Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Winning climate strategy demands details
http://csis.msu.edu/news/winning-climate-strategy-demands-details[font face=Serif][font size=5]Winning climate strategy demands details[/font]
June 12, 2017
[font size=3]When understanding a country’s climate – especially vast countries like the United States or China – to protect food security, biodiversity and human health, the devil is in the details
Scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) show that examining the daily minutia of climate, not just temperature, but also sunshine, precipitation and soil moisture simultaneously all over a country gives a better understanding of how variable a land’s climate can be. That information is crucial when countries are setting policies aimed at growing food, protecting water supplies and the environment and stemming disease outbreaks. The findings were reported in this week’s Scientific Reports.
“There is much talk about how climate is changing and what should be done about it, but in reality, it is the variabilities – those many changes above and below the norm – that can have a great impact on coupled human and natural systems,” said Jianguo “Jack” Liu, MSU’s Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and director of the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability. “A holistic view of our world gives us the most useful information.”
The team examined the daily variability of four climatic factors simultaneously with data from 1960 to 2013 across China. From this they learned that the climate in the northern regions of China, including the province that grows much of the crops that feed big cities in the south, has the more dramatic swings. Yet that’s also an area in which farmers are shifting crops to corn over soybeans, even though corn is dependent on a long growing season.
…[/font][/font]
June 12, 2017
[font size=3]When understanding a country’s climate – especially vast countries like the United States or China – to protect food security, biodiversity and human health, the devil is in the details
Scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) show that examining the daily minutia of climate, not just temperature, but also sunshine, precipitation and soil moisture simultaneously all over a country gives a better understanding of how variable a land’s climate can be. That information is crucial when countries are setting policies aimed at growing food, protecting water supplies and the environment and stemming disease outbreaks. The findings were reported in this week’s Scientific Reports.
“There is much talk about how climate is changing and what should be done about it, but in reality, it is the variabilities – those many changes above and below the norm – that can have a great impact on coupled human and natural systems,” said Jianguo “Jack” Liu, MSU’s Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and director of the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability. “A holistic view of our world gives us the most useful information.”
The team examined the daily variability of four climatic factors simultaneously with data from 1960 to 2013 across China. From this they learned that the climate in the northern regions of China, including the province that grows much of the crops that feed big cities in the south, has the more dramatic swings. Yet that’s also an area in which farmers are shifting crops to corn over soybeans, even though corn is dependent on a long growing season.
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03297-5
