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Greetings from C-CIARN Agriculture, Our office continues to work through details for maintaining C-CIARN Agriculture services and resources for this fiscal year and shall inform network members as soon as final decisions are made. In the meantime, we will do our best to keep you updated on climate change impacts and adaptation issues for Canadian agriculture. The French language version of the report from our Symposium, Climate Change and Canadian Society, held in conjunction with the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences (University of Western Ontario, June 2/05), is now available here 1. Climate Change and Water in the Prairies June 21-23, 2006 This interdisciplinary conference will explore the challenges of combining physical and socio-economic planning in a region facing population, commercial and industrial growth; increasing demands for water and other natural resources; socio-political and legal issues related to water access, licensing, inter-jurisdictional and inter-basin transfers; and stakeholder involvement in integrated water resource management. Details available here 2. HOLIVAR2006 Conference June 12-15, 2006 Natural Climate Variability and Global Warming Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London, UK Registration deadline: May 1, 2006 Detailed information: www.holivar2006.org 3. The Agricultural Institute of Canada is issuing a second call for abstracts of presentations and posters for their upcoming conference Innovation for Growth: Trends and Successes Redefining Agriculture" that is being held November 5-8, 2006 at the Fairmont Winnipeg, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. There are still openings in the following Agricultural Institute of Canada conference sessions, and in the Poster Session (presentations should clearly address innovation): Economics, Marketing and Trade Policies and Programs Innovative Resource Management Community and Social Considerations Innovation in On-Farm Production Science and Technology Biotechnology Beneficial Management Practices 150-300 word abstracts should be submitted electronically in either Word or WordPerfect format to profedge@renc.igs.net by Tuesday, June 9, 2006. More details at: http://www.aic.ca/ The Dec 2006 Berlin Conference has been endorsed by the core projects ‘Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change’ and ‘Industrial Transformation’ of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). The 2006 Berlin Conference is organised by the Freie Universität Berlin (Environmental Policy Research Centre), the Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin (Department of Resource Economics), the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) and the Institute for Ecological Economic Research (IÖW). 1. A web site devoted to climate change and agriculture in the Northeastern U.S. has been launched recently. This resource was developed by several science experts, with funding from a USDA-SARE grant. It has downloadable "fact sheets" and powerpoint presentations (with detailed notes for slides) on topics ranging from: basic climate science and evidence of climate change in the NE; impacts on crops, insects, pests, pathogens, weeds, and livestock; energy use on farms; and opportunities for farmers to enter the energy marketplace (e.g., growing "fuel" crops). There also is a comprehensive section of related weblinks. Details at: http://www.climateandfarming.org/ 2. Thomas Brewer ( Georgetown University, Washington, DC) maintains a web site with a great deal of information on U.S. climate change policy and issues. For instance he monitors and reports on U.S. Public Opinion and has recently posted a new file with charts that highlight key features of the US administration's proposed climate change budget for fiscal year 2007. It is available at www.usclimatechange.com 3. From New Zealand, the abstracts and presentations from a drought workshop held in 2006 are now available here 4. A new climate change internet search engine is now available: Climate Ark Climate Change and Global Warming Portal http://www.climateark.org/ Plant genetics are changing the landscape of Midwest agriculture Agnet | by Tom Webb | May 2, 2006 Iowa and Minnesota are still "Field of Dreams" territory for corn, but now, according to this story, so is a good chunk of North Dakota, which was once considered too chilly for raising corn and soybeans. Ditto Minnesota's Red River Valley. And Kansas, which features wheat on its license plates, now grows more corn than wheat, despite its hot and dry summers. What's changing the Midwest is, the story says, plant genetics. High-tech varieties of corn and soybeans are letting farmers reliably grow row crops where they never could before, and the results are confounding the grain trade. The change has been building for several years, but the magnitude of the shift finally hit home last fall, when a severe summer drought wracked the eastern Corn Belt, yet the crop flourished, to the astonishment of many. Climate change threatens sugar bush The Star | by Cameron Smith | April 29, 2006 Preliminary research shows that within 20 years, not much of a maple sugar industry will be left in the US. In Canada, the industry will remain viable during those 20 years, but over 90 years the range for sugar maple trees will shift northward by up to two degrees latitude - that's the equivalent of shifting north from Sherbrooke to Trois Rivieres in Quebec, or from Brockville to Arnprior in Ontario. now, this can be read as a climate change horror story or as an early warning to start preparations for adapting to change. The history of the world is a history of change and adaptation. One of the major recommendations in the study is that more research be undertaken right away, which makes sense because trees need to be 40 to 50 years old before tapping can begin - so the 90-year time span for the northward shifting shrinks very close to the present as far as preparations are concerned. All for now, Ellen Wall ewall@uoguelph.ca Co-ordinator, C-CIARN Agriculture (Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Network for Agriculture) Blackwood Hall (Room 202) University of Guelph Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1 Phone: 519 824 4120 ext 58480 Fax: 519 763 4686 http://www.c-ciarn.uoguelph.ca |
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