Farmers (and their politicians) need to do more to combat global warming

Ag and climate change

November 02, 2009

By James Dontje

James Dontje is the director of the Johnson Center for Environmental Innovation at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., where he also teaches environmental studies courses and supports sustainability projects on and off campus. He grew up on a farm in northern Iowa.

All of us who hope for a useful health care reform effort, and many others who are just plain tired of the topic, are waiting to see what the sausage grinder of congressional politics will deliver. But while we wait, those of us in farm country ought to be paying closer attention to what our legislators and other elected officials are doing with the other “heavy lift” in Washington — climate change policy.

If you have been listening to what Minnesota politicians have said about climate change legislation, you will know that a loud voice has been that of Seventh District House Rep. Collin Peterson. From his chairmanship of the House Agriculture Committee, Peterson orchestrated a highly visible effort to modify the House Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill. As Rep. Peterson explains in an op-ed piece on his Web site, he acted to make “it more farm-friendly.”

While Rep. Peterson may have done a fine job of using his parliamentary position to protect agriculture as a special interest, he has not led the charge to protect Minnesota agriculture as a public interest, nor to protect Minnesota citizens who depend on the farm economy, from the threat of climate change.

To be clear, rapid climate change is happening now, and based on our society’s best scientific assessment, the cause of that climate change is the increase of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere from a wide variety of human activities, most notably fossil fuel burning and land clearing activities. The airwaves and blogosphere echo with climate skepticism right now, but the scientific consensus is clear and becoming stronger, not weaker. Leading indicators of climate change, like rapid warming in northern latitudes and disappearance of the Arctic ice cover, are happening faster than the scientists expected.

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