Continued Research...

Khnor, Martin. “Food crisis, climate change and the importance of sustainable agriculture”, Jun 2008. Feb 10, 2010. .

“According to the recent report of the IAASTD (Independent assessment of agricultural knowledge, science and technology for development), climate change can irreversibly damage the natural resource base on which agriculture depends. Some negative impacts are already visible in many parts of the world. Water scarcity and the timing of water availability will increasingly constrain production. Climate change will require a new look at water storage to cope with the impacts of more and extreme precipitation, higher seasonal variations and increased rates of evapotranspiration in all types of ecosystems.”

-The article focused on food security, as well as other environmental topics. I chose to just focus on what the article said about agriculture.
-I learned from the article that agriculture today has an indirect contribution to emissions. Due to fertilizers, operations, and the change in land use. Showing that the way we handle our agriculture also contributes to global warming.
-What really caught my attention from this quote was the line, “…Climate change will require a new look at water storage to cope with the impacts of more and extreme precipitation….”
-If I was to continue my senior project on this topic I would probably included this in my conclusion. Showing images on ways we could deal with climate change.
- Possible focus: Evapotranspiration and how that affects food supply (caused by climate change)

Unknown. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Agriculture and Food Supply”, Oct 15, 2009. Feb 10, 2010. .

“Rising atmospheric concentrations of CO2: Increasing atmospheric CO2 levels, driven by emissions from human activities, can act as a fertilizer and enhance the growth of some crops such as wheat, rice and soybeans. CO2 can be one of a number of limiting factors that, when increased, can enhance crop growth. Other limiting factors include water and nutrient availability. While it is expected that CO2 fertilization will have a positive impact on some crops, other aspects of climate change (e.g., temperature and precipitation changes) may temper any beneficial CO2 fertilization effect (IPCC, 2007).”
-This source was more studies based and seemed the most credible. This article talks mainly about 5 main factors that directly connect climate change and agricultural productivity. Average temperature increase, Change in rainfall amount and patterns, Rising atmospheric concentrations of CO2, Pollution levels such as tropospheric ozone, and Change in climatic variability and extreme events.
-I like this quote because it focus’ on climate change and what happens when CO2 increases (due to human activity).
-The affect that CO2 has on agriculture-crop growth.
-No availability to water and nutrients.

Unknown. International Food Policy Research Institute, “Climate change: Impact on agriculture and costs of adaptation”, 2009. Feb 10, 2010. .

“The unimpeded growth of greenhouse gas emissions is raising the earth’s temperature. The consequences include melting glaciers, more precipitation, more and more extreme weather events, and shifting seasons. The accelerating pace of climate change, combined with global population and income growth, threatens food security everywhere.”
-Once again this article talks about greenhouse gases and its involvement in what happens to agriculture. It also talks about the cost of adapting, mentioning how humans will be affected negatively by the climate change.
-I found that the line about the shifting seasons would come in handy if I do decide to focus on this project.

Reflection:

As a continuation to my topic about food: Focusing more on how climate change affects agriculture and vise versa.

Without a doubt climate change affects agriculture. Naturally Agriculture is sensitive to the variations in climate and weather; this includes extreme weather such as droughts, floods and storms. As a result it disrupts the growth of the plants, soil quality and water availability. So if I do continue to go more in-depth into food for my senior project I can incorporate the idea that climate change has a huge affect on our food. After doing some research I found out that there’s several focus points that I can chose from like CO2 affects on agriculture, seasons, and evapotranspiration (just to name a few). But they all lead back to the idea of this issue being Human Caused! So, I think if I did a film about this topic then I would be in a similar order as the “Inconvenient Truth”. Agriculture in the past, what has happened to agriculture as humanity evolved, the problems, and how to fix it.