So what’s the longer-term outlook for the crop? In the concluding paragraph of their report, Butler and Huybers write, “losses to US maize yield from increased temperature,” such as those suggested by Schlenker and Roberts (2006, 2009), “are almost certainly overestimated if adaptation is not accounted for.” But if it is a part of the analysis, their work suggests there could well be no net loss in productivity across the entire corn-production region… Read More
Changes in Avian Migration Timing: Phenotypic Plasticity or Microevolution? (4 Jun 2013)
Turns out it is phenotypic plasticity and microevolution – at least for 27 species of birds in eastern North America that were examined in this study… Read More
Three Hundred Years of Western Mediterranean Precipitation (4 Jun 2013)
In spite of what climate alarmists typically refer to as the unprecedented warming of the globe over the past century or so, there has been no concomitant change in precipitation over the Western Mediterranean basin… Read More
Elevated CO2: Overpowering the Growth-Retarding Effects of Ozone in Palak (4 Jun 2013)
For a popular leafy vegetable preferred mainly for iron content in the diet that is widely grown in north India, the growth-enhancing effects of CO2 were sufficient to overpower the growth-retarding effects of ozone for levels of both substances predicted by the end of the century… Read More
Cold-Climate Crises (5 Jun 2013)
How have they operated over the past millennium … and why? In the present work, Lee and Zhang conclude, “both natural calamities and human catastrophes are clustered in periods of cold climate,” primarily because cooling “generates a devastating impact on agricultural production everywhere,” citing the work of Atwell (2001, 2002), while noting, “declines in temperatures often have had catastrophic consequences for the world’s food supply”… Read More
Simulating the Southwestern Indian Ocean’s Seychelles Dome (5 Jun 2013)
How well does the current crop of climate models perform in this regard? In a slight departure from what has become something of a recurring theme in reviewing CMIP3 vs. CMIP5 models, it appears the new models are even worse than the old ones!… Read More
The Drought Tolerance of Grasslands (5 Jun 2013)
It appears they are well-equipped to survive the increases in drought frequency and severity projected by state-of-the-art climate models… Read More
Dr. Idso is the founder, former president, and currently chairman of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change.
