agricultural output

The Cost Of Heat Waves | Earth Wise

December 7, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Heat waves are defined as periods of abnormally hot weather generally lasting more than two days. To be considered a heat wave, the recorded temperatures must be substantially above the historical averages for a given area. According to climate scientists, anthropogenic climate change is likely causing heat waves to increase in both frequency and intensity.

According to a new study by researchers from Dartmouth University, climate change-driven severe heat waves have cost the world economy trillions of dollars since the early 1990s.

In the study, which was recently published in the journal Science Advances, researchers combined in-depth economic data for regions worldwide with the average temperature for the hottest five-day period —a commonly used measurement of heat intensity—for each region in each year. The research team found that between 1992 and 2013, heat waves statistically coincided with variations in economic growth and that an estimated $16 trillion was lost to the effects of high temperatures on human health, productivity and agricultural output.

The results of the study underscore issues of climate justice and inequality. According to researchers, the economic costs of extreme heat have been and will be disproportionately borne by the world’s poorest nations. While economic losses due to extreme heat events averaged 1.5% of GDP per capita for the world’s wealthiest regions, the researchers found that low-income regions suffered a loss of 6.7% of GDP per capita. Most of these low-income nations have contributed the least to climate change.

According to the research team, immediate action is needed now to protect vulnerable people during the hottest days of the year.

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Heat Waves Have Cost World Economy Trillions of Dollars

Photo, posted July 23, 2021, courtesy of Martin Fisch (marfis75) via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Importance Of Double-Cropping | Earth Wise

July 28, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In agriculture, double-cropping is the practice of growing two or more crops or commodities on the same piece of land in the same calendar year. In Brazil, grain production has increased more than fourfold between 1980 and 2016. The country now stands as the world’s largest exporter of soybeans and the second largest exporter of corn. There were two primary drivers of this increase in food production: cropland expansion and double-cropping.

Cropland expansion has long been recognized as a key driver behind the increase in Brazil’s agricultural output. But cropland expansion is also a threat to biodiversity by driving habitat loss, deforestation, and an increase in carbon emissions.

A new study recently published in the journal Nature Food quantified for the first time the impact that double-cropping had on helping Brazil achieve its tremendous growth in grain production. The international research team examined data from three key agricultural regions in Brazil: the Centre-West, Southeast-South, and Matopiba region. These three regions accounted for 79% of soybean production and 85% of corn production in 2016.

Soybean fields account for more than one third of Brazil’s cropland. While the increase in soybean production was largely a result of cropland expansion, the increase in corn production was a result of double-cropping.

Between 2003 and 2016, the study found that double-cropping in Brazil offset the equivalent of approximately 190 million acres of arable land for corn production. (This is more than twice the annual harvested area of corn in the United States).

Double-cropping represents a way to produce more food without clearing more land.

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The impact of double-cropping

Photo, posted July 15, 2009, courtesy of Daniel Bauer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.