From the UK Independent
‘Farmers are used to dealing with fluctuations in the weather but if we have two or three extreme years in a row it has the potential to put growers out of business’
- Josh Gabbatiss Science Correspondent @josh_gabbatiss

The potato snack was left an inch (2.5cm) shorter on average in 2018 after extreme heatwaves robbed them of much-needed water over the summer months.
This was one of the many changes catalogued in a new analysis by the Climate Coalition network and scientists at the University of Leeds.
They explored how rising global temperatures and associated extremes are likely to impact crop production and make British-grown produce harder to find.
Analysis conducted in the wake of last summer’s heatwaves by the Met Office found the event was made 30 times more likely by climate change.
Potato yields were slashed by a fifth in England and Wales in 2018, while carrot production fell by up to 30 per cent and onions by 40 per cent.
At the other end of the weather spectrum, more than half of UK farmers reported being affected by severe flooding or storms over the past 10 years.
The intensity of winter rainfall has gradually been creeping up in recent decades, as the changing climate tampers with weather systems and increases the chances of major downpours.
HT/Willie Soon
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Beyond stupid and halfway to Alpha Centauri – nearly as bad as the letter in today’s Times newspaper from an academic claiming we shouldn’t subsidise or build anymore gas power stations because wind and solar will be able to provide the necessary power. How truly uninformed and insane do you have to be to believe such utter drivel – or perhaps just be well paid to put aside your conscience.
Alarmists always complain.
#DRRUPERTREADONTHECOUCH. WHY ARE CLIMATE ALARMIST UNCRITICAL OF IMPERIAL WAR AND IMPERIAL POWER STRUCTURES?
https://longhairedmusings.wordpress.com/2019/02/05/jesuisbourgoiseblanchomme/
A look at the Psychiatric notes of a leading climate change alarmist.
Climate justice dictates that farmer/victims need gobs of taxpayer cash as compensation. Better them than The Maldives.
Hogwash presented as science because scientists say so.
troe February 5, 2019 at 5:34 am
“Hogwash presented as science because scientists say so.”
“Hogwash presented as science because self-proclaimed scientists say so.”
Better – no?
Auto
I am coming to the conclusion the Human Induced Climate Change advocates are adopting the same principles and ideas the anti Brexit remain shills have. They think, by pushing any story line no matter how ridiculous or lacking in evidence that might support their exaggeration, they will just wear down the resolve of the educated majority and eventually some of the more bizarre ideas will become accepted truths.
They just don’t know what they are up against do they.
They are generally very arrogant and assume that the people holding a different opinion to them are very stupid. So they churn out these scare stories that get scarier and scarier and thus sillier and sillier, and then scratch their heads and wonder why people are less and less convinced.
I believe that IF we are changing the climate, there COULD be some ill-effects, but that they will be some decades in the future. The idea that a UK summer that was less dry and less hot than the on 1976 could somehow be shown to be “more likely” now because of CO2 is simply ridiculous. As for the claim that if conditions get worse for growing things,then growing things will be harder, then yes. But begging the question is a logical fallacy, so utterly irrelevant.
The modeled projections in this “report” used RCP8.5 with no other scenario considered. So of course it was crap
“The modeled projections in this “report” used RCP8.5 with no other scenario considered. So of course it was crap”
They all use the RCP8.5 (worst case scenario) for their climate science studies. RCP8.5 does not come close to representing reality, so all these studies don’t come close, either.
When you base your results on a faulty premise, you get faulty results.
Why don’t they use all the Climate Change Horse Manure to fertilize the soil? Bumper potato crops!
That stuff is toxic! Instead, it needs to be buried underground in a process known as “Equine Crap Sequestration” – ECS for short.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=DAZJtFZZYmM
Roger Lewis
1 second ago
Is this an improvement? One really has to ask how do you improve upon perfected absurdist narcissism. Thanks for the laughs. https://longhairedmusings.wordpress.com/2019/02/05/jesuisbourgoiseblanchomme/
https://theconquestofdough.weebly.com/
Alarmists always complain.
#DRRUPERTREADONTHECOUCH. WHY ARE CLIMATE ALARMIST UNCRITICAL OF IMPERIAL WAR AND IMPERIAL POWER STRUCTURES?
https://longhairedmusings.wordpress.com/2019/02/05/jesuisbourgoiseblanchomme/
A look at the Psychiatric notes of a leading climate change alarmist.
Quite a content free piece of polemic this.
WHY ARE CLIMATE ALARMIST UNCRITICAL OF IMPERIAL WAR AND IMPERIAL POWER STRUCTURES?
https://longhairedmusings.wordpress.com/2019/02/05/jesuisbourgoiseblanchomme/
science-by-the-pound (kilo) We are doomed because everyone says so minus a fringe of flat earthers and holocaust deniers.
Junk science doesn’t improve with repetition
They need to fear the shrinking British brains more than spuds.
Meaning what exactly?
Of course the potaoes thrived much better in the 18-hundreds (during LIA). Jusk ask any irish historian…..
Interesting…..
http://www.climate4you.com/images/AMO%20GlobalAnnualIndexSince1856%20With11yearRunningAverage.gif
Cycle matter
As I read the story and comments, in order for the Brits to get back to regular length french fries, we all must change our behaviour.
I won’t go along with such instructions from authoritarians.
But whenever I see a “fry” that is too long, I’ll reduce it to average length.
On the way to zero length.
Who cares, the summer of 2018 was amazing!
Maybe there is a global conspiracy operating that has as its priority the removal of any positive news or joyous event from the news coverage. We could call them doom mongers or alarmists…
For most people in the UK used to overcast mild wet summers, 2018 will go down as a perfect summer. The sun shone the temperatures allowed outside activities supper on the warm patio at the sun set that kind of normal happy stuff other peoples around the world take for granted.
What do we have to put with instead of the positive news, We are told it is all doom and gloom because the potatoes found it a bit dry.
Well sorry spud, you normally have it all your own way, so let us celebrate when we have the occasional year when summer arrives as promised.
30 times more likely? Where do they come up with such rubbish? So, if the normal chances were 0.01 % x 30 that would be 0.3%, no big deal. But if the chances of a drought were say 2% (seems more likely to me), then the chances are now 60%! So from now on drought is most likely.
I guess we’ll see.
I cannot even begin to imagine how they can tell that a single event was made “more likely” by something. I’m not sure the claim makes any sense. The event happened, so it was 100% likely. It was the only thing that could have happened, since it did happen. And since it did happen, it had definite causes – it was not simply an utterly random event (especially since such things don’t exist anyway) amongst other possible random events.
I could udnerstand if we had say four heatwaves in twenty years whereas previous ten year period has always shown only 2-3, or that it was 30% hotter or 30% longer or something, but this one event was 30 times more likely?
It would only be “very certainly more likely” if every UK farmer just grew King Edwards. A ‘floury’ full-flavoured variety which is perfect for mash, sauté & roast – but makes awful soggy chips however long or short.
Never mind the chips The Cool aid is in the Yellow snow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udijxk21mzQ
https://longhairedmusings.wordpress.com/2019/02/05/greenkeepers-gophers-usefullidiots-and-donteatyellowsnow/
How odd that agricultural yields vary with the weather. Obviously the golden rule is when they decline report it loudly, when they improve ignore it. And when they continually improve year after year globally and the fear of hunger starts to recede in the rear view mirror, start fearmongering about population increase.
Well, sometimes any country can have a problem with shrinkage — it’s not the end of the world…..
“small potatoes”
n. Informal A person or thing regarded as unimportant.
n. Informal An insignificant amount or sum.
I live in Western Canada. We grow millions of tons of grain, oilseeds, corn, soy and even potatoes. Some years are dry. Some are wet. The odd one is just about perfect. Most of the last 20 have been fairly wet, but last year was the driest in the last 100. Now we are having a cold winter with enough snow already to give us a fairly decent chance at a normal year.
We’ll all be ok. The U.K. stats show that acreage has been cut in half since the 60’s. Yet they grow far more potatoes than they did then. Having no perspective is a choice toward foolishness that the Alarmists jump on regularly. It’s all brand new to them every day and every minor problem. Chicken Littles.
I grew up in rural Perthshire and 45 years ago it was well known for growing potatoes. One summer when it was too wet/dry/hot/cold and there was a particularly poor harvest a local farmer was in the pub complaining that the yields were down 50% and it was hardly worth harvesting such a poor crop. Lots of sage nodding heads until someone pointed out he was getting twice as much per ton as the previous year.
Nobody of any sense trusts the Met Office. It is an alarmist organisation whose employees have no integrity.
“We’re running out of potatoes!!! Emergency!!!! Must do more about climate change to grow more potatoes!!!”
“We’re eating too many potatoes!!! Chips are bad for you!!!!”
Same media.
As an old editor had to remind his writers: “We only need copy from you to keep the underwear ads from running together”.
Now its: we need clicks, torque that press release!!!
Chips are shorter? Wake me up when they get lighter.
Any moron can use a search engine and see the UK potato yields per year. And it’s clearly the end of the chip, potatogeddon over there in the UK for sure, as they haven’t had a potato harvest this small since 2012.
So if even a moron can take 1 minute and debunk this latest Chicken Littlism, what does that say about the people that believe this stuff? Help me out, what is the proper adjective for someone more daft than a moron?
P.S. The state of Idaho grows as many potatoes as all of U.K. and potatoes are dirt cheap in the US, so maybe the Brits can reduce that $40 billion trade imbalance and buy some of our potatoes?
So, does this include the Russet Burbank—one of the best potatoes for McDonald’s World Famous Fries ?