EESI BRIEFINGS:
Climate Change and U.S. Agriculture:
The Impacts of Warming and Extreme Weather Events on
Productivity, Plant Diseases, and Pests
Thursday, May 25, 2000, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
124 Senate Dirksen Office Building
The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical
School, the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia
University, Iowa State University, and the Environmental and Energy
Study Institute invite you to a briefing on how climate change may
affect U.S. agriculture.
This briefing will coincide with the release of a report by the above
three academic institutions entitled, "Climate Change and U.S.
Agriculture: The Impacts of Warming and Extreme Weather Events on
Productivity, Plant Diseases, and Pests."
This is the first report to highlight the role of climate
variability, pests and plant diseases in our nation's future
agricultural productivity. The report's aim is to understand how
warmer temperatures and an increase in extreme weather events
(including spells of very high temperatures, torrential rains and
flooding, and droughts), predicted under climate change projections,
may affect :
a) crop yields,
b) outbreaks of plant diseases, pests, and weeds, and
c) the economic costs of production.
The briefing features the following topics and expert speakers:
Overview and Moderator
Dr. Eric Chivian, director,
Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School;
Climate Change, Warming and Extreme Weather Events
Dr. David Rind, scientist,
Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University;
U.S. Agricultural Productivity and Climate Change
Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, senior scientist,
Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University;
The Effect of Climate Change on Plant Disease and Pests
Dr. X.B. Yang, associate professor of Plant Pathology,
Iowa State University
Summing Up: Variability and Vulnerability
Dr. Paul R. Epstein, associate director,
Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School
The following findings will be highlighted:
… Since the 1970s, the United States has experienced greater
variability in crop yields, which are, in part, climate-related.
… Extreme weather events have caused severe crop damage in the United
States over the past 20 years.
… Since the early 1970s, the ranges of several important U.S. crop
pests have expanded and pest damage has increased, which may be
partly the result of changing weather patterns.
… Climate change may reduce crop yields significantly in some U.S.
agricultural regions, directly because of warmer temperatures and an
increased incidence of extreme weather events, and indirectly,
because of greater infestations by weeds, plant diseases, and pests.
… Climate change, with preferential warming at high latitudes, could
shift the optimal production ranges for specific crops, thereby
lessening the comparative advantage that the United States now enjoys
in international agricultural markets.
… Greater climate variability will make U.S. agriculture increasingly
unstable, and U.S. farmers may find that the past is a less reliable
predictor of the future.
The presentations will be followed by a question and answer session.
Copies of the report's executive summary will be distributed and the
full report will be available upon request. The report will also be
posted on the Center for Health and the Global Environment's (CHGE)
website: http://www.med.harvard.edu/chge.
The briefing is free and open to the public. Reservations are not
required. For more information contact: Beth Bleil at EESI
(202-662-1886 / bbleil@eesi.org) or Tracy Graham at CHGE
(617-576-3830).
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@cals.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@cals.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jul 03 2000 - 12:00:35 EDT