Global Issues: Adapting to Environmental Change

“As global warming intensifies droughts and floods, causing crop failures in many parts of the world, Canada may see something different: a farming expansion. Rising temperatures could open millions of once frigid acres to the plow, officials, farmers and scientists predict. In the country’s three prairie provinces alone—vast swaths of flat land in central Canada covering an area more than twice the size of France—the amount of arable land could rise between 26 and 40 percent by 2040. . . . Farmers hope the country of 35 million will be able to capitalize on the opportunities presented by warmer conditions—including by exporting more food to other regions hard-hit by increasing heat and crop failure. . . . As rising heat and more extreme weather cut harvests in some southern regions, hungry mouths across the developing world may turn to northern nations like Canada for help, experts predict.” —“In Canada, climate change could open new farmland to the plow,” by Chris Arsenault, Reuters, 2017

Which U.S. state might, like Canada, may become more suitable for agriculture because of global warming?

“As global warming intensifies droughts and floods, causing crop failures in many parts of the world, Canada may see something different: a farming expansion. Rising temperatures could open millions of once frigid acres to the plow, officials, farmers and scientists predict. In the country’s three prairie provinces alone—vast swaths of flat land in central Canada covering an area more than twice the size of France—the amount of arable land could rise between 26 and 40 percent by 2040. . . . Farmers hope the country of 35 million will be able to capitalize on the opportunities presented by warmer conditions—including by exporting more food to other regions hard-hit by increasing heat and crop failure. . . . As rising heat and more extreme weather cut harvests in some southern regions, hungry mouths across the developing world may turn to northern nations like Canada for help, experts predict.” —“In Canada, climate change could open new farmland to the plow,” by Chris Arsenault, Reuters, 2017

How might climate change impact food production in the next few decades?

“Few species manipulate their surroundings enough to make big ecological changes. Humans are one. Beavers are another. At one point, the rodents numbered in the hundreds of millions in North America, changing the ecological workings of countless streams and rivers. As settlers moved West, they hunted and trapped them to near extinction. Now there are new efforts across the Western U.S. to understand what makes them tick, mimic their engineering skills, boost their numbers, and in turn, get us more comfortable with the way they transform rivers and streams. Much like us, beavers build dams along streams for their own benefit. They make ponds to protect their lodges and flood areas to increase the vegetation they feed on and use for building materials. While their motivations are selfish, in the process they end up helping their woodland friends, like elk, moose, birds, fish and insects. Scientists have shown we get lots of benefits, too. Beaver dams improve water quality, trap and store carbon—and in the aggregate could be a significant way of storing groundwater in dry climates.” —“The Bountiful Benefits of Bringing Back the Beavers,” Luke Runyon, NPR, 2018

. According to the passage, how are people and beavers alike?

“Few species manipulate their surroundings enough to make big ecological changes. Humans are one. Beavers are another. At one point, the rodents numbered in the hundreds of millions in North America, changing the ecological workings of countless streams and rivers. As settlers moved West, they hunted and trapped them to near extinction. Now there are new efforts across the Western U.S. to understand what makes them tick, mimic their engineering skills, boost their numbers, and in turn, get us more comfortable with the way they transform rivers and streams. Much like us, beavers build dams along streams for their own benefit. They make ponds to protect their lodges and flood areas to increase the vegetation they feed on and use for building materials. While their motivations are selfish, in the process they end up helping their woodland friends, like elk, moose, birds, fish and insects. Scientists have shown we get lots of benefits, too. Beaver dams improve water quality, trap and store carbon—and in the aggregate could be a significant way of storing groundwater in dry climates.” —“The Bountiful Benefits of Bringing Back the Beavers,” Luke Runyon, NPR, 2018

Which statement is supported by the passage?