Program says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the U.N. agency a spotlight and megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars "we are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021."

The downside of widespread lockdowns.

I think the article focuses on wars as the primary causes of famine in these countries (they were not confined to Yemen or Sudan etc.). Climate change must have a lot to do with it as well. Maybe the soldiers should have been confined a little more. It is not misery that creates violence, it is violence that creates misery.

Yes, the main focus was the interruption in food distribution due to conflicts.  Climate change had little impact.  The concern is the potential lack of funds resulting from COVID-related declines.

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2075 on: November 21, 2020, 07:52:08 PM »
Global warming has morphed into a quasi-heat machine as global temperature for the first six months of 2020 registered 1.3°C above baseline, a number that has new significance ever since the IPCC Special Report/2018 about the risks of exceeding 1.5°C.

Accordingly, it is generally acknowledged that 2.0°C above baseline is, in Dr. Carter’s words: “Out of the question, a catastrophe!”

Carter: “A world at 1.5°C is a disastrous world, no question.”

Carter: “2°C is an impossible world.”

The problem arises because global surface heat is accelerating, not decelerating. Atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration, accelerating like never before, is widely acknowledged by scientists throughout the world. New research published only a couple of weeks ago shows atmospheric carbon dioxide now at the highest level in twenty-three million (23,000,000) years.

Carter: “That’s insane! It’s absolutely climate crazy!”

Adequate food and water are the main risks to human survival in a world of collapsing ecosystems. It’s a known fact that excessive global heat causes multiple levels of damage to crops. Regrettably, with the world already at 1.3°C above pre-industrial, another 0.2°C pushes some crop growing regions into flashing red zones.

“We’ll lose food production at 1.5°C.” (Carter)


Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2076 on: December 02, 2020, 06:53:31 PM »
Question:
Was the Agricultural Revolution a mistake?

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2077 on: December 02, 2020, 07:36:45 PM »
Question:
Was the Agricultural Revolution a mistake?

This is exactly what I think. From memory it all started in 1944 in Mexico, then other countries followed. This green revolution has probably made it possible to convert the arms factories for agriculture, instead of making tanks we made tractors, and instead of making explosives we made fertilizers. it worked very well at the beginning, everyone was very happy but little by little the problems started. Fertilizers and pesticides have killed the earth, humus has disappeared from our fields. More and more powerful tractors had to be used to destroy the plow block which blocks the roots of the plants. here at the Conservatoire Génétique du Nord, trees planted on old fields do not grow because their roots cannot pierce this plow base. We removed the hedges that surrounded the fields and therefore protected the land and now the humus flows into the ditches and the clay becomes like concrete. Irrigation also destroys the earth because we use underground water rich in salt, I am not drawing you a picture.

Progress is great but not long, what is the notion of progress?
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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2078 on: December 02, 2020, 09:24:33 PM »

“We’ll lose food production at 1.5°C.” (Carter)

No, I'll call this absolute, total bullshit. A few tenths of degree temperature rise will not kill food production at all. Absolute nonsense.
Yes, some parts of the world will have some trouble growing food at 2-3 C above baseline (likely India and some other, hot tropical areas), but saying that "we will lose food production at 1,5"?! These alarmists are as harmful as deniers, because people will say in a few years (at +1,5C) that they were just scaremongering and "look, nothing happened"...

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2079 on: December 02, 2020, 09:27:44 PM »
Question:
Was the Agricultural Revolution a mistake?
No. Overpopulation was the mistake, the Agricultural Revolution a derived necessity.
Between mass starvation and poisoning the Earth the choice was easy.

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2080 on: December 02, 2020, 09:53:28 PM »

“We’ll lose food production at 1.5°C.” (Carter)

No, I'll call this absolute, total bullshit. A few tenths of degree temperature rise will not kill food production at all. Absolute nonsense.
Yes, some parts of the world will have some trouble growing food at 2-3 C above baseline (likely India and some other, hot tropical areas), but saying that "we will lose food production at 1,5"?! These alarmists are as harmful as deniers, because people will say in a few years (at +1,5C) that they were just scaremongering and "look, nothing happened"...

No, it's not the tropical areas that will have problems, as temperatures are fairly stable in the tropics, due to the so called 'tropical thermostate'.
It's the subtropics that will suffer from the temperature increase and from changes in precipitation.

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2081 on: December 02, 2020, 09:55:34 PM »

“We’ll lose food production at 1.5°C.” (Carter)

No, I'll call this absolute, total bullshit. A few tenths of degree temperature rise will not kill food production at all. Absolute nonsense.
Yes, some parts of the world will have some trouble growing food at 2-3 C above baseline (likely India and some other, hot tropical areas), but saying that "we will lose food production at 1,5"?! These alarmists are as harmful as deniers, because people will say in a few years (at +1,5C) that they were just scaremongering and "look, nothing happened"...

You do understand that a global rise of 1.5°C is not evenly distributed. 0.5°C over oceans and 3-4°C over land averages 1.5°C. And the grain-belts will be seeing 2-3× the average global increase.

And temperature usually shows up as extremes. Droughts, heatwaves, floods. I bet Germany and France didn't have bumper crops during their droughts and heat waves

And it's not just temperature. If your precipitation band shifts 2-300 miles, or your rainy season doesn't show up for a decade or two, you're fucked.

The Caribbean had six hurricanes this year; Nicaragua had 2 in one week; and India just had 2 cyclones in a week. Bad for crops. These sort of storms are increasing.

And the US had a derecho that wiped out a million acres of corn this summer.
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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2082 on: December 02, 2020, 10:04:12 PM »
Thanks for stating what should be the obvious around here, vox.

The last time the earth's temperature was about one degree C above immediately pre-industrial levels, much of the US Midwest 'bread basket' was covered in sand.

These effects may not recur exactly as they did before, and it will likely take years to decades for the effects to fully work themselves out. But the paleo-climate shows that a degree or two of change in global temperatures can indeed have major consequences in various locations.

(See Mark Lynas's '6 degrees' and many other sources for summaries of the scholarship on this.)
"A force de chercher de bonnes raisons, on en trouve; on les dit; et après on y tient, non pas tant parce qu'elles sont bonnes que pour ne pas se démentir." Choderlos de Laclos "You struggle to come up with some valid reasons, then cling to them, not because they're good, but just to not back down."

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2083 on: December 02, 2020, 11:51:32 PM »
I think the world temperature must be 1.2 or 1.3 ° C above the temperatures before 1850, and the effects are already quite remarkable even in the north of France. The meteorology has changed considerably with periods of drought and high heat alternating with periods of heavy rains. We are already in the process of studying changes to be made to our methods of growing fruits and vegetables. At 2 ° there will be famines everywhere on the planet.

Now El Cid take a good look at these curves, you should understand  ;) . A little indication: we are on the green curve.

The two green and blue curves above have the same average (in red on this graph) but the green function is much more variable than the blue function (it deviates more frequently, and / or more significantly, from the average).



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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2084 on: December 03, 2020, 12:18:52 AM »
I will explain better:

An increase in variability, even at constant mean, can be a problem:

if it concerns rainfall, this means less regularity of the latter, and therefore an increase in droughts and floods,
if it concerns temperature, it can mean an increase in cold or heat waves,
if it concerns the wind, it means an increase in extreme windy episodes ...
Given that a climate is defined by many variables, a climate change cannot therefore be reduced a priori to a simple change in the average temperature. It will most likely also include a change in the average value or variability of precipitation, winds, average soil moisture….
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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2085 on: December 03, 2020, 03:09:02 AM »

“We’ll lose food production at 1.5°C.” (Carter)

No, I'll call this absolute, total bullshit. A few tenths of degree temperature rise will not kill food production at all. Absolute nonsense.
Yes, some parts of the world will have some trouble growing food at 2-3 C above baseline (likely India and some other, hot tropical areas), but saying that "we will lose food production at 1,5"?! These alarmists are as harmful as deniers, because people will say in a few years (at +1,5C) that they were just scaremongering and "look, nothing happened"...

No, it's not the tropical areas that will have problems, as temperatures are fairly stable in the tropics, due to the so called 'tropical thermostate'.
It's the subtropics that will suffer from the temperature increase and from changes in precipitation.

Yes, the tropics will experience little, if any, change.  The subtropics will experience some, but less than the mid latitudes, with desert areas becoming less arid.  I am not saying that the Sahara will become green again, but the edges will see increased vegetation.

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2086 on: December 03, 2020, 08:38:15 AM »
OK. We are already 1 C above baseline. This guy says if we move another 0,5 C, then we lose food production. He did not say: yeah, we might lose 1/3 of what Spain produces, or: droughts will reduce US corn production by 50%. No. He did say: we lose food production. Period.

That is complete bullshit.  Not other way to put it. He could have said that food production will decrease by this and this % (I doubt even that), but you could argue that point of view. He said we lose it all. Fake news. 

As for your points:
- a warmer world is a wetter world, there will be MORE rain, not less
- volatility of rainfall (as measured by the length of dry periods) DID NOT increase in the past decades
- volatility of temperatures DID NOT increase in the past decades (as measured by the difference of monthly high and low temperatures). Average temperature increased, not volatility. There's a shift of climatic zones, not a mixing up of them.
- food production INCREASED A LOT as we went to 1C above baseline

The data do not support the above view.

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2087 on: December 03, 2020, 01:00:18 PM »

“We’ll lose food production at 1.5°C.” (Carter)

No, I'll call this absolute, total bullshit. A few tenths of degree temperature rise will not kill food production at all. Absolute nonsense.
Yes, some parts of the world will have some trouble growing food at 2-3 C above baseline (likely India and some other, hot tropical areas), but saying that "we will lose food production at 1,5"?! These alarmists are as harmful as deniers, because people will say in a few years (at +1,5C) that they were just scaremongering and "look, nothing happened"...

You do understand that a global rise of 1.5°C is not evenly distributed. 0.5°C over oceans and 3-4°C over land averages 1.5°C. And the grain-belts will be seeing 2-3× the average global increase.

And temperature usually shows up as extremes. Droughts, heatwaves, floods. I bet Germany and France didn't have bumper crops during their droughts and heat waves

And it's not just temperature. If your precipitation band shifts 2-300 miles, or your rainy season doesn't show up for a decade or two, you're fucked.

The Caribbean had six hurricanes this year; Nicaragua had 2 in one week; and India just had 2 cyclones in a week. Bad for crops. These sort of storms are increasing.

And the US had a derecho that wiped out a million acres of corn this summer.

I will add that if, when we go from 1 ° to 1.5 ° the situation degrades by a factor of 50, when we go from 1.5 ° to 2 ° the situation then deteriorates by a factor of 1000 .I'm not sure of the factor level but it's just to give an idea of what I'm explaining.
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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2088 on: December 03, 2020, 01:16:16 PM »
Instead of hazy projections, let's see the actual data. First chart is grains grown globally vs area harvested. Area is actually going down, while production going up!
Second chart : long term (1950-2016) global grain production: green highlighted area saw 0,7-0,8 C temperature rise globally, but you wouldn't know it.
Maybe a warming world is very negative for food production, but you do not see it in the data. You see the opposite. I bet that an ice age wouldn't be very conducive for food production

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2089 on: December 03, 2020, 01:28:29 PM »
That second graph is not really valid. You have to correct for all kind of changes in farming.
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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2090 on: December 03, 2020, 01:32:22 PM »
That second graph is not really valid. You have to correct for all kind of changes in farming.

I don't understand that. These are actual production data. What is not valid? And of course production is going up because of changes in methods. That's what I've been saying: if you change farming methods in Africa, you could easily triple production. Just as when you went from a kolhoz-sytem in Russia in the 80s to modern methods, that country became a major food exporter from being an importer.

And one more thing: If we all drastically reduced eating meat, and wasting food, our current food production would easily be enough for 10 billion people. So we do not actually need to increase food production at all...

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2091 on: December 03, 2020, 01:40:48 PM »
Well from lets say 1970 to 2010 there have been trends like farms growing bigger. More mechanisation and probably changes in insecticide and fertilization use. These all change yield.

If we all drastically reduced eating meat, and wasting food, our current food production would easily be enough for 10 billion people.

Totally agree with that and also your objection to the blanket 1,5 C statement.
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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2092 on: December 03, 2020, 02:13:06 PM »
The increase in grain came at the expense of Amazon deforestation.

Since 1978 over 750,000 square kilometers (289,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana. This is an area larger than France and Germany combined.

https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/deforestation_calculations.html
https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_destruction.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_of_the_Amazon_rainforest


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Amazon_rainforest_wildfires

We have lost over 20% of the Amazon rainforest to deforestation. Using the 2005 deforestation rates, it was estimated that the Amazon rainforest would be reduced by 40% in two decades.

In September 2019, Carlos Nobre, expert on the Amazon and climate change, warned that at the current rates of deforestation, we are rapidly approching a tipping point (2025-2030) that will turn large parts of the Amazon forest into a dry savanna, especially in the southern and northern Amazon.



100 year droughts in the Amazon are already happening ever 5-10 years

In August 2019, 30,901 individual forest fires were reported, three times the number a year earlier.

Biodiversity is plummeting.

Amazon teleconnection are beginning to initiate a megadrought in US Southwest, Midwest.

Converting the Amazon from rainforest to savanna also eliminate a major carbon sink and becomes a positive feedback.

The same think is happening in the Indonesian rainforest

OBTW, the grain chart was increasing at a linear rate; population increases exponentially.
« Last Edit: December 03, 2020, 03:32:47 PM by vox_mundi »
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Général de GuerreLasse

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2093 on: December 03, 2020, 03:30:20 PM »
Instead of hazy projections, let's see the actual data. First chart is grains grown globally vs area harvested. Area is actually going down, while production going up!
Second chart : long term (1950-2016) global grain production: green highlighted area saw 0,7-0,8 C temperature rise globally, but you wouldn't know it.
Maybe a warming world is very negative for food production, but you do not see it in the data. You see the opposite. I bet that an ice age wouldn't be very conducive for food production

El Cid, these curves show the efficiency of industrialized agriculture doped with petroleum (agro-chemistry and mechanical means). Agribusiness, logistics, distribution, it all depends on oil and we know that we hit peak conventional oil in 2008 and peak all oil in 2018.

I suggest you read this IPCC report, sorry this report is in French but you will easily find its equivalent in English. I recommend especially page 16, the graph "instability of the food supply". You will see that up to 1 ° everything is fine, but beyond this "occasional surge in prices affecting certain countries". Then from 1.5 ° "periodic food shocks in the regions" and from 2 ° "profound disturbances of the food supply in the world".

Which fully justifies my post 2087: "I will add that if, when we go from 1 ° to 1.5 ° the situation degrades by a factor of 50, when we go from 1.5 ° to 2 ° the situation then deteriorates by a factor of 1000 .I'm not sure of the factor level but it's just to give an idea of what I'm explaining."

Happy reading my friend.

https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/4/2020/06/SRCCL_SPM_fr.pdf
« Last Edit: December 03, 2020, 03:56:57 PM by Général de GuerreLasse »
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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2094 on: December 03, 2020, 05:03:42 PM »

OBTW, the grain chart was increasing at a linear rate; population increases exponentially.

That was the same mistake Paul Ehrlich made half a century ago.  The population was increasing much faster then, so it is likely to be more wrong today. 

The Amazon and Indonesian rain forests contribute little to global grain production.  The claim that the increases shown by El CID are a result of rainforest decline is strictly misinformation and does not belong on this site.  We do not want to be associated with those who spread such.

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2095 on: December 03, 2020, 05:10:05 PM »
The increase in grain came at the expense of Amazon deforestation.

Since 1978 over 750,000 square kilometers (289,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana. This is an area larger than France and Germany combined.

https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/deforestation_calculations.html
https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_destruction.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_of_the_Amazon_rainforest


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Amazon_rainforest_wildfires

We have lost over 20% of the Amazon rainforest to deforestation. Using the 2005 deforestation rates, it was estimated that the Amazon rainforest would be reduced by 40% in two decades.

In September 2019, Carlos Nobre, expert on the Amazon and climate change, warned that at the current rates of deforestation, we are rapidly approching a tipping point (2025-2030) that will turn large parts of the Amazon forest into a dry savanna, especially in the southern and northern Amazon.



100 year droughts in the Amazon are already happening ever 5-10 years

In August 2019, 30,901 individual forest fires were reported, three times the number a year earlier.

Biodiversity is plummeting.

Amazon teleconnection are beginning to initiate a megadrought in US Southwest, Midwest.

Converting the Amazon from rainforest to savanna also eliminate a major carbon sink and becomes a positive feedback.

The same think is happening in the Indonesian rainforest

OBTW, the grain chart was increasing at a linear rate; population increases exponentially.

In the Amazon rainforest all the useful matter is contained in the trees. When the trees are felled, only poor soil remains which is very quickly exhausted and which is quickly washed away by erosion in a few years. All that remains is the laterite which is unsuitable for any agriculture. Under these conditions, progress in agricultural production is short-lived and the final catastrophe is inevitable.
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Un petit croquis en dit plus qu'un grand discours, mais beaucoup moins qu'un gros chèque.
Pierre DAC

Alexander555

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2096 on: December 03, 2020, 07:37:13 PM »
If you look at that soil in the amazon. Would they ever be able to produce food in a durable way ? Or would the sun kill everything in that top layer ?

Général de GuerreLasse

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2097 on: December 03, 2020, 09:03:17 PM »
If you look at that soil in the amazon. Would they ever be able to produce food in a durable way ? Or would the sun kill everything in that top layer ?

Any soil in the right hands can become fertile, but it takes a lot of time and skill for that soil to become resilient and productive. The ancient Amazonian Indians created the famous terra preta. The logic that prevails right now in the Amazon will not lead to any good. Now what I find most worrying about this region is the work of Camilo Mora.

In fact, between the IPCC report, the work of Camilo Mora, the work of Dennis Meadows and that of James Lovelock, I have little illusion about our chances of adapting.

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/mora/Publications/Mora%20059.pdf

https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/4/2020/06/SRCCL_SPM_fr.pdf
« Last Edit: December 03, 2020, 11:25:37 PM by Général de GuerreLasse »
La cravate est un accessoire permettant d'indiquer la direction du cerveau de l'homme.
Un petit croquis en dit plus qu'un grand discours, mais beaucoup moins qu'un gros chèque.
Pierre DAC

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2098 on: December 03, 2020, 09:30:24 PM »
We shall not come to common terms on food it seems, but we agree on the Amazon: tropical biomass is mostly stored in plants. Once you kill the plants it is very hard to reforest it, but it can be done. This is a wonderful video about Ernst Götsch, who created syntropic farming in Brazil which is basically a sort of regenerative agroforestry. Worth watching:



He reforested 500 ha of terrible land, that noone wanted to farm. Now he grows the most expensive (because of its amazing quality) cocoa (and many other things) organically, without any outside inputs.

One of my heroes!

vox_mundi

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #2099 on: December 03, 2020, 10:54:49 PM »
I think we can agree that permaculture or regenerative agriculture is a sustainable way of treating agricultural land. That's how I treat my property and I wish more people would do the same. I've always believed in working with nature.

The 'sand in the gears' for humanity is time and scale. We don't have enough of one, and too much of the other.

In the Amazon, more than 150 acres (60 hectares) of rainforest disappear every minute of every day, and 78 million acres are lost every year.

Götsch spent 3-10 years (1.5-5 million minutes) recovering 500 hectares of degraded land. I commend him. We need a thousand like him.

But, it means the equivalent of all his labor is destroyed every 8 minutes. Such is the appetite of exponential man.

https://believe.earth/en/ernst-gotsch-the-creator-of-the-real-green-revolution

https://agendagotsch.com/en
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late