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Study: Warmer Climate Could Hurt Yields

Luke Runyon/File Photo
/
Harvest Public Media
Credit Luke Runyon/File Photo / Harvest Public Media
/
Harvest Public Media

Higher temperatures thanks to climate change could cut down the output of farmers the world over.

An international group of researchers compiled dozens of studies to see what happens to yields of corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans as the global climate grows warmer.

They found that every time global temperatures go up 1 degree Celsius, not quite 2 degrees Fahrenheit, crop yields fall. On average, three percent for soybeans, six percent for wheat, seven percent for corn.

These numbers don’t account for the boost plants can see from higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the air. But the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests any gains American farmers earn by adopting better farming technology will first have to make up for what’s lost to a warmer world.

Copyright 2017 KMUW | NPR for Wichita

Harvest Public Media's reporter at NET News, where he started as Morning Edition host in 2008. He joined Harvest Public Media in July 2012. Grant has visited coal plants, dairy farms, horse tracks and hospitals to cover a variety of stories. Before going to Nebraska, Grant studied mass communication as a grad student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and completed his undergrad at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. He grew up on a farm in southwestern Iowa where he listened to public radio in the tractor, but has taken up city life in Lincoln, Neb.