Florida might be fucked. These storms will get worse.. and then WORSE. And more frequent.

[moniss]

56. I would point out though that

the agricultural abundance of those states is not guaranteed under climate change scenarios. It also has to be remembered that the concentration of crop pests may greatly increase as well. A successful crop year is more vulnerable than people think. If you have change that brings increased snow level melt, soaking early rains and flooding during planting time then planting can be precluded until well into the growing season. Crops have a certain number of days for maturity to harvest. If the time frame available is shortened too much then you may well have a decreased yield. It is not unusual in corn country for example during uneven planting times due to wet weather to see one field doing well and a field next to it be somewhat stunted and doing poorly with wetter areas of the field showing the worst effects. You can imagine if this current scenario gets magnified.

Then there are the effects of uneven rainfall and overly dry/hot conditions after planting. Storm events can damage crops over a wide area reducing yields even further. Heavy rains during harvest time can preclude being able to move equipment through the fields and may delay harvest as well. Waiting until ground is frozen to harvest corn is not unheard of but doing so means that time for the stalks/husks to decay into the soil and provide replenishment is reduced also. Soil management is critical especially in a changing climate scenario and increased or continued reliance on chemicals is an area of great concern already let alone in a much more challenging soil management/soil chemistry environment.

This all leads back to something from a long ago course I took on environmental issues. There is the notion of technological developments being able to "always save us". It leads people to thoughts like "somebody will think of something". There is no actual basis to conclude such a thing. Has it happened that way many times? Yes. Has it failed at times? Yes. Therefore, as many of us in the early environmental movement said, we need to make changes early on while we have the time for them to have an impact. Mankind has mostly failed to do that.

Logic tells us that competition for resources and livable areas will increase within nations and between nations. Logic also tells us that given this competition there will be increased tensions. Logic further informs that given our human history when tensions have increased dramatically over resources the parties resort to conflict and violence whether between nations or within them. It is not a bright future no matter where in the world or within a nation one tries to find refuge.