Blown Away By the Climate Change Debate

Is global climate change real? I don't know for certain, but I am definitely a skeptic. In my opinion, a group of neglected climatologists started looking for juicy gossip to breathe new life in the profession. They threw out a bunch of ideas, and climate change seemed intriguing.

Climate change has been a trendy topic in the early 2000s, but I can't see the argument adding up to much.

For starters, the debate is championed by the same goofball that said he invented the Internet. Second, I have spent a good portion of my life outdoors, and weather seems to be a zero-sum game. Some years are warmer and some are cooler, but in all, I'm not trading in my coveralls for t-shirts. Then, climategate only deepened my suspicions.

I don't believe the ocean caps are turning to mush, polar bears are going extinct and the the world is melting. Could it happen? Absolutely. Does my disbelief make me an evil, earth-destroying heathen? I don't think so. I simply think the debate is irrational.

Farmers and ranchers are some of the world's best conservationists. Caring for the land and animals they raise is essential to productivity, but good stewardship is more just a profit motive. It's woven in the fabric of rural America. Producers don't take their responsibility lightly.

It's easy to see why farmers were suspicious of the 2006 U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's Report Livestock's Long Shadow. The report attributed 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions to livestock production, nearly 3 times as much as the EPA estimates had indicated.

The problem came when producers tried to counter the report. They had little information to debunk the suspected bad science. Since the 2006 report, the agriculture industry has been  investing time and resources into researching the sustainability of agriculture and contributions across the industry to GHG emissions. The great news is they haven't been alone in the search for answers.

My opinion of climatologists was salvaged a bit while attending Cattlemen's Day 2010 at Kansas State University. I encourage you to watch the presentation from Dr. Patrick Michaels, George Mason University. He didn't hide any punches as he spoke about climate change and its influence on agriculture.

The videos long, but Dr. Michaels knows how to capture the attention of a room full of cattlemen. I think you'll enjoy his imitations of Al Gore and reason for driving a Prius.

Also, CNN, Fox News and The U.K. Telegraph featured stories this week on comments made by Frank Mitloehner, air quality specialist at the University of California Davis, at an American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco. He said the U.N. estimates confused people with a "classic apples-to-oranges analogy."

"We certainly can reduce our greenhouse gas production, but not by consuming less meat and milk," he said.

We can't let climate change to stifle our creativity in meeting the goals of feeding a growing world. It's time to consider every option on the table. That means thinking about the environment, technology, profitability and world hunger as a balancing act where the best production methods prevail.

Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/ member Kyle May