Posted on 07/27/2007 5:47:53 PM PDT by Coleus
Due to demand, US farmers are growing more corn than they have since WWII. Now, researchers are looking at all those green fields and their possible effect on local weather patterns. Fred Bumb has been growing corn for nearly 60 years in the bottomlands of Vanderburgh County.
Bumb credits good weather with this year's strong crop, "There's so many things about farming that you have to depend on, such as the good lord and the weather." How the weather affects crops is obvious, but new research from a Canadian climatologist shows the opposite may also be true. The explosive growth in the number of US corn fields, due to growing demand for corn products like ethanol, has climatologist's looking at links between the crop and changing weather patterns nearby.
Every corn stalk is like a littler water factory. The plant releases buckets and buckets of moisture through transpiration. That's where moisture is continuously released through the plants broad leaves. All that corn sweat leads to higher dewpoints, the main ingredient for developing showers. Research is also suggesting the higher humidity may enhance severe storms, making them stronger.
The evaporation could also cause cooler temperatures in agricultural areas, a concept that Bumb says he has yet to experience, "When you get down in the field though, it's pretty hot down in there, the temperatures considerable higher down there." Until research becomes more conclusive, don't blame that sweaty corn for raining out your barbeque just, yet. Along with more corn being grown, many farmers are able to fit more in smaller places which produces additional moisture into the air.
Could be why it won’t stop raining here in the plains?
“Could be why it won’t stop raining here in the plains?”
And here in N. Texas.
I never thought about it before, but we have more corn fields around here now than ever, (and I’m a native Texan).
-—a hundred years ago the fable was “rain follows the plow”-—
Global warming has become universal, therefor unstoppable, Mars, here we come.
There are corn fields here in Tennessee where nothing has been planted for at least 17 years (when I moved into the area).
Bush’s fault?
>>
Due to demand...
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Sorry, farmers don’t see “demand”, they only see prices. This record crop is due to the fact farmers project they can make more money per acre with corn than with beans.
Dear God, now it`s corn causing global warming. I can`t TAAAKE THIS ANYMORE!!
Here, let`s watch the Beatles sing If I fell live instead while girls wearing nerd glasses watch them...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeuSdfFeEyc
more like 130-150 years ago, but what’s a few years among friends?
Importantly, when plants open their leaf pores to admit Carbon Dioxide for food, the open pores let more moisture out. In turn, this means that plants have to uptake more moisture from the soil.
However, when you increase the amount of CO2 in the air, the plants don’t have to open their pores so much. So they lose less water, and don’t need to take so much from the soil.
This means, if the Earth’s CO2 level goes up, moister land will be able to support more plants in the same area. Deserts will start to decrease, as what little moisture they have can support permits plants to grow there, as well.
If they are selling their corn on the futures market, that's very demand driven - and those prices are way up, even into the next growing season.
With the government offering tax breaks and incentives, there are ethanol plants being planned or built all over the place - and when they open for business they'll need corn. That's what's driving demand, and that's why farmers are growing so much more.
When I was a kid there was corn growing everywhere like this, but I sure haven't seen it in my adult life - it's like a Gold Rush for corn!
Apparently, Osama bin Laden believed that sudan could feed the world, if farmed properly. Hold onto your hats. Farmers always overproduce for high prices and that leads to a bust. Seems the gw people would favor all schemes of keeping more water on the land instead of rising sea levels. but they don’t.
New crisis - Global greening!
Children, minorities and pigs hit hardest.
They’ve said this about forests for years. Trees cause rain, and rain causes forests. A tree releases much more water vapor into the air than corn does. But I guess an irrigated field of corn releases much more water vapor than a field of sun dried grass. So maybe there is something to it. All that water locked up in the ogalala aquifer is doing nobody any good. Pumping it to the surface so it can grow stuff, and that stuff releases water vapor, then that causes rain, which reduces the need to pump more water from the aquifer...hmmm, maybe there is something to it. Maybe we really are impoving the ecosystem.
This has got to be one of the funniest stories I have ever read.
Okay so we cut down all the trees and planted fields of wheat, corn, soybeans, and whatever, then we built roads, and buildings and parking lots. Now there is more rain because there is more corn.....Looks like the climate change started when we “cut down all the trees and put up a parking lot.... “
Or at least the most obvious.
This story does call for more pavement...and condos. And a mega-mall!
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