I wrote in July on a number of comprehensive reports on how climate change is devastating many parts of the world and many different sectors. (See Impacts.) I also referenced a stunning “National Geographic Magazine” article on the drought in Australia.
Well, the “Financial Times” has a story on drought right here in the US, in Arizona. See the audio slide show here and learn more about why the threat of climate change isn’t only about rising sea levels in the vulnerable developing world and melting Arctic ice. It’s also about the impacts to farmers, ranchers and other people dependent on the land for their livelihoods – and right here in the US of A.
This message is echoed in a recent report from the thorough and thoughtful Environmental Working Group – Crying Wolf: Climate Change Will Cost Farmers Far More Than a Climate Bill. Why farmers, ranchers, and the timber industry aren’t breaking down the doors of Congress to get vigorous climate change legislation – with offsets for biosequestration initiatives – is beyond me. (See my article for Grist on biochar.)
Political note: It’s a sad thing that Tom Harkin left the chair of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee to take over Ted Kennedy’s chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Harkin gets the dangers to farmers and the potential benefits. His successor, Blanche Lincoln, doesn’t.
