Tom Nelson writes:
On the same day that the USDA forecasts bumper crops for corn, soybeans, and wheat, they try to convince us that carbon dioxide is devastating our crops
Analysis: Extreme weather plagues farming, talks flounder | Reuters
But as concerns mount over extreme weather hitting global food systems this year, governments are no closer to forging a pact to fight climate change.
…
When temperatures rise as a result of smokestack and tailpipe emissions, droughts, heat waves, and floods become more frequent and more intense. The temperatures create “more and more hot extremes and worse unprecedented extremes and that’s what we’re seeing,” said Neville Nicholls, a climate scientist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
…
As the number of extreme weather events mount, they will likely create havoc in agricultural markets and could lead to food riots in poor countries like those in 2007 and 2008 when prices hit records on rabid market speculation.
[August 12, 2010]: Bumper corn, soybean [and wheat] crops forecast |USDA
Corn production is forecast at a record high 13.4 billion bushels, up two percent from the previous record set in 2009, the USDA announced Thursday.
…
U.S. soybean production is forecast at a record high 3.43 billion bushels, up two percent from last year. Based on Aug. 1 conditions, yields are expected to average 44.0 bushels per acre, unchanged from last year’s record high yield.
…
Winter wheat production is forecast at 1.52 billion bushels, up one percent from last month and up slightly from 2009. The United States yield is forecast at 47.5 bushels per acre, up 0.6 bushel from last month and up 3.3 bushels from last year. If realized, this will be the second highest yield on record, trailing only 1999.
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The temperatures create “more and more hot extremes and worse unprecedented extremes and that’s what we’re seeing ,” said Neville Nicholls, a climate scientist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
The first sentence is gibberish and coming from a scientist it really makes you wonder about the quality of scientists today.
“more and more hot extremes” huuh? and “worse unprecedented extremes” double huuuh?
So the cold weather we are experiencing does not exist in the mind of this scientist AKA cult member, the Antarctic and the north pole both showing signs of cooling somehow fail to register in this mans mind.
Some places get hot and some cold, sometimes it rains and sometimes it doesnt, sometimes the climate varies around well known cycles and sometimes the climate surprises us.
The ‘scientist’ would do well to consider the north African deserts which are greening nicely now just as it did several thousand years ago, the prophecies of ever expanding deserts laying waste to Africa seem to have been just another ignorant scare story proven utterly wrong. The deserts are blooming and wildlife is coming back to long dead areas and its happening faster than anyone would have thought.
Of course one failed theory on its own is nothing special but the number of climate science failure is growing in number.
Its funny how the MSM are expert in churning out the disposable trash scare stories but very slow to examine the failures of climate voodoo.
“As the number of extreme weather events mount, they will likely create havoc in agricultural markets and could lead to food riots in poor countries like those in 2007 and 2008 when prices hit records on rabid market speculation.”
No person that I am aware of has of yet put a number on how many “extreme weather events” are normal per year. If we have not exceeded some mythical number then statements and like this and being overly concerned is a waste of ,well everything.
In related news out of China, some corn ethanol sanity:
Enterprises Propose to Halt Corn Ethanol Project
… The PFCGCC said that to enjoy the subsidy of 1880 Yuan per ton of alcoholic gasoline for vehicles and the tax-exemption policy for the corn-to-ethanol project, some plants in China began a wave of buying corn, causing the severe shortage of corn for animal feed and the rapid increase of corn prices. …
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2010-08/10/c_13438209.htm
Corn is still $0.07/pound. How many pounds of corn did YOU eat today?
What’s the ratio to ounces of steak?
StanWilli says:
August 13, 2010 at 7:36 am
Stan, these are the “green jobs” promised. Imagine a sea of little green clad workmen and women, armed with small water carrying gourds made from butternuts flittering from panel to panel in an endless solar field, wiping away the dust/snow/mud and bird-poop in an continuous cycle while merrily singing “Hooray for a spotless array.”
Don’t need to worry about crop production. Now the EPA wants to shut down harvesting due to the dust raised. They say it has to do with the quality of the air and how many dust particles they will allow in parts per million. Guess what corn and wheat harvesting goes over their limit as does planting when it is dry. I wonder what they think of the pollen count in the summer when you live in the middle of a corn field.
Thomson Reuters Globemedia=propagandists
Carmi Times! Wow, a sister paper (yeah, I work for GHM) and one from my part of the state!
I’m guessing the rest of the Midwest is doing better than us. Locally, it’s been hot and dry–too hot at night for the plant life. The corn around here is all dead already, and I think it died off before the ears were mature. Last year’s crop sucked because it was too wet and cold.
And yes, our weather this year is making headlines in the AGW circles, while last summer’s was of course just a local weather phenomenon 😉
Aussie Neville should read widely and more often
How about Dorothea Mackellar’s ‘My Country’ for starters
“…I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains…”
Jean Parisot,
There are 2.6 lbs of corn in a one pound T-Bone Steak. So, at 2.6 lbs X $0.07 there is about $0.18 of corn in that steak.
Before ethanol corn was selling for between four, and five censt/lb. Of course, back then the government was subsidizing it for a couple of cents/lb. Anyways, Ethanol has caused your $10.00 T-Bone to increase in price by a little less than a dime.
1st point…..The chicken little garbage about increasing whatever is, as you infer, a load of bull.
2nd point…..$12 wheat (not entirely due to rabid speculation) does not even keep up with inflation. I sold wheat for $4.5 in 1975.
3rd point….Yes, Anthony, the USA had a great crop year, while Russia’s sucked. But look at the data, the current confluence of some of the oceanic oscillations closely resembles the late 20’s. We will have a significant shortage of raw food products within the next three years. But I have a solution, move the CAGWers to the United Kingdom and let them eat cake.
[reply] Wouldn’t that be France? RT-mod
On topic
“[…] When temperatures rise as a result of smokestack and tailpipe emissions, […]”
OK, we’ve got an unproven causal relationship (CO2 => CAGW) to support unobserved phenomena (more frequent disasterous weather) with actual results opposite of ‘forecast’ results (bumper crops vs. pitiful harvests).
I’m convinced… not. No wonder so many are tuning out the MSM and tuning in to blogs.
OT
Paul says:
August 13, 2010 at 6:44 am
“[…]
*Shameless plug – Go Huskers!”
Shameless rejoinder – Welcome to the Big Ten. Good program. Good addition. Good luck.
However, I reserve the right to shameless trash-talk whenever our respective schools play each other. Feel free to respond in kind. It’s fun, eh?
Once these bogus claims of crop failures get out into the public domain they take on a life of their own. From now on into the future undiscerning libs will be insisting that crops are failing due to AGW.
Take a look at this professor’s list of proofs of AGW. It’s a list of long debunked climate claims, but this professor is completely oblivious to the other side of the story.
http://rockblogs.psu.edu/climate/2010/08/the-worst-ethical-scandal-in-the-us-congress-climate-change.html
Neville Nicholls used to be a research meteorologist with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. We were on the same BoM course in 1971. Seems he got on the AGW bandwagon at least 15 years ago and lost his mind.
Hard case of “Confirmation bias”.
In the same vein as when Derren Brown points up ‘conf bias’ in his series of programs, like this one (part 1 of about 5 – should be watched in succession to get the full ‘effect’):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_0b4dkmD0w
.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!!!!
This may explain Mr Nicholl’s bent towards calamity:
I was a Lead Author of Chapter 9 (Understanding and attributing climate change”) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment, a Lead Author of the Summary for Policymakers and Technical Summary for the IPCC Working Group 1 assessment, and a member of the writing team for the IPCC Synthesis Report (all published in 2007).
Ref – latitude says:
August 13, 2010 at 6:37 am
“How can two people, look at the same data, and one walk away thinking doom and gloom, and the other doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary? No wonder they make Depends for adults……”
______________________________
Depends are the best thing since sliced bread. Don’t knock ’em til ya tried ’em!!!!
They just can’t see the irony of alarmist warnings about co2 and warming causing crop failures while nature responds witha bumper crop. Don’t they see a link between co2 (free plant fertilizer) and ‘warm’ weather leading to a bumper corn, soybeans, and wheat crop? The heat wave might have helped. :o)
Can you price that out in bushels?
Can you price that out for ‘feed’ vs sweet corn too?
Speaking today – or at the height of corn prices a few years back?
It would help to have some perspective as to the time baseline for your assertions … as it is, any of your assertions look suspect.
.
Are you up-to-date? Or still reading last month’s talking points? Things, change, ya know?
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2010-08-05-russia-bans-wheat-exports_N.htm
Ed Murphy says:
You do realize, I hope, that during the Vietnam era “rain” was a metaphor for war. Try listening to all those 60s songs with that knowledge and more of them make sense.
Paul says:
Paul the big 12 will miss Nebraska. The drama about the big 12 breakup was intense.
Great corn crop here.
The market forcasters are amking the point that it is too dry to plant wheat in Russia in the drought areas.Meaning less wheat/barley nxt year
Go Mizzou
There are 56 lbs of corn in a bushel. We’ll take your $4.04 (although, the price the farmers get is well below that,) and divide by 56 to get $0.072142857. Is that close enough, or do I need to go farther?
Sweet corn is an entirely different product, grown on different fields, by different techniques, for a different market. It is Never used for ethanol.