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Nearly two decades of "abnor–
mally" good weather in Amer–
ica 's Midwest breadbasket are
about over. Elsewhere in the
world, ominous shifts in críti–
ca/ monsoon patterns could
mean historically unprece–
dented hunger and starvation
for up to half the human race!
San
Franci~co. Califorr~ia
N
EVER HAS
mankind been so
critically dependen! upon
the weather - continuous
good weather.
It
means the differ-
Do With Changing Climate." The
session was held during the annual
meeting of the renowned American
Associaúon for the Advancement of
Science. The meeting should have
received far wider publicity in the
news media than it did.
One after another, weather spe–
cialists wamed that the world today
is
more sensitive to climate variation
than ever before. The simple fact is
that over the past 40 years, produc–
tion of the critica! "staff of life"
grains has been concentrated in
fewer and fewer areas around the
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world. Therefore. as sympo-
tween
c iency
and
starvation for the
world's 3.7 billion in–
habitants.
World population con–
tinues to grow at a rate which
doubles every 36 years. Yet there
are only enough food grains in store
at any one time to cover 7 to 10
percent of the annual worldwide re–
quirements. This amounts to less
than a one-month's supply!
Scientists Deeply Concerned
Here in San Francisco. concerned
scientists probed deeply into the
looming crisis at a symposium en–
titled "To Feed the World: What to
sium chairman George
J.
Kukla emphasized, "the
world economy is more
dependen! on
local
weather variables."
One has to be here to
understand just how impor–
tant this last factor is. Do we
realize that the United States and
Canada supply two thirds of the
wheat exports of the world? These
two countries. along with Australia
and Argentina, now comprise "the
granary" of the world.
What happens, then, in the gran–
ary is most importan
t.
And what sci–
entists are beginning to see are sorne
potentially disastrous signs.
" Good Times" Over in
U.S. Breadbasket?
The fact is (unappreciated by
most Americans, undoubtedly) that
the rich agricultura! heartland of the
United States has enjoyed excep–
tionaUy good weather for the past
15 to 20 years. Since the breaking of
the last significan! U.S. drought in
1957, the United States Midwest
grainbelt has experienced a virtually
unbroken weather boom.
When stacked up against U.S.
Weather Service records covering
the last 75 years, the experts assem–
bled concluded that the past two
decades have been,
in
their anal–
yses, "abnormally good."
"We've been spared the bad years
recently." meteorologist Donald
Gillman told newsmen. Gillman,
the long-range weather predictor for
the U.S. National Weather Service,
further stressed that "sorne kind of
climatic jolt seems almost certain"
to restare more normal conditions -
by sheer logic if nothing else!
While
it
is still too early to prove
that such a climate reversa! is
in–
deed taking place, Dr. Gillman
voiced concern over three unfavor–
able climatic changes which oc–
curred abruptly in the last two years
in world temperate zones:
(l)
the
hot, dry, once-in-a-century Russian
summer of 1972 (2) the cold, wet
American fall of 1972 and (3) the
wet spring that followed
in
1973. All
three represented departures from
"abnormally good" wea ther pat–
terns and could portend a definite
shifl into a new climate regime.
Farm Practicas Hinge on
" Perfect Conditions"
Another weather expert, Wayne
Decker. professor of atmospheric
science at the University of Mis–
souri, examined the possible impact
of drought in the United States
upon current food-growing tech–
nology. Decker emphasized that
contemporary farming practices are
geared to a continuance of the good
weather years which we have come
to take for granted. The many high–
yield varieties of grains now in use
have been specifically tailored to
produce prodigious yields under
op–
timum weather conditions.
These
varieties, explained professor Dec–
ker, remain untested in "stress
times" - that is, periods of less than
adequate rainfall.
Many of the older, so-called
primitive varieties, though they
yield considerably less per acre, can
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