I’m a climate change expert and I’m here to help you

On Friday, I heard a presentation by a bright, young woman who is a PhD student at McGill University. Bano Mehdi has two science degrees and extensive work experience on climate change issues. Her goal is to become a leading expert in the field of agriculture and climate change. She presented the usual data showing a warming world and making the link to greenhouse gas emissions. Where she raised my ire and the ire of other producers in the room was when she tried to extrapolate what climate change might mean for Canadian farmers and what we should be doing to adapt. The fancy models suggest the Canadian Prairies may be warmer but wetter in the years ahead. Will it be so warm that crops shrivel in the summer or will we benefit from a longer growing season? Will the extra precipitation shown by the models be enough to compensate for the higher temperatures? No one knows. The scientific intentions may be honourable, but it’s tough to take these vague climate forecasts seriously. Scientists have difficulty predicting next week’s weather. The seasonal, three-month forecasts are scarcely better than flipping a coin or reading the Farmers’ Almanac. Nebulous climate forecasts for five, ten and twenty years into the future are of very little practical use to producers. I’m Kevin Hursh.