Cancel the Alarm on Rice Production

Global warming activists and their allies in the left-leaning media are spreading alarm that global warming is threatening the world’s food supply. The reality is far different.

BBC News, for example, claims, “Global warming is cutting rice yields in many parts of Asia, according to research, with more declines to come. Yields have fallen by 10-20% over the last 25 years in some locations.”

“This is the latest in a line of studies that suggest climate change will make it harder to feed the world’s growing population by cutting yields,” adds BBC News.

In reality, the study cited by BBC News shows that rate of growth in rice yields has fallen by 10-20%. This is a key distinction. Yields haven’t fallen at all, and are in fact increasing. Rice yields are merely growing at a pace that is a little lower than the pace of growth in previous years.

Moreover, there are many holes in the storyline being told by the alarmists. For example, the slightly lower rate of growth in recent rice crop yields could very well be due to factors other than global warming. Also, higher temperatures are not shown to reduce the rate of growth of other crops, which appear to be benefiting from warmer temperatures. Furthermore, as warmer temperatures open more land to cultivation, a slight reduction in yield growth per acre may be more than compensated by the increase in land available for cultivation.

What’s more, U.S. and global crop yields have continued to set production records as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and global temperatures continue their moderate rise. In the U.S. alone, corn, soybean, wheat, peanut, sugar beet, bean, cotton, potato, rice, sorghum, barley, canola, flaxseed, and sunflower production have all set production records within the past few years.

Warmer temperatures have always benefited global crop production. This has been especially true during the modest global warming of the past century, as the moderate increase in temperatures has spurred a corresponding increase in global precipitation. As a study of 20th century Northern Hemisphere soil moisture concluded in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Climatology, “The terrestrial surface is both warmer and effectively wetter … A good analogy to describe the changes in these places is that the terrestrial surface is literally becoming more like a gardener’s greenhouse.”

It’s funny how the media is silent when scientists report record crop yields and conclude that the planet is becoming more like a gardener’s greenhouse, but the media falls all over itself to claim the sky is falling when a single study shows a single particular crop is still seeing a growth in production yields, but the pace of growth is just a little lower than it was before.

And the media wonders why it is losing revenues and relevance...