Heat and Veg
I find it incomprehensible, when reading the comments in the "Watts up with that?" climate denialism site, to come across people making the claim that the increased warming being caused by greenhouse gasses will result in increased agricultural productivity - as it will apparently result in a "climate optimum".
Case in point: we've had our summer extended by one extra month in Japan, and with that agricultural productivity has changed - in a downward direction. Rice quality is apparently down, the quality of vegetables in our supermarkets is also down, prices are up.
The heat also messed with the growing cycles of various produce - one local news report mentioned farmers who grow both rice and grapes facing the problem of both crops maturing at the same time, and so either having to try and hire extra hands at harvest, or leaving one crop to rot.
Some climate optimum!
Case in point: we've had our summer extended by one extra month in Japan, and with that agricultural productivity has changed - in a downward direction. Rice quality is apparently down, the quality of vegetables in our supermarkets is also down, prices are up.
The heat also messed with the growing cycles of various produce - one local news report mentioned farmers who grow both rice and grapes facing the problem of both crops maturing at the same time, and so either having to try and hire extra hands at harvest, or leaving one crop to rot.
Some climate optimum!