A Global Approach

As noted below, Dr. Robert Thompson was scheduled to speak on “Climate Change and Agriculture,” and speak he did. His talk was highly organized, coherent, and enlightening. His major points:

• Climate change is real.
• Agriculture is having an impact on climate change.
• Climate change is having an impact on agriculture.
• As a result, major geographic shifts need to be – and, in fact, are being – made in agricultural production and international trade.

I'm sorry he had to spend so much time on the first point, but it seems he did, judging from some of the questions afterward. The second point involved, mostly, the production of meat and dairy, as well as tilling and fertilizing practices, and the methane and nitrous oxide that these processes release into an already overburdened atmosphere. Methane and nitrous oxide, apparently, put carbon dioxide to shame in their power to trap heat.

And how will agriculture be affected? This is the intriguing part. Dr. Thompson spent a long time (a really long time) describing the impact of precipitation and temperature changes in on each continent. The upshot? Don't invest in farmland in the Mediterranean region, or in the American Southwest (although you probably knew that). Invest instead in the Canadian west and northern China. Both are becoming warmer, and receiving increased precipitation. The first soybean crushing facility ever in western Canada is being built right now, because, for the first time, soybeans can find a beneficial growing season and enough water to thrive.

Otsego County should thrive, and this presents a cruel paradox. It is just this combination of neutral to positive temperature change, combined with more precipitation, that will make many among us look around in Otsego County (and in many other places around the world) and say, “Climate change? Looks good to me.”

We need a global approach, a way to shift resources and production around to achieve, over time, the best results for the most of us. And there lies the political divide.