The Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Agriculture: What Can Farmers Do About it? - September 29, 2003
A Special Briefing for Administration, NGOs and Media
September 29, 2003
9am, The City Club of Washington D.C.
This briefing will examine some of the impacts of climate change on U.S. agriculture, as well as what farmers can do to mitigate climate change while also increasing profitability --through such practices as soil carbon sequestration, biofuel production, and the use of wind energy on farms.
Since the 1970s, U.S. agricultural productivity has been greatly enhanced, but it has also experienced greater variability that has been, in part, climate-related. Extreme weather events (very high temperatures, torrential rains and flooding, and droughts) and crop diseases and pests have taken a heavy toll.
Greenhouse warming is expected to lead in future years to even more intense and frequent extreme weather events, and to greater losses from diseases and pests that may expand their ranges. While some farmers in the U.S. growing certain crops in some years may prosper because of warmer temperatures, more precipitation, and CO2 fertilization, U.S. agriculture in general is likely to become increasingly unstable, and farmers may find it hard to plan what crops to plant and when.
The following speakers will cover these topics :
Welcome and Introductions--
Eric Chivian, Director, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School
An Overview of Climate Change Impacts on U.S. Agriculture--
William Easterling, Professor of Agronomy and Director of the Institutes of the Environment, Penn State University
Climate Change Effects on Crop Diseases and Pests--
X.B. Yang, Assoc. Professor of Plant Pathology, Iowa State University
Carbon Sequestration on Farms--
Charles W. Rice, Professor of Soil Microbiology, Kansas State University
Wind Energy and the Production of Biofuels--
Dan McGuire, Chief Executive Officer, American Corn Growers Foundation
|
