Manitoba climatologist Danny Blair

Climate Atlas proposed as long-term planning tool

University of Winnipeg climatologist Danny Blair wants everyone to have accessible information through an easy-to-read mapping database called the Climate Atlas of Manitoba

A University of Winnipeg climatologist and a small team of researchers are working to develop high-quality maps they say will project what sort of climate agro-Manitoba is likely to have in the next half-century. The Climate Atlas of Manitoba will be a set of accessible, easy-to-understand data, based and calculated on past trends and future


grapes on a vine

Swedish Merlot, anyone? Warmer world boosts Nordic tipples

Vineyards are where people expect polar bears, grower says

On one of the world’s northernmost frontiers, grapevines are growing on hillsides and talk among farmers is about “terroir” and “aroma” as global warming and new technology push the boundaries of wine growing. “Maybe a touch of raspberry?” opined Wenche Hvattum, one of two farmers at the Lerkekasa vineyard west of Oslo — on the

people on a beach protesting climate change

Study finds farmers and scientists divided over climate change

Focusing on the cause tends to polarize and politicize the discussion, which delays adaptation

Crop producers and scientists hold deeply different views on climate change and its possible causes, a study by Purdue and Iowa State universities shows. Associate professor of natural resource social science, Linda Prokopy and fellow researchers surveyed 6,795 people in the agricultural sector in 2011-12 to determine their beliefs about climate change and whether variation


Difficult questions

The short-term questions arising from what is shaping up to be another billion-dollar-plus flood for the province are clear, although they may not be easily answered. How do you care for livestock that has no pasture and for which there is vastly reduced prospects for winter feed? Or how to get people back into their

Car exhaust muffler

Odds slim to none that global warming natural

It doesn’t matter how you cut the numbers, 
human activity is behind it

An analysis of temperature data since 1500 all but rules out the possibility that global warming in the industrial era is just a natural fluctuation in the Earth’s climate, according to a new study by McGill University physics professor, Shaun Lovejoy. The study, published online April 6 in the journal Climate Dynamics, represents a new


Dead cow carcass

Climate change will reduce crop yields sooner than we thought

Despite farm efforts at adaptation, yields are expected to decrease as much as 25 per cent in the second half of this century

A study led by the University of Leeds has shown that global warming of only 2 C will be detrimental to crops in temperate and tropical regions, with reduced yields from the 2030s onwards. Professor Andy Challinor, from the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds and lead author of the study,

Wild weather puts climate back on global agenda

Kerry says climate change a ‘weapon of mass destruction’

Bitter cold in the United States might appear to contradict the notion of global warming, but with Britain’s wettest winter and Australia’s hottest summer, extreme weather events have pushed climate change back on the political agenda. A spluttering world economy had sapped political interest in the billion-dollar shifts from fossil fuels that scientists say are


Tractor in a field.

U.S. to launch ‘climate hubs’ to help farmers face climate change

Climate hubs will act as information centres to help farmers handle risks

President Barack Obama’s administration is setting up seven “climate hubs” to help farmers and rural communities adapt to extreme weather conditions and other effects of climate change, a White House official said. The hubs will act as information centres and aim to help farmers and ranchers handle risks, including fires, pests, floods and droughts, that

Wasp laying eggs.

Temperature swings hard on insects

The research is changing how scientists view the effect of climate change on plants and animals

Many species of insects, including a wasp commonly used for biocontrol in Canada, are at risk due to increasing dramatic temperature changes related to global warming. Increasingly extreme swings in temperature may put some insects at higher risk than previously thought, according to a new study published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society