Climate Change Will Not Be Kind to American Water and Agriculture

The latest report from the U.S. Global Change Research Program is a comprehensive overview of climate change science, but it is also a clear warning about how global warming will make life harder for millions of Americans. The agricultural sector and water resources are two of the interlocking sectors singled out by the report, and both face significant disruption.

Rising temperatures “will interact with many social and environmental stresses” the report says. In fact, temperature increases already inflict water challenges on the United States, especially in the West and Southwest regions. More frequent droughts, floods, and water quality problems limit the country’s water supply and distress the agriculture sector. The report predicts that “large reductions in spring precipitation” in the Southwest will increase competition for water supplies since the region is at the forefront of the nation’s population growth. In addition, Sarah Bates describes in her column this week how “climate change knits energy and water policy together” as western rivers and reservoirs diminish and various power generation methods consume considerable amounts of water.

Decreased precipitation is imminent in the Southwest whether the United States has low or high emissions, the report projects, but a higher emissions scenario will subject parts of the country to up to 40 percent reductions in precipitation in 2080-2099 compared to the period from 1961-1979. Damage to crop yields and quality are expected to increase along with droughts, according to CAP Senior Fellow Tom Kenworthy, who explains the daunting future climate change poses for American farmers. Moreover, worldwide productivity losses attributed to climate change cost farmers $4.8 billion in 2002 alone.

Furthermore, heavy downpours and floods accompany less frequent precipitation. Intense rains “delay spring planting while flooding fields during the growing season,” Kenworthy writes. In the spring of 2008, such downpours caused agricultural losses of up to $8 billion. These losses trended upward by 27 percent in the Midwest over the last 50 years, according to the new USGCRP report.

It is clear the agriculture industry is at risk for great losses if we don’t address climate change immediately, but Chris Mooney points out that the report’s release demonstrates that farmers have an ally in the current administration, which supports reducing emissions and moving the country to a clean energy economy: “This latest study tells us a lot about climate science—but the bigger story is that we have a government that’s finally managing that science on behalf of its citizens.“

Tags: Climate Change, water

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