Greens turn to small-scale issues - POLITICO.com

Climate change wasn’t the only environmental issue on Congress’s agenda over the past three years — it just seemed that way.

With the cap-and-trade bill dead in the Senate, lawmakers and environmental groups are looking to shine the spotlight on a slew of problems that received almost no attention in recent years, such as acid rain, overfishing, polluted drinking water and toxic chemicals in consumer products.

“It’s quite obvious for the last several years that the climate debate has sucked up all the oxygen from other environmental issues,” said Frank O’Donnell, president of the nonprofit group Clean Air Watch. “After the fighting and exhaustion of climate, there are a lot of other issues waiting in the queue.”

[Kansas: Warm weather helps the corn grow]

With the continued mixture of heat and rain, conditions have been good for the growing season. Douglas County Extension Agents Bill Wood (crops) and Jennifer Smith (horticulture) shared their thoughts on the season.

Q: This summer’s heat and rain seems to helping growth with many plants more than last year’s cool and wet summer. Is that true?

A: “The heat is definitely better than the cool weather for many of our common landscape and garden plants,” said Smith. “As temperatures increase — to a point, of course — so do many of the internal processes in a plant. So, photosynthetic rates increase and result in more plant growth. The amount of increase is exponential, too.”

Q: For the past month, the corn and soybeans have just exploded out of the ground. Is the heat the reason for that?

A: “Corn loves the heat,” said Wood. “You could almost measure it and watch it grow. But pollination is helped by cool. Soybeans pretty much like the heat, too. But I think once it’s growing, corn likes the heat more.”

Corn Belt (region, United States) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia

The warm nights, hot days, and well-distributed rainfall of the region during the growing season are ideal conditions for raising corn.

NPF NEWS: STUDENTS NATIONWIDE TAKE ON CLIMATE CHANGE AT NORTH CASCADES NATIONAL PARK WITH NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION’S “ELECTRONIC FIELD TRIP” | Business News | eSchoolNews.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 3, 2010)- The National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks, is inviting schools across the country to experience the effects of climate change firsthand through an exploration of Washington state’s North Cascades National Park in an innovative new Electronic Field Trip (EFT) on Wednesday, October 13th, 2010. It will be the first in a series of investigative EFTs by the National Park Foundation to discover the impact climate change is having on our national parks and to empower students to become leaders in fighting the crisis.