Tuesday, May 24, 2011

"U.S. corn yields have actually risen by more than 60 percent since 1980 - during a period when they were supposedly hampered by too much heat"

AD: ‘Are Climate Models Lying About Food Too?‘ by Dennis T. Avery , 5/24/11
Computer models at Stanford University have just “told” us that man-made global warming has already sapped some of the yield potential from our food crops. They say wheat yields would have been 5.5 percent higher since 1980 without the earthly warming; corn yields would have been 3.8 percent higher.

Stanford’s computers apparently didn’t tell their programmers that U.S. corn yields have actually risen by more than 60 percent since 1980 - during a period when they were supposedly hampered by too much heat. Wheat yields rose 14 percent, aided by higher levels of CO2, which act like fertilizer for plants.

1 comment:

brat_olin said...

I would be careful in interpreting this. The huge increase in corn yield since 1980 could as well (and most probably is) be due to introduction of genetically modified corn varieties which are more drought resistant.