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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Climate Change Threatens South Dakota Farmland and Economy

South Dakota expat Donald Carr works for the Environmental Working Group in D.C., but he's still rooting for his home crowd. He writes in yesterday's edition of that Sioux Falls paper to criticize the South Dakota Legislature's ridiculous ostrichism on climate change. He reminds us that SDSU research shows we're losing wetlands as a result of climate change. Carr also reminds us that the main reason to worry about climate change is economic:

The immediate threat climate change poses for South Dakota is to the state's largest economic sector: agriculture. As the planet warms, crippling droughts, volatile weather and worsening pest and disease outbreaks drastically will hamper our ability to grow food and fiber. Many scientists, including those at the United Nations, project yield losses between 30 to 60 percent because of the ravages of climate change [Donald Carr, "The Danger of Dithering about Climate Change," that Sioux Falls paper, 2010.03.09].

You know, Iraq used to be good farmland. Now human activity is responsible for turning 40 to 50 percent of what was good farmland as recently as the 1970s into desert.

Maybe our Legislators really do want more sand in South Dakota... so they can stick their heads in it.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the mention, Cory, but it was Madville Times that tipped me to the SDSU study in the first place, so thanks for that too.

    Best

    DC

    ReplyDelete
  2. if you really want a good laugh read HRC 1009...the legislature wants schools in south dakota to teach balanced (whatever that means) teaching of global warming.no evidence of global warming et cetera et cetera et cetera. go figure..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cory:

    There is data that suggests that East River is facing a mycological collapse on a par with what I am witnessing; golf courses are huge fungicide offenders and possibly occur within your own sanitary purview.

    The hard part is that I feel like the only person that sees this. So, like Sibby, I am clearly delusional.

    It's that quote on your page about social revolution that spurs my loins. You are a devil.

    ReplyDelete

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