After Devastating Flooding, Nebraskans Concede This Is New; Just Don't Call It Global Warming

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The flood carried away edges of his fields, dumped up to 6 inches of useless sand on his fertile loam, and deposited, incongruously, the elastic band of a pair of Hanes underwear on a bush. But everywhere Chad Christianson looks, all he sees is green. The green rye he planted last fall stands in sharp contrast to the brown soil and cornstalks. More importantly, it held the soil in place in all but the most flooded areas of his fields, lessening the waters’ impact. It’s a first step in Mr. Christianson’s push to become more weather-resilient. “I don’t know about climate change,” Mr. Christianson says. “But I think the weather is going to be more extreme going forward.”

It’s a sentiment that is percolating here in rural Nebraska. With the state still in recovery mode, many Nebraskans say it’s early for them to start contemplating the long-term implications of last month’s epic flood, the most widespread in memory. But as such extreme weather events pile up, some say they are beginning to change hearts and minds here – not politically but practically.

“This [flood] didn’t come out of nowhere but it went beyond almost anyone’s expectations,” says Tyler Williams, an educator with the extension service at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which works with farmers. “So I definitely think people in the agricultural world are thinking: ‘All right. I’ve got to fix something, do something different.’”

Part of the change in thought is coming from farmers themselves, especially those involved with the small but growing regenerative farming movement. "Conversations were already happening before the flood,” says Graham Christensen, a fifth-generation farmer and president of GC Resolve, a grassroots community-development business. “But after the flood a lot more folks are like, ‘Yeah, I have never seen that; my dad has never seen that; my grandpa has never seen that. This is a pattern that’s emerging.’”

EDIT

https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2019/0416/Nebraskans-talk-extreme-weather.-Just-don-t-call-it-climate-change

[mountain grammy]

1. I know members of my family won't believe

climate change is happening until their preacher says so.

[catbyte]

2. It's easier to call it "God's will" than it is to say "the libs" were right all along.

Pathetic, I know, but there you have it.

[wcast]

3. Even the fact that he grew a cover crop of Rye is big news.

There is a huge push from some farmers, that has been met with resistance in the past, to use cover crops extensively to improve soil condition, increase the water holding capacity of the land, decrease erosion, and lessen the need for fertilizer. While it is a throw away line in the article above, cover crops are important in the fight to protect our waterways and reduce our chemical exposure.

[Blues Heron]

4. " "I don't know about climate change,"

“I don’t know about climate change,” Mr. Christianson says. “But I think the weather is going to be more extreme going forward.”

Might want to bone up on it dude - it's not all that complicated. CO2 is being added to the atmosphere faster than plants can absorb it - thus BUILDING UP and acting LIKE A BLANKET. It TRAPS HEAT FROM THE SUN and adds ENERGY to the atmosphere. WARMER AIR can EVAPORATE, HOLD, and TRANSPORT MORE WATER which leads to MORE FLOODING. MORE FLOODING CAN WASH AWAY YOUR PRECIOUS FIELDS OF GRAIN.

These simple folk really need to get up to speed here.

[elias7]

5. Luntz and the GOP language machine has weaponized certain terms

These pathetic people are so brainwashed that they can't hear the terms climate change and liberal and Clinton and Democrat and Obamacare and medicare, etc. without getting nauseous.

“I don’t know about climate change,” Mr. Christianson says. “But I think the weather is going to be more extreme going forward.”