Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

A Biomass Future for the North American Great PlainsThe Wildcard of Climate Change

A Biomass Future for the North American Great Plains: The Wildcard of Climate Change CHAPTER 5 1. INTRODUCTION To this point we have examined the natural resources of the NAGP, its economy and the nature of current land use in the region. As explained in foregoing sec- tions, land use on the Plains has evolved as the result of historical forces in response to changing demographics, economic conditions, and public policy. But until now public policy, rules for managing the Missouri River dams, drought mitigation programs, etc., as well as general and public expectations, continue to rest on the assumption that the climate of the region, while encompassing large and sometimes dramatic day-to-day and year-to-year variability, is essentially stable and fundamentally unchanging. Yet all of us have memories that lead to such thoughts as …“winters sure ain’t what they used to be”…or….“spring doesn’t last as long as it used to”…or…“the rains are getting heavier and heavier”…, and so on. Such musings imply that the climate is changing. However, until the last decade or so there was little evidence that what some perceive as “change” actually lies outside the range of normal climate variability. But an emerging body of evidence that squares well with this theory indicates that climate is, indeed, now changing—globally, not http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Biomass Future for the North American Great PlainsThe Wildcard of Climate Change

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/a-biomass-future-for-the-north-american-great-plains-the-wildcard-of-g8FK3v9CFw

References (0)

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Copyright
© Springer 2007
ISBN
978-1-4020-5600-0
Pages
81 –102
DOI
10.1007/978-1-4020-5601-7_5
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

CHAPTER 5 1. INTRODUCTION To this point we have examined the natural resources of the NAGP, its economy and the nature of current land use in the region. As explained in foregoing sec- tions, land use on the Plains has evolved as the result of historical forces in response to changing demographics, economic conditions, and public policy. But until now public policy, rules for managing the Missouri River dams, drought mitigation programs, etc., as well as general and public expectations, continue to rest on the assumption that the climate of the region, while encompassing large and sometimes dramatic day-to-day and year-to-year variability, is essentially stable and fundamentally unchanging. Yet all of us have memories that lead to such thoughts as …“winters sure ain’t what they used to be”…or….“spring doesn’t last as long as it used to”…or…“the rains are getting heavier and heavier”…, and so on. Such musings imply that the climate is changing. However, until the last decade or so there was little evidence that what some perceive as “change” actually lies outside the range of normal climate variability. But an emerging body of evidence that squares well with this theory indicates that climate is, indeed, now changing—globally, not

Published: Jan 1, 2007

Keywords: Climate Change Impact; Great Plain; Incoming Solar Radiation; Epic Model; Global Mean Temper

There are no references for this article.