Global Warming And Global Food Security - Patrick Michaels - Climate of Fear - Forbes
Facts: Global surface temperature rose about three-fourths of a degree Celsius in the 20th century. U.S. corn yields quintupled. Life expectancy doubled. People got fat. Global warming didn’t cause all of this, but increased atmospheric carbon dioxide directly stimulated plant growth. Further, greenhouse warming takes place more in the winter, which lengthens growing seasons. With adequate water, plants then fix and yield more carbohydrate.Peter H. Gleick: Misuse of Food and Climate Data at Forbes
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I continue to be amazed at how little the facts are checked on global warming, even when writing for the so-called newspapers of record. Crop yields have increased at a constant rate despite changes in global temperature. Per capita grain production is going up, and stupid policies — not global warming — are putting people’s food security at risk.
From 1960 to 1980, global cereal yields grew an average of 2.5% per year, but from 1980 to 2010, they only grew 1.7% per year.
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Peter H Gleick fails to mention that the 1960 -1980 period was that of the Green Revolution, when nitrogen inputs to agriculture rose dramatically to a plateau where additional inputs were problematical and cause runoff pollution. The fact that since then cereal yields are still increasing, despite similar N inputs as 1980, and despite the "harm" of increasing temperature would seem remarkable only to those that see CO2 increase as harmful too.
See
http://www.regional.org.au/au/asa/2006/plenary/soil/dobermannad.htm for statistics that support my view
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