Farming and Climate Change Blog

In this article Brian Howard tells us about how Italy’s mountain goats are shrinking because of global warming, he says that they now weigh roughly twenty-five percent less than they did thirty years ago. A reason for this may be that the goats are adapting to by spending less time foraging and more time resting, shrinking may help them adapt to global warming because the smaller they are, the easier they shed heat. The climate may also be directly changing their behavior, resting more in the day which is indirectly affecting their food. Brian ends by telling us that climate change may also be affecting livestock, he says that in upcoming decades livestock eating less from climate change will give less meat. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141022-chamois-mountain-goats-shrinking-climate-change-global-warming/ National Geographic prepared by CJ

Elizabeth Kolbert is an American writer who currently writes for The New Yorker. She has written many books including Field Notes From A Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change to name a few. She currently lives in the town of Williamstown, Massachusetts. Prepared by Owen

In this “Unnatural History”, the author chooses the setting of a small island of the Italian coast to show how climate change is happening and an imminent threat. She says that since the Industrial Revolution, we have burned some 365 billion metric tons into the atmosphere. She also talks about ocean acidification. As CO 2 is added to the ocean, it becomes more and more acidic. This effects what fish can live in those waters. In conclusion, the author is strongly stressing that ocean acidification is a big issue and that it is one of the largest and most drastic. Prepared by Owen

In this article by Jonathan Hahn he says that Donald Trump will sign an executive order today to kill the federal action on climate change. He wants to go back to fossil fuels. Trump says his order will bring back jobs in the lagging coal sector. The executive order instructs the EPA to begin the process of unwinding the Clean Power Plan, an historic effort to clean up the whole nation's aging coal and gas fired power plants which account and about 40% of C02 emissions produced in the United States. Quote: "The United States had no uniform guidelines for regulating carbon emissions from the nation’s power sector." http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/green-life/donald-trump-orders-epa-unwind-clean-power-plan-setback-for-vitally-important Prepared by Ethan

This article is about climate change in Spring. It is titled “The Seasons Aren’t What They Used to Be.” In the late 20th century the Spring emergence of frogs, birds, leaves and flowers and were advancing in the northern Hemisphere 2.8 days per decade, and we are living through climate change. The writer David George Haskell said early Spring felt good; but early Spring is dreadful and the right now is the motion sickness of climate change. He also said that this year looks like a heat rash washing over a continent, south and north. According to the government’s National Phenology Network, Spring came about 20 days earlier in the Eastern and Midwestern United States. Quote: “Our children will live in uncharted, unnamed seasons.” David George Haskell Fun fact: February was the second warmest of the past 123 years in the contiguous United States, and the warmest ever in New York and 15 other states. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/opinion/sunday/the-seasons-arent-what-they-used-...

In this article, the team of authors discuss 5 ways that climate change could affect you. The author starts out by addressing warming water, they explain whether water is a liquid, solid, or gas it still vital to life on our planet.   The authors then go on to point out that the oceans help modulate CO2 levels and maintain global temperatures, while transporting nutrients and supporting marine ecosystems.   As the climate changes, so will the freshwater and saltwater recourses, according to the article.   The authors then urge the world to change our relationship to water as the world relationship to water changes. Quote: “ We depend on it [water] for drinking and for sustaining our crops and animals, and countless species rely on freshwater ecosystems to live”. Fun Fact: The oceans help modulate CO 2  levels and maintain global temperatures. TEXT CONTRIBUTORS: JEREMY BERLIN, EVE CONANT, KAREN DE SEVE, CHRISTINA NUNEZ, RACHEL HARTIGAN SHEA, DANIEL STO...

            Vandana Shiva is an Indian environmental activist, she has written many books about climate change including:  Making Peace with The Earth , Earth Democracy , Staying Alive, Stolen Harvest, Water Wars, and Globalization’s New Wars and many more.   Shiva is currently 64 years of age. Based out of Delhi, s he is one of the leaders and board members of the International Forum on Globalization and a figure of the global solidarity movement known as the alter-globalization movement. She has argued for the wisdom of many traditional practices, and draws attention upon India's Vedic heritage. She is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS , Spain's Socialist Party's think tank. She is also a member of the International Organization for a Participatory Society. She received the Right Livelihood Award in 1993, and numerous other prizes. Prepared by Aidan

Soil Not Oil, is a book by environmental activist Vandana Shiva.  In this book, Shiva examines the inter-connected global climate, energy, and food crises and offers a refreshing perspective on the debate about global warming.   She argues that the world is faced with three fundamental global crises: global warming, energy use/depletion, and food. The author believes that these three issues are inter-connected; therefore how we respond as a global community with any of these issues will impact the other two.   Soil Not Oil does not just address those three issues, it provides an analysis and challenge to those of us in the US who think we have the best approach to solving the climate, energy and food crises.   Overall, Soil Not Oil is a great book that offers a new perspective on global climate issues and suggests ways to solve them. Quote :”Biodiverse Organic farming creates a debt-free, suicide-free, productive alternative to industrialized corp...