In today’s Global Warming Crisis of the Day, alarmists and their media allies claim global warming will destroy crop yields, yet U.S. and global crop yields continue to set yearly records as our planet continues its modest warming.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has consistently predicted substantially more warming than has actually occurred and embarrassingly warned in its 2007 report that Arctic winter cold fronts will become less frequent and cold, compiled a draft report claiming global warming is harming crop production and will cause a 2-percent decline in global crop production per decade for the rest of the century.
Objective facts prove just how silly the IPCC claims are. As I documented in a recent Forbes.com column, U.S. and global crop production – and especially production of the most important staple food crops – are rapidly increasing as our planet modestly warms. Global corn, rice, and wheat production have more than tripled since 1970. The United States is experiencing a similar explosion in crop production, with corn and rice production more than tripling since 1970. During the past few years, the United States has set crop production records for alfalfa, cotton, beans, sugar beets, sweet potatoes, canola, corn, flaxseed, hops, rice, sorghum, soybeans, sugarcane, sunflowers, peanuts, and wheat, to name just a few.
Despite these facts, the United Nations bureaucracy claims global warming is causing a global crop crisis. The media are happy to amplify the ridiculous claim without checking the facts. For example, Time magazine responded to the UN report with an article titled, “Climate Change Could Cause the Next Great Famine.” In the article, Time asserted, “A new study finds that as the planet warms, yields for important staple crops like wheat could decline sharply.”
The wonderful thing about the word “could” is that one can say anything “could” happen in the future. The objective, undeniable facts, however, prove global crop production continues to rapidly increase as atmospheric carbon dioxide fertilizes plants, growing seasons become longer, global soil moisture improves, and temperature differentials become more moderate.
