Climate & Agriculture 5: Risk of declining (tropical) crop yields has been known for over 25 years

Not just from theoretical thinking, but as calculated outcomes of pioneering climate-crop prediction models – with studies from the early nineties already offering broad patterns of expected changes in agricultural productivity in a warming world. These patterns have of course … Continue reading

Climate & Agriculture 3: Temperate and subtropical agriculture equally affected by heat stress

Our previous post focused on a study indicating climate change can lead to a net decline in African agricultural productivity – at least for five major food staples, with maize being the most important. The study also showed that it … Continue reading

Climate & Agriculture 2: African net agricultural productivity to decline for 5 major food staples

The impact of 21st century climate change on African agriculture deserves special attention, considering rapid population growth and the fact that the continent is currently already a net importer of agricultural products, while several sub-Saharan countries still depend for a … Continue reading

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 47: Can species adapt by changing their fitness curves?

As we discussed in our previous article, ecologists use the term ‘fitness curve’ – or the synonymous ‘performance curve’ – to describe a climatological bandwidth within which a species can survive, including an optimum value and a critical minimum and … Continue reading

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 27: Africa is warming fast, but what about Congo Basin?

21st century climate change affects the entire globe: every ecosystem, every mountain range, all the glaciers, all the land, the oceans. But of all continents it’s often said that Africa will face the biggest impacts. African climate change is far … Continue reading

Real Global Temperature Trend, p5 – Climate Sensitivity higher when models include subtropical cloud-decrease feedback

We could say clouds are too complicated for climate science – and ignore them forever. We could also just try to incorporate them in the models. If you do, chance is you’ll find climate sensitivity is underestimated, a very interesting … Continue reading