Potential Climate Change Impacts

Agriculture Impacts

• Current modeling is inadequate because it fails to fully account for climate variability, adaptation, and indirect effects
  • Place specific modeling needed since temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture changes and water availability varies from place to place
• Average climatic changes projected to affect crop yields and the geographic distribution of crops
  • Some states will gain, but other states may see substantial losses
  • Some crops will be more impacted than other crops
• Farmers likely to adapt to changing climate conditions
  • Some agricultural adaptations may be costly
  • Adaptation may alter land-use patterns (e.g., forests converted into agricultural land)
  • Adaptation often depends on questionable availability of water