Is Global Warming Good or Bad for Agriculture?
Nowadays, you hear a lot of people talk about global warming. How does it affect agriculture? I will be discussing here briefly both the good and bad effects of global warming on agriculture.
Obviously, with global warming, the temperature rises. For areas with cool spring and fall weather, this is not much of a problem since the rise in temperature will only make the crops mature longer.
However, in already hot/warm areas, the increased temperature will lead to high soil evaporation rates, leaving the earth dry and plants languishing in heat. Compounding the situation is drought, making both the soil and air dry.Soil moisture is also affected with the changes in precipitation. Global warming tends to bring with it severe weather conditions so when it rains, it really pours hard which leads to more soil erosion.
Fortunately, the extra carbon dioxide in the air has a positive fertilization effect on crops especially wheat, soybeans and rice. However, this is offset by the rise in ground ozone levels.
Like any other sectors of society, agriculture has also its share of challenges and obstacles. Global warming makes overcoming these challenges much more difficult. The poor farmer is now faced with higher probabilities of droughts, floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters occurring ever more.
In the United States, the overall prediction is both good and bad, good in some regions and bad in others as regions differ in terms of climate, soil conditions, etc.
Global warming can be advantageous in the short run, but in the long term, it’s not so it has to be stopped!