{"id":1973,"date":"2004-05-13T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-05-13T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meehawl.com\/Blogfiles-wp\/?p=1973"},"modified":"2004-05-13T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-05-13T20:00:00","slug":"global-dimming-means-higher-pizza-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meehawl.com\/Blogfiles\/2004\/05\/13\/16\/00\/global-dimming-means-higher-pizza-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Dimming Means Higher Pizza Prices…"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NY Times has another article on Global Dimming<\/a> – the current climate horror story de jure<\/i>. In a classic example of how change in science basically means outlasting your critics, the main actors involved were dismissed as crappy students 30 years, cranks 20 years ago, probably exaggerating 10 years ago, and now get headlines. So it goes.<\/p>\n

Of course global dimming will lead to reduced global crop yields. Couple this with soil exhaustion, desertification, declining aquifers, and increasing cost of natural gas (and hence scarcer, more expensive fertilizer production) we see why global crop yields have been falling for several years now, despite advances in biotech and irrigation technologies.<\/p>\n

The reduction in crop yields is especially severe in China, which is now importing an ever-larger share of the world’s wheat and grain exports. This is driving inflationary pressures in foodstuffs, with follow-through pressures on crop-derived foods, such as grain-fed animals. In short (and coupled with increasing oil costs, partly driven also by China’s voracious appetite), this is why pizza cheese prices are skyrocketing, with important implications for late-night open-source development.<\/p>\n

Longer term, this might be an ideal time to lock in some wheat and pork-belly futures at low prices…<\/p>\n

The interested reader is directed here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The so-called direct effect of regional haze results in an approximately 530% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China’s most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 530%.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Earlier here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NY Times has another article on Global Dimming – the current climate horror story de jure. In a classic example of how change in science basically means outlasting your critics, the main actors...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t