The world has endured massive changes since the beginning of the human race. Who could’ve known from the early days of stone tool making the technological wonders that were in front of us? Those advancements began with the goal of improving the quality of life of people by constructing things like clothes and houses, but have evolved far past that now with planes and cell phones. Unfortunately, true to human nature, within the last 100 years the Earth and its ecosystems has begun to be heavily impacted by human technology and production practices, mostly due to the burning of fossil fuels for energy.
The situation is getting worse. Global warming, caused by human industrial activities such as the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil, has been occurring since the pre-industrial period (NASA 2020). This refers to the 1 degree Celsius heating of Earth’s climate system caused by strictly human activities since around the year 1850 (NASA 2020). This number has also been steadily increasing by “0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade” (NASA 2020). These changes in global temperature over time may seem minuscule, but they have already had profound effects on some of Earth’s local and regional climates. Damage to Bloomginton’s surrounding forests would be disastrous for wildlife and humans alike as forests help protect the planet from the effects of pollution by absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide (WWF 2020). Without protection of these vital ecological locations, the Earth is at a much greater risk of the increasing disastrous effects of climate change.
Climate change science and global warming as a whole is seen as some here in the United States as being either misleading or downright false. These claims often either stem from misinformation articles, or disbelief because the effects of climate change haven’t been seen in their own communities. However, many countries across the globe are already experiencing these impacts on a large scale. The Philippines have been hit by five of the ten deadliest typhoons in their history in the past 15 years (Climate Reality Project 2016). Not all of the impacts of climate change are this pronounced, especially in the landlocked North American midwest where weather is rarely directly threatening to life. But ask any local farmer in Indiana how the changing climate and wildlife interactions have impacted their businesses and they’ll tell you exactly how difficult it has become.
Agriculture is an area that is at a very high risk, especially in the United States because of an outdated industrial model that “neglects soils, reduces diversity, and relies too heavily on fertilizers and pesticides” (UCS 2019). This already susceptible industrial system, when compounded with accelerating global warming patterns, poses an especially difficult problem for Bloomington agricultural communities. According to a study done by the Purdue Climate Change Research Center warmer overnight temperatures on average have led to reduced corn yields over the course of the last decade (Bowling et al 2018). This is because “elevated overnight temperatures increase plant respiration, reducing sugar availability for grain production,” as well as impacting the time and success of pollination leading to lower annual corn yields (Bowling et al 2018). Data has shown that Indiana corn yields are reduced by about two percent per every one degree fahrenheit increase in overnight temperatures during the month of July. This data illuminates how vulnerable the farming communities of Indiana already are in an era of increasing severity and irregularity of weather patterns. This study also found that more frequent heat stress and increasing water deficits are expected to reduce Indiana’s corn yield by up to twenty percent by the year 2050. In addition, the window of time suitable for fieldwork in the Spring is becoming smaller and smaller, as Indiana’s “frost-free season is expected to start about one month earlier by mid-century…” while increasing rainfall during spring limits early access to fields (Bowling et al 2018).
In addition, pests are an important factor as keeping them away from crops is critical to the success of crop yields. Currently about ten to sixteen percent of crop production is lost to pests such as, insects, fungi, and bacteria globally (Dunne 2018). One of the most well known pests, the desert locust, can swarm a crop field in under an hour. Other pests like the rootworm feed on corn “during both its larval and adult beetle life stages and currently costs US farmers about $1bn a year in lost revenue” (Dunne 2018). Changes in rainfall patterns, more frequent occurrences of extreme weather and droughts, and “altered patterns of pest pressure,” together all have the potential to adversely change agriculture forever (USDA 2020).
Climate change is also a major threat to the health of Indiana livestock as periods of drought become longer and more intense (WWF 2020). According to the Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment these increasing temperatures will put Indiana livestock at an elevated risk of heat stress, leading to increases in their productivity, fertility, and feed intake (Bowling et al 2018). Warmer temperatures will also decrease plant protein content while increasing the amounts of neutral detergent fibers in certain types of legumes, affecting animal growth and milk production (Bowling et al 2018). This damages the forage quality and poses a serious threat to livestock and poultry farmers in Indiana.
For my capstone project I will observe how the various different symptoms of climate change have impacted the farming practices of local Bloomington area farmers. I will do this by surveying as many local farmers as possible about a collection of factors including weather variability, pests, and trends in past annual crop yields. Knowing this information is going to become increasingly important for farming communities as the state of the Earth’s climate continues to deteriorate at record speeds. Agricultural science is going to have to advance rapidly very quickly in order to keep up with this changing environment and still be able to produce healthy food for the world.
Sources:
Bowling, L., Widhalm, M., Cherkauer, K., Beckerman, J., Brouder, S., Buzan, J., Doering, O., Dukes, J.S., Ebner, P., Frankenberger, J., Gramig, B., Kladivko, E., Lee., C., Volenec, J, and Weil, C.. 2018. Indiana’s Agriculture in a Changing Climate: A Report from the Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment. Purdue Climate Change Research Center, Purdue University. West Lafayette, Indiana. DOI: 10.5703/1288284316778
“Climate Change and Agriculture.” Union of Concerned Scientists, 20 Mar. 2019, https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/climate-change-and-agriculture.
Dunne, Daisy. “Rise in Insect Pests under Climate Change to Hit Crop Yields, Study Says | Carbon Brief.” Carbon Brief, 30 Aug. 2018, www.carbonbrief.org/rise-in-insect-pests-under-climate-change-to-hit-crop-yields-study-says. Accessed 10 Oct. 2020.
“Effects of Climate Change.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, 2020, https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/effects-of-climate-change.
“How is Climate Change Affecting The Philippines?” The Climate Reality Project, 19 Jan. 2016, https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/how-climate-change-affecting-philippines.
“The Effects of Climate Change.” NASA, NASA, 21 Aug. 2020, climate.nasa.gov/effects/.
“USDA ERS – Climate Change.” Usda.Gov, 2018, www.ers.usda.gov/topics/natural-resources-environment/climate-change/. Accessed 10 Oct. 2020.
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