Blog

Courtesy of NAA:

On Tuesday, the Fifth National Climate Assessment was released.

The Fifth National Climate Assessment is the US Government’s report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses. It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides the scientific foundation to support informed decision-making across the United States.

Within the report, the authors note:

“…farmers, ranchers, and fishers have always faced unpredictable weather, climate change heightens risks in many ways:

• Increasing temperatures, along with changes in precipitation, reduce productivity, yield, and nutritional content of many crops. These changes can introduce disease, disrupt pollination, and result in crop failure, outweighing potential benefits of longer growing seasons and increased CO2 fertilization. {11.1, 19.1, 21.1, 22.4, 23.3, 24.1, 26.2}
• Heavy rain and more frequent storms damage crops and property and contaminate water supplies. Longer-lasting droughts and larger wildfires reduce forage production and nutritional quality, diminish water supplies, and increase heat stress on livestock. {23.2, 25.3, 28.3}
• Increasing water temperatures, invasive aquatic species, harmful algal blooms, and ocean acidification and deoxygenation put fisheries at risk. Fishery collapses can result in large economic losses, as well as loss of cultural identity and ways of life. {11.3, 29.3}

In response, some farmers and ranchers are adopting innovations—such as agroecological practices, data-driven precision agriculture, and carbon monitoring—to improve resilience, enhance soil carbon storage, and reduce emissions.”