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April 16, 2007
Global Warming Rural Areas Too
The Center for Rural Affairs has begun to question whether anyone has really given full consideration for the way that global warming will affect Rural America. In an essay printed in their most recent newsletter, the Center focuses on three effects from Global Warming.
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- Higher temperatures increase moisture stress and make us more vulnerable to drought.
- Global warming is prompting an increase in extreme weather events – from downpours to drought. Neither is good.
- Climate change has the potential to shift weather patterns. Agricultural communities have made investments based on current weather patterns. If the rain shifts elsewhere, the effect may be neutral for the world, but it will be devastating for those communities.
This will not come cheaply; not for the rural America, not for America at all.
Most economists believe that combating the problem will cost roughly one percent of gross domestic product, according to The New York Times, comparable to the spending on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.There is another part of the problem that is inherent in too many proposed solutions. There is a tendency to seek solutions as if they were the Pill of Murti-Bing. There is not such magic. Solutions are complex. Electric Cars may not even transport high school students to class in Burns, OR where the one way trip could be 90 minutes or more. Solutions are coplex and require more than simplistic solutions. But, we need a dedication to supplying solutions in the first place. That is not what I see in most political rhetoric.
Solutions for rural America may include a role for sequestering carbon as the Center suggests. However, rural solutions have ot go far beyond that. For example, we need to look at the controllable contributions to greenhouse gas from the massive, factory scale dairy and hog raising operations. It is known that these contribute over 25% of the air pollution in California's San Joaquin Valley.
This is one are where the Rural Caucus of the Green Party needs to make it self heard at the national level; Even though we are not officially recognized, we can demand that the next Green Party Presidential Candidate be competent to speak on the questions Global Warming and how it affects all of America.
Posted by Wes at April 16, 2007 05:01 PM
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