It’s August, and smoke fills the air, like a hazy, diaphanous sheet.
While in the era of Zoom, wildfires were at a record high, charring the Pacific Northwest. We see climate change with our own eyes, and humans, ecosystems and Idaho’s landscape feel its effects.
“First, the climate is changing,” Jeffrey Hicke, a geography professor at the University of Idaho said. “That’s been well established, the temperatures are increasing, snowpack is declining, glaciers are receding (and) sea level is rising. All those components of climate are changing in ways that we would expect given warming. And we know that humans are the cause of it.”
According to Hicke, climate change has affected forests in the Pacific Northwest as global warming promotes wildfires. As a result of temperature change, fire season lengths have increased, burning earlier and later than a regular season. And, as summers become warmer, dry conditions lead to more flammable material and fuel spread.
Around 50% of human activity can be associated with the recent increase with climate change, according to Hicke. Due to deforestation, fossil fuel burning and greenhouse gases, temperatures have annually increased, documented over the past century.
Stated in the “Economic Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture in Idaho” provided by The McClure Center, average temperatures globally have increased by 1 °C, or 1.8 °F, since 1960. Idaho has increased 0.24 °C, or 1.4 °F, per decade between 1974-2010, and as of 2020 Idaho’s average temperature has increased slightly above the global average, according to the assessment.
Along with rising global temperatures, the assessment states a prediction of more “heat stress” days. Heat stress days are when temperatures are or exceed 100 °F. According to the assessment, projections for years between 2040-2069 will experience an annual average of 25 heat stress days.
Heat stress can have detrimental effects on the well-being of people and living organisms. According to Katherine Himes, director of the McClure Center, working in high temperatures can increase work delays, lower productivity and lead to absence from work and school. In severe weather, people may feel adverse effects such as mental health impacts, injuries, fatalities, and loss of homes, jobs and income.
In Idaho, 2.5 million animals inhabit the state, and of that number, 635,000 are cows and cattle, according to the assessment. Severe temperatures affect cow’s productivity, and production of milk. Heat stress can lower milk production, conception rates, feed efficiency, and increase diseases and metabolic disorders in cattle, stated in the assessment.
Cattle are a large contributor to Idaho’s agricultural economy. Idaho is “the third milk producer state in the U.S.” and in 2019, beef and milk production accumulated $1.7 billion as an industry, stated in the assessment. Agriculture, along with food and beverage sales, supply 18% of Idaho’s total business sales.
Due to temperature increase, climate change has lowered agricultural production by 20% nationally, and the Pacific Northwest has seen a decline by 12.5% between 1961-2020. According to Himes, this decrease can be attributed to delays in planting because of excess spring rain, temperature-controlled storage, increasing costs of pest management and summer irrigation.
Snow and precipitation in early spring are crucial for water supply in the Pacific Northwest. Grant Harley, a climate change researcher at UI, has studied snowpack using weather stations and instrumental gauges. Reviewing research conducted over the past 120 years, Harvey has monitored snowfall and drought records.
“We found that since 2015 about six (or) seven years has been the lowest snowpack in the past 500 years,” Harley said. “Coincidentally, the past 20 years have been the warmest it has been in the past 1000 years.”
Snowpack is important for retaining water, it acts as water storage as it melts throughout the spring season. Because of warmer temperatures, snowpack is melting earlier in spring in a more concentrated way, according to Himes.
“Snowpack is declining because the warming conditions have led to precipitation that used to fall as snow, and is now falling as rain,” Hicke said. “So that means that we have less water available in streams and for human uses in late spring (to) early summer.”
This precipitation event can lead to summer drought, and risk of flooding.
While navigating severe temperatures, irrigation in the summer may alleviate produce loss and drought effects. Patrick Hatzenbuehler, lead author for the agriculture section of the assessment, said plants don’t grow well in extreme temperatures, and irrigation is a key aid to adapt to these hot environments.
In Idaho, the main produce grown throughout the state includes potatoes, wheat, barley, hay, hops, onions and pulses, which include chickpeas, beans, lentils and dry peas. Potatoes, in particular, suffer in high temperatures.
According to Hatzenbuehler, potatoes are a heavy water using crop. In dry summers, soil moisture evaporates, leading to the need for more irrigation. Potato storage is also affected by extreme temperatures, without temperature control the crop is vulnerable to sprouting and diseases. Stated in the assessment, potato diseases thrive in temperatures above 50 °F, and as temperatures continue to rise it becomes difficult to cool produce without refrigeration efforts.
Precipitation also affects soil retention and nutrients. Sanford Eigenbrode, project director at REACCH, said “Annual precipitation is limiting enough that in order to make it worthwhile to farm, a practice that’s become widespread is to just skip a year.” Rain falls on the dirt, and farmers will let their fields pile up until next year while soil accumulates moisture. Though this practice is common, it can promote fallow which is unsustainable.
A way to combat fallow is by planting cover crops, to alternate during growing season and create resiliency to climate change. According to Eigenbrode, there are many different species farmers can experiment with, but most commonly are legumes.
Another factor of climate change, along with temperature rising, is carbon dioxide increase. According to Hatzenbuehler, most crops are expected to have a higher yield in response to higher carbon dioxide levels.
Along with produce increase, weeds are expected to emerge earlier and migrate.
According to the assessment, a rise in carbon dioxide levels increases photosynthesis in wheat, barley, corn and some weeds. Specific weed species, like Chenopodium album and Setaria viridis, will benefit from this increase and compete with crops in farmer’s fields.
Weeds are predicted to expand from southern states to northern states, in combination of increased carbon dioxide levels and rising temperatures. The assessment attributes this expansion to weeds being able to adapt to hot and dry conditions.
Weeds are also predicted to sprout earlier in the growing season, before or while crops develop. The assessment states yield loss occurs most when weeds emerge with or before the crop.
According to Hicke, 50% of climate change can be attributed to human activity, and is continuing to increase, affecting the world. Though its effects cannot be reversed, there are things people can do to reduce their carbon footprint.
On an individual level, there are two main ways people can reduce future climate change, which are mitigation and adapting to climate change, according to Hicke. Mitigation is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and includes switching to renewable energy, consuming environmentally smart food, reducing driving, switching to an electric vehicle and using LED lightbulbs. With increasing temperatures, people must adapt to climate change. Hicke gives a good example from the extreme heat the Pacific Northwest experienced last summer.
“The heat wave in June in the Northwest killed hundreds of people,” Hicke said. “So, making sure that people have air conditioning, helping them perhaps if they don’t have the resources to purchase air conditioning units, is one way of adapting to these growing heat waves.”
Harley said something people can do is calculate their carbon footprint, which is the total amount of carbon dioxide and methane gases created by individuals’ actions. Harley also recommends purchasing carbon offsets, giving money to more sustainable energy practices.
As a group, Eigenbrode said people can combat climate change by joining the Citizens Climate Lobby. The lobby is an organization, with a regional chapter on the Palouse, whose goal is to raise awareness and find out how to lobby for policies better for climate future. Founded in 2012, the lobby is continuing to be active, evoking change within the community.
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