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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Real Costs of Global Cooling Already Hitting Crop Yields

While the Left is still harping over a non-existent global warming crusade, the actual effects of the recent global cooling are starting to hit home in a real way. From the UK Telegraph:

For the second time in little over a year, it looks as though the world may be heading for a serious food crisis, thanks to our old friend "climate change". In many parts of the world recently the weather has not been too brilliant for farmers. After a fearsomely cold winter, June brought heavy snowfall across large parts of western Canada and the northern states of the American Midwest.

...None of this has given much cheer to farmers. In Canada and northern America summer planting of corn and soybeans has been way behind schedule, with the prospect of reduced yields and lower quality. Grain stocks are predicted to be down 15 per cent next year. US reserves of soya – used in animal feed and in many processed foods – are expected to fall to a 32-year low.

It is now more than 200 years since the great astronomer William Herschel observed a correlation between wheat prices and sunspots. When the latter were few in number, he noted, the climate turned colder and drier, crop yields fell and wheat prices rose. In the past two years, sunspot activity has dropped to its lowest point for a century.

The lack of sunspot activity and the resulting cooling temperatures are real and will likely last for 25-30 years if history is a guide. When will the media actually report it?