In a recent study published in Science, and blogged here, David Lobell of Stanford University pointed out that global climate change was already having an impact on agriculture around the planet.
One of the findings of the study was that the specific impacts on crop production studied, so far, have not shown up yet in North America.
Fox News’ responded to the story with the headline above.
…the study Fox Nation refers to doesn’t actually contend that there have been no global warming effects in North America.
In fact, the study examined only crop-producing regions and only during the growing seasons of corn, rice, maize, and wheat.The research indicated that those specific regions in the U.S. have not seen the same warming trend evident in global average temperatures over the past 30 years. (Indeed, no climate scientist would say the planet is expected to warm uniformly).
Stanford’s David Lobell, one of the authors of the study, explained in an email that he was “disappointed” in both the Fox Nation and Ottawa Citizen coverage, which “do not accurately portray our findings.” He added:
The study was only focusing on one aspect of climate change (impacts on agriculture) and looked only in the parts of the countries where and times of year when certain crops are grown. for example, if one looks at winter temperatures in these regions, it would paint a different picture. also, the lack of trend in any one region has very little bearing on whether global warming is happening.
Moreover, responding to an inquiry submitted to the Climate Science Rapid Response Team, Dr. Jacqueline Mohan of the University of Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology explained in an email that “modern crops and the vast majority of natural ecosystems are fundamentally different.” She explains that annual crops used in agriculture “do not “track” climate as closely as perennial plants which have much longer lifespans” and are more vulnerable to changes in climate. Mohan also points to recent research on ecosystems in North America that “has shown profound responses to changing climate.”
Indeed, regions all over the world are observing trends that foretell a changing environment. According to University of Minnesota scientist Peter Reich, also contacted through CSRRT, Fox Nation is completely missing the important point of Lobell’s study, saying via email that “if there is evidence that on average, around the world, agricultural output was already impacted by climate change, that is important, and a ‘canary in the coal mine’ kind of signal.”
Indeed, Lobell’s study concludes that communities across the globe are encountering the very real consequences of climate change on the production of vital crops. The very research that Fox Nation uses to sow doubt about global warming found that “Climate trends were large enough in some countries to offset a significant portion of the increases in average yields that arose from technology, CO2 fertilization, and other factors.”
Shout out to the Climate Science Rapid Response Team , who have been doing a terrific job knocking down this kind of intentionally misleading nonsense.
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