12-22-2012, 07:47 PM
Granted, my background was in the biosciences, but there is one thing to consider. As ice on the poles, and elsewhere melts, that water enters the oceans, and messes with the various currents which move warmer water to various parts of the globe. Screw with that enough, and screw with the climate in those areas.
Too much change in temperature/rainfall/etc., and you have a problem. You can have the temperature/moisture bands move into places where the soils cannot support intensive agricultural production of key crops.
Out here in ND, you can see the progression of soils from rich material in the Red River Valley to the stuff in Divide County on the Canadian border, which makes you ask how they possibly grow things up there. The Red River Valley is limited in what can be grown there pretty much only by growing season length. Out here in the West, not so much.
My personal opinion is that the climate is changing.
Too much change in temperature/rainfall/etc., and you have a problem. You can have the temperature/moisture bands move into places where the soils cannot support intensive agricultural production of key crops.
Out here in ND, you can see the progression of soils from rich material in the Red River Valley to the stuff in Divide County on the Canadian border, which makes you ask how they possibly grow things up there. The Red River Valley is limited in what can be grown there pretty much only by growing season length. Out here in the West, not so much.
My personal opinion is that the climate is changing.