Dry conditions that continue to grip Midwestern states, damaging crops and threatening to push up food prices, stirred new debate this week after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released crop yield projections capturing the severity of the drought. Though the U.S. is the largest producer of corn and soybeans, the report puts corn production at 10.8 billion bushels, down 13 percent from last year’s yield and 17 percent from July projections. It also slashes soybean yields, though not as sharply as corn.
The low projections are bumping up corn prices. The price spike in corn is causing some livestock farmers to turn to other sources, even candy, for their animals’ nutrition. While the USDA announced it will buy up to $170 million worth of meat to help relieve some of these farmers, low yield projections still mean feed could be more scarce next year. “I think this will help some in the short run, but what we really need is to change the ethanol mandate,” said Bob Ivey, a hog farmer and general manager of Maxwell Foods, of the USDA announcement.
Like Ivey, others renewed debate over the use of corn for ethanol production this week, putting more pressure on the U.S. to divert its corn crop to food. As required by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), about 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop is currently used in ethanol production, with the rest going to food, animal feed and exports. With agricultural production in other major exporting countries such as China and India suffering and the global food price index up six percent in July, some are concerned about global shortages of certain food commodities. As some legislators called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue a waiver of the corn ethanol RFS for the next year, the top United Nations food official, José Graziano da Silva, told the Financial Times that an “immediate, temporary suspension” of the mandate could help head off another world food crisis as poorer countries bear the burden of rising food costs. The Renewable Fuels Association urged the EPA to reject the waiver request, saying it “would do more harm than good to America’s economy and its energy security.”
Meanwhile, the federal government is poised to approve the use of sorghum to create advanced ethanol. It would join imported sugar-cane-based ethanol and domestic biodiesel to become the third “advanced biofuel” in the U.S. (Advanced biofuels produce fewer greenhouse gases over their lifetime.) A sorghum-based ethanol could be a welcome addition to the U.S. biofuel supply because sorghum is not an important ingredient in human foods (it’s mainly used as animal feed), it is more drought-tolerant than corn, and it produces the same amount of ethanol as corn using one-third less water.
Study: Temperatures May Climb 7 Degrees
If droughts weren’t enough, global warming and urbanization could cause temperatures in cities to climb seven degrees by 2050, according to a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. That’s two to three times higher than the effects of global warming, says Climate Central’s Michael Lemonick.
One scientist affiliated with MIT is pursuing a technology that would help in droughts by mitigating water lost from reservoirs through evaporation. The technology involves coating the water with a thin layer of vegetable oil, which could possibly reduce evaporation by up to 75 percent.
Energy in the Arctic
Shell’s plans for drilling in the Arctic faced another delay—not one due to ice, but rather to failure to complete construction on a spill response barge, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. “So it’s not a matter of ice. It is a matter of whether Shell has the mechanical capability to be able to comply with the exploration effort that had been approved by the government,” Salazar said. The window to drill is closing, The Wall Street Journal warns, as exploration in the Chukchi Sea must end by Sept. 24 and the end of October in the Beaufort Sea.
This came as the first comprehensive plan to manage the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska was announced, leaving open the possibility for a pipeline to transport oil and gas from the Chukchi Sea onshore. The plan would allow drilling on half of the 23 million-acre reserve estimated to contain 549 million barrels of recoverable oil and 8.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
In the renewable energy sector, wind made headway in 2011, adding about 6,800 megawatts of power generation, which made it second only to natural gas of all new U.S. electric capacity. Specifically, wind accounted for 32 percent of energy, pushing U.S. wind power capacity to 47,000 megawatts.
The Climate Post offers a rundown of the week in climate and energy news. It is produced each Thursday by Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.
NASA’s rover, Curiosity, made a successful landing on Mars earlier this week. Some scientists say the car-sized rover, the most high-tech ever designed by the space agency, could have a lot to tell us about our own climate.
As Mother Jones reports, scientists have made great strides in predicting what will happen to our climate, but we only have one climate to test hypotheses on. The rover will give scientists a chance to test their assumptions. “You learn about how to understand an atmosphere by seeing different atmospheres,” said Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist from Texas A&M University who is part of Curiosity’s climate team. “And the more we know about Mars’ atmosphere, the better we can really understand our own.”
While Curiosity sends back readings about the cold temperatures on the red planet, Earth is heating up. NOAA confirmed what many of us have felt (literally): July was the hottest month in 118 years of recordkeeping. One NASA scientist links the increasing number of unusually hot summers to climate change in a new study. The findings have received mixed reviews: some said it was a smart way of understanding the magnitude of heat extremes, while others criticized the study’s statistical analyses. Another study by Harvard researchers suggests the vapors from powerful storms could be depleting the ozone layer, which could lead to an increase in the amount of ultraviolet radiation reaching the Earth’s surface.
This is around the time the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee came off a three-year hiatus to discuss the state of climate science, with neither side budging on the issues. Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp reflected on the disagreements in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: “It is time for conservatives to compete with liberals to devise the best, most cost-effective climate solutions. Solving this challenge will require all of us.” Meanwhile, in a New York Times op-ed physicist and long-time climate-change skeptic Richard Muller recounted his recent “total turnaround” on climate change following intensive research by his Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project. Muller is now convinced not only that global warming is real, but also that humans are the cause. “Call me a converted skeptic,” he said.
Global Energy Demand Sees Increase
Global energy demand grew by more than 3 percent in 2011, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The way energy is consumed and produced must change, but no single solution exists, argued IEA Deputy Executive Director Richard Jones in the documentary Switch. “There is no one magic bullet,” Jones said. “There is no one technology you need, because the world is different in different places.”
The Obama administration is expediting seven proposed renewable energy projects on public lands expected to produce power for 1.5 million homes from wind and solar in Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming and California. Federal permitting could be completed as early as December. Many more renewable energy projects are in the works for power-thirsty military bases after the Pentagon and the U.S. Department of Interior inked a deal earlier this week. The plan is designed to ensure energy for bases if the commercial grid were interrupted, and proposes the use of a mix of offshore wind generation for coastal bases with other solar, geothermal and biomass projects.
In the Arctic, Shell has scaled back plans for drilling as the start of production efforts approaches. Lingering sea ice delayed the start of the company’s original four-month drilling plan, initially projected to begin July 1.
Drought Threatens Food Surplus
The worst drought in more than half a century—now affecting 63 percent of the U.S.—has some analysts predicting the U.S. will deliver the smallest corn crop in five years—keeping prices at record highs. Nearly 80 percent of the country’s corn crop and more than 11 percent of the soybean crop have been affected. Both are major exports for the U.S. Global food reserves continue to decline, raising food-import cost forecasts to a near-record $1.24 trillion.
The drought’s effect on crop and livestock production has prompted President Barack Obama to seek aid for the Midwest. “Congress needs to pass a farm bill that will not only provide important disaster relief tools, but also make necessary reforms and give farmers the certainty they deserve,” said Obama.
In Georgia, one farmer is taking a different approach to keeping his crops healthy despite the drought. Farmer Glenn Cox is relying on new technology that uses sensors encased in PVC pipes to gather moisture and temperature readings from different soil depths and locations in his corn and peanut fields. Antennas fitted to the pipes transmit data to his computer for monitoring—taking the guess work out of when and where to water.
Elsewhere, other measures are being taken to better cope with drought conditions—including introducing to cattle breeds in Iowa genes from hardier breeds more accustomed to drought.
Climate’s Impact on Marine Life
Ocean acidification—caused when greenhouse gas emissions dissolve in the ocean to form acid—is not only making it harder for sea creatures to grow their shells, but it could also be disrupting the marine food chain, according to a new study. Polar regions may be most affected, making it difficult for clams and sea urchins to extract enough calcium carbonate to grow their shells and skeletons.
The Climate Post offers a rundown of the week in climate and energy news. It is produced each Thursday by Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.