Rising heat snuffs out plant fertilization
Pollination is at the heart of a plant's reproductive system, but climate change and rising heat are wreaking havoc on the process, according to FERN's latest story by Carolyn Beans, produced in collaboration with Yale Environment 360. "One point is becoming alarmingly clear to scientists: heat is a pollen killer. Even with adequate water, heat can damage pollen and prevent fertilization in canola and many other crops, including corn, peanuts, and rice," Beans writes.
Report calls for better protections of farmworkers
The government should restrict the use of dangerous pesticides on the farm and establish standards that protect farmworkers from heat-related illnesses, said a report by the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) at Vermont Law School on Tuesday. The center said its review of federal …
Too hot for farmworkers? There’s an app for that in California.
A team of graduate students at USC's engineering school are turning an idea from a high school student into a reality – a mobile computer application that will alert California farmworkers when temperatures top 95 F and to allow them to report unsafe working conditions to state regulators, says Civil Eats. "The next big step will come this summer, when they launch a pilot project of CalorApp with farmworkers at two companies, Fabbri Farms in Bakersfield and the Grapery in Shafter."
2016 temperatures, sea and CO2 levels highest on record
With temperatures approximately 1 degree Fahrenheit hotter than the average temperature from 1981 to 2010, 2016 was the hottest year on record, according to a report published by the American Meteorological Society. Last year was the third year in a row for record heat in the U.S.
Hot enough to kill a cow
Dairy farmers in three counties in California's Central Valley have temporary permission from local officials to bury or compost hundreds of cows that died in a June heat wave, says the Fresno Bee. Ordinarily, the dead animals would be sent to a rendering plant, but there are too many carcasses and a mechanical malfunction reduced the plant's capacity.
Climate change ushering in era of deadly heatwaves
Almost a third of the world population is now exposed to deadly heatwaves that are a result of climate change, says a study published in Nature Climate Change.