Climate 411

The Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture

Britt Lundgren's profileAt first I was excited to escape the inferno of August in Washington D.C. for a vacation in Maine, but after three straight days of rain I started to feel a certain amount of self-pity. On the fourth rainy morning, however, a visit to a farmer I used to work for quickly put my woes in perspective. The rain put a minor dent in my vacation, but it put a major dent in the growing season for Maine’s farmers.

Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont all have received exceptional amounts of rain this summer, seriously damaging certain crops. Maine’s raspberry and green bean crops were devastated, and livestock feed crops (grain and hay) could not be harvested due to the wet weather. Many farmers will be paying high prices to truck in feed to replace what was lost.

No particular weather event can be reliably ascribed to climate change. But as I talked to my farmer friend, I began to wonder if this summer’s wet weather was a glimpse into the future for farmers in the region.

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Ghana Talks: Reflections from Our International Policy Director

Jennifer Haverkamp's profileAnother UN climate negotiating session has come and gone, the banners and tents swiftly dismantled, the delegates again scattered to the world’s four corners. Most leave with a sense of progress – incremental, to be sure, but the meetings are slowly transforming into real negotiations. When the United States’ new team hits the ground in January, the pace of negotiations will grow furious as we count down to the Copenhagen talks in December.

Here are the highlights from a week packed with negotiations, side events and planning sessions.

Ghana delegations

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Update from Ghana: Creative Ways to Engage Developing Countries

Gernot Wagner's profile
Even if every industrialized country were to reduce its emissions to zero by 2050, atmospheric carbon levels would still be above what scientists tell us is dangerous.

That’s a pretty powerful statement, and it leads to the question: How do we convince developing countries to set limits on their emissions? A possible answer to that challenge brought me to Ghana this week.

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The Climate Change Talks in Ghana Begin

Gustavo Silva-ChávezThis post is by Gustavo Silva-Chávez, an international policy analyst in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense Fund.

Early this week, the team from Environmental Defense Fund started boarding planes for Accra, Ghana to attend the international Climate Change Talks. The official first day was Thursday, but Wednesday was busy with pre-meeting workshops.

Ghana Convention Hall

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Bad Science in Public School Classrooms

Lisa MooreThis post is by Lisa Moore, Ph.D., a scientist in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense Fund.

Just when we’re finally having the kind of national conversation we need about global warming, those who are ignoring scientific evidence are making a last-gasp effort to divert our attention: They’re sneaking myths and deceptions into America’s science classrooms.

In Louisiana’s recent “Science Education Act”, they joined forces with advocates of teaching creationism under the guise of promoting “critical thinking” on select scientific topics, including climate change. Signed into law by Governor Bobby Jindal, the law actually provides cover for teachers who want to promote perspectives not founded in science.

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Save Our Satellites: We Need Their Climate Data

Lisa MooreThis post is by Lisa Moore, Ph.D., a scientist in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense Fund.

"Blue Marble" image of the EarthHave you ever spent time scrolling through NASA’s image gallery? Some of the pictures are mesmerizing. I particularly like the "Blue Marble" image of the Earth (at right), which was stitched together using satellite data.

Satellites provide more than pretty pictures. Our ability to understand and predict climate change depends on continuous high-quality satellite data.

Unfortunately, this critical data stream is threatened by budget cuts and lack of political support. In 2005, the National Academies assessed the situation and deemed it "alarming". Three years later, the outlook has not improved.

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