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Farm and Range Management to Mitigate and Adapt to Climate Change
Volume 15, Number 1: 4 January 2012

In light of their belief that climate change threatens to "increase the potential for soil erosion, reduce soil quality, lower agricultural productivity and negatively impact food security and global sustainability, making it one of the most severe challenges we will face in the 21st century," Lal et al. (2011) conducted a review of the scientific literature pertaining to these challenges to our ability to maintain a secure and sustainable food supply for humanity's still rapidly growing numbers. Yet even without the threat of CO2-induced climate change, the problems they discuss are problems that seem ever to be with us; and they will need resolving irrespective of whatever way or ways earth's climate may or may not change in the years and decades ahead; for as the six researchers have described the situation, "management decisions that maximize agricultural production and minimize environmental impacts to soil and water quality, in addition to helping us mitigate climate change and adapt to its effects [italics and bold added], will contribute to long-term sustainability and future food security," which latter two-part goal is shared by climate alarmists and skeptics alike. Hence, we can all learn something of value from what the six scientists have to say about these subjects.

In the high-profile area of carbon management as it pertains to carbon sequestration, which is a major component of climate-alarmist policy to reduce the rate of global warming, Lal et al. write that "conversion of natural systems to agricultural ecosystems (e.g., croplands, grazing lands) often leads to depletion of the terrestrial carbon pool because of deforestation, biomass burning, drainage and soil cultivation." But they add that "the soil organic carbon sink capacity of agricultural soils, created by the historic depletion of the soil organic carbon pool, can be regenerated through conversion to a restorative land use and adoption of those soil and crop management practices, which create a positive carbon budget," all of which things enhance the productivity of the farmland and improve food security.

Nitrogen management is another key issue, because, as the six scientists describe it, "nitrogen is central to living systems and is a primary constituent of nucleotides and proteins in plants, animals and microorganisms, regulating numerous essential ecological and biogeochemical processes." But too much of a good thing can sometimes be bad; as they write that "the demand and the pervasive inefficiencies in nitrogen use have, in some instances come at a significant societal cost through increased losses of nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, ammonia and nitrate," as well as via "increased deposition of nitrogen, contributing to well-documented environmental degradation, including increased coastal hypoxia, acidification of aquatic and soil systems, eutrophication and atmospheric warming." And they additionally note that "reactive nitrogen has been reported to have [negative] impacts on human health and [plant and animal] biodiversity." However -- and fortunately -- they note that "numerous management technologies have been proposed to mitigate nitrogen losses from agricultural systems and hence reduce the immediately available pool of reactive nitrogen," which technologies are once again things that people on both sides of the CO2/climate issue should look upon as positive tools for maintaining both a healthy and productive environment.

Many other land and water management topics are also addressed by Lal et al., including low agricultural input systems, grazing lands, riparian zones and wetlands; and in essentially all of these areas, the policies they promote are beneficial to the natural environment and conducive to the growing of sufficient food to adequately feed mankind's growing numbers. Therefore, the farm and range management techniques they discuss would indeed appear to comprise a set of actions that should be agreeable to climate alarmists and skeptics alike, allowing them to set their differences aside for the common good of both man and nature in at least this one aspect of this most critical endeavor.

Sherwood, Keith and Craig Idso

Reference
Lal, R., Delgado, J.A., Groffman, P.M., Millar, N., Dell, C. and Rotz, A. 2011. Management to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 66: 276-285.