Science, May 16, 2022; featuring Rattan Lal, School of Environment and Natural Resources
Yale E360, May 10, 2022; featuring Joyce Chen, Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics
Phys.org, May 8, 2022; featuring Justin Chaffin, Stone Lab
Bloomberg reports that “Al Gore Is Opening a New Front In the War on Climate Change”—farming practices that sequester carbon dioxide in the soil—and CFAES’ own world expert on the subject, Rattan Lal, visited the former vice president’s farm in Tennessee to look at, walk upon, and talk about the possibilities. Excellent story by Emily Chasan, Bloomberg’s sustainable finance editor.
Lal directs CFAES’ Carbon Management and Sequestration Center. Earlier this year he was awarded the Japan Prize.
An op-ed in the May 13 edition of the Los Angeles Times quotes CFAES scientist Rattan Lal on the benefits of regenerative agriculture—practices such as using compost, minimizing tillage, and growing cover crops. Regenerative agriculture is a “win-win-win option” that can make the soil healthier, increase food production, and help fight climate change, he is quoted as saying. But it is “not widely understood” yet by policymakers, the public, and many farmers.
Lal, a recent recipient of the prestigious Japan Prize, is Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science in CFAES’ School of Environment and Natural Resources.
From a press release by our Ohio State colleagues: “Greenland is melting faster than scientists previously thought—and will likely lead to faster sea level rise—thanks to the continued, accelerating warming of the Earth’s atmosphere, a new study has found.” Read the story.
The Environmental Professionals Network (EPN) presents its next breakfast program, “Climate Action: Our Local Response to a Global Challenge,” from 7:15-9:30 a.m. Jan. 15 in Ohio State’s Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor Drive, in Columbus. Registration is free for EPN members and Ohio State students, $10 for nonmembers, and includes breakfast. Find out more and register.
EPN is a statewide professional group coordinated by CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources. Membership is free and is open to anyone studying or working in an environmental field.
Learn more about CFAES scientist Rattan Lal receiving the World Soil Prize in the video above.
CFAES scientists Rattan Lal, Brent Sohngen and Aaron Wilson are available to talk to reporters about the recent federal climate report and the impacts of climate change in Ohio, including on agriculture.
“The quality and quantity of water available for use by people and ecosystems across the country are being affected by climate change, increasing risks and costs to agriculture, energy production, industry, recreation, and the environment.”
So say some of the summary findings of the recently released Fourth National Climate Assessment.
“Rising air and water temperatures and changes in precipitation are intensifying droughts, increasing heavy downpours, reducing snowpack, and causing declines in surface water quality, with varying impacts across regions,” the findings also say.
Read all of the report’s summary findings on water. Check out the report’s complete “Water” chapter.
The Trump administration is disbanding the federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment, according to a story in yesterday’s Washington Post. The 15-person panel helps private- and public-sector officials incorporate the assessment’s findings into long-term planning. The science-based assessment reports on the climate’s status, changes that have been seen and anticipated trends for the future.
A draft report of the next assessment, due for release in 2018, says “evidence for a changing climate abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported on Aug. 10 that 2016 was Earth’s hottest year on record. (Image: iStock.)
A draft of a federal report on climate change, which includes new data and observations compiled since the third U.S. National Climate Assessment was published in 2014, says “stronger evidence has emerged for continuing, rapid, human-caused warming of the global atmosphere and ocean.”
The report, which is awaiting final approval, says “it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.”
Scientists from 13 federal agencies prepared the draft, which the New York Times published on Aug. 7.
CFAES scientists Rattan Lal and Brent Sohngen contributed to the 2014 assessment.