Posted on 17 August 2019 by John Hartz

Editor's Pick

In Iowa, Candidates Are Talking About Farming's Climate Change Connections Like No Previous Election

About half the candidates have policy proposals or statements addressing climate change impacts on agriculture or farming's potential as a climate solution.

The Democrats running for president were all over the Iowa State Fair the past two weeks, and they're talking about agriculture connections to climate change. Credit: Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren munched on corn dogs. Pete Buttigieg opted for pork-on-a-stick. Kamala Harris flipped burgers and joked that she could "flip Republicans," too.

As the Democratic candidates for president made their requisite swing through the Iowa State Fair this week, they stumped near hay bales and posted about it on Twitter. They also brought an unprecedented focus on agriculture's connections with climate change—an issue that's getting more traction among rural Midwestern voters and farmers in the wake of massive flooding and heat waves.

Of the two dozen candidates vying to challenge President Donald Trump next year, at least eight have released rural policy platforms. Three—Sens. Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand—rolled out their platforms just before the fair. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, released his this week.

"Climate change is not happening in a hundred years, it's happening right now," Klobuchar told a crowd in a 20-minute stump speech. "We can do a lot with soil and conservation." 

In Iowa, Candidates Are Talking About Farming's Climate Change Connections Like No Previous Election by Georgina Gustin, Inside Climate News, Aug 15, 2019

Links posted on Facebook

Sun Aug 11, 2019

• Rising emissions could drain foods like rice and wheat of their nutrients, causing a slow-moving global food crisis by Aylin Woodward, Business Insider, Aug 9, 2019
• India plants 220 million trees in a single day by Sophie Lewis, Climate Change, CBS News, Aug 9, 2019
• Europe’s record heat melted Swiss glaciers by Chelsea Harvey, E&E News/Science Magazine, Aug 5, 2019
• Bolsonaro has blessed ‘brutal' assault on Amazon, sacked scientist warns by Tom Phillips, World, Guardian, Aug 9, 2019
• Change food production and stop abusing land, major climate report warns by Isabelle Gerretsen, World, CNN, Aug 8, 2019
• Climate change is sapping nutrients from our food — and it could become a global crisis, Opinion by Samuel Meyers, Washington Post, Aug 5, 2019
• What I learned writing about climate change and the US south for a year by Megan Mayhew Bergman, Environment, Guardian, Aug 7, 2019
• The Energy 202: A 'climate corps' is core to many 2020 Democrats' environmental plans by Dino Grandoni, Power Post, Washington Post, Aug 8, 2019

Mon Aug 12, 2019

• Climate crisis: ‘We don’t fly to go on holiday now – and it doesn’t cost the earth’ by Suzanne Bearne, Money, Guardian, Aug 10, 2019
• How to cope with climate change anxiety by Milly Evans, Patient, Aug 6, 2019
• Greenland’s Rapid Melting Is a Hugely Underplayed Story, Opinion by Stephen L Carter, Bloomberg News, Aug 10, 2019
• 'Ecological grief': Greenland residents traumatised by climate emergency by Dan McDougall, Guardian, Aug 12, 2019
• What Worries Iceland? A World Without Ice. It Is Preparing by Liz Alderman, Business, New York Times, Aug 9, 2019
• 'No need' for German Amazon aid: Brazil's Bolsonaro, Deutsche Welle (DW), Aug 11, 2019
• Reporting on the State of the Climate in 2018 by Jessica Blunden, Understanding Climate, NOAA's Climate.gov, Aug 12, 2019
• Colorado’s most powerful climate tool isn’t what you think by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, Aug 12, 2019

Tue Aug 13, 2019

• Earth’s Food Supply Is Under Threat. These Fixes Would Go a Long Way. by Somini Sengupta, Climate, New York Times, Aug 9, 2019
• New York Times op-ed criticizing teen climate activist Greta Thunberg just validated months of bad faith right-wing attacks by Ted MacDonald, Media Matters for America, Aug 6, 2019
• West Antarctica is melting—and it’s our fault by Alejandra Borunda, Environment, National Geographic, Aug 12, 2019
• World's largest urban farm to open – on a Paris rooftop by Caroline Harrap, Cities, Guardian, Aug 13, 2019
• Public far ahead of politics on climate emergency, Opinion by Seth Klein, Canada's National Observer, Aug 12, 2019
• Trump's Rollback of Fuel Economy Standards Could Cost Americans $460 Billion: Consumer Reports by Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, Aug 7, 2019
• States Sue to Block New Power Plant Rule, Force EPA to Combat Climate Change by Karen Savage, Climate Liability News, Aug 13, 2019
• The Republican Climate Closet, Opinion by Justin Gillis, New York Times, Aug 12, 2019

Wed Aug 14, 2019

• An evangelical leader calls young Christians to save the planet by Kate Yoder, Grist, Aug 12, 2019
• Dave Eggers: why we should listen to teenagers speak about climate crisis, Environment, Guardian, Aug 11, 2018
• Heat-trapping gases broke records in 2018, climate report finds by Emily Holden, Environment, Guardian, Aug 13, 2019
• Trump Weakens Endangered Species Protections, Making It Harder to Consider Effects of Climate Change by Sabrina Shankman, InsideClimate News, Aug 12, 2019
• From not having kids to battling anxiety: Climate change is shaping life choices and affecting mental health by Elizabeth Lawrence & Elinor Aspegren, Nation, USA TODAY, Aug 14, 2019
• Greta Thunberg sets sail for New York on zero-carbon yacht by Jonathan Watts, Environment, Guardian, Aug 14, 2019
• When Will All the Ice in the Arctic Be Gone? by Julienne Stroeve, Sustainability, Scientific American, Aug 14, 2019
• Architectural history offers clues to low-carbon relief from the heat by Sarah Wesseler, Yale Climate Connections, Aug 14, 2019

Thu Aug 15, 2019

• Global Warming Is Worsening China's Pollution Problems, Studies Show by Phil McKenna, InsideClimate News, Aug 14, 2019
• Fracking Boom in US and Canada Largely to Blame for 'Massive' Rise of Global Methane Levels: Study by Julia Conley, Common Dreams, Aug 14, 2019
• Why Your Brain Can’t Process Climate Change by Bryan Walsh, Ideas, Time Magazine, Aug 14, 2019
• The great electric car race is just beginning by Charles Riley, CNN Business, Aug, 2019
• Companies May Limit Life-saving Climate Data to Clients that Can Pay by Geoff Dembicki, Climate, Ensia/Scientific American, Aug 15, 2019
• The GOP’s climate change dilemma by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, Aug 13, 2019
• Millions of times later, 97 percent climate consensus still faces denial by Dana Nuccitelli, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Aug 15, 2019

Fri Aug 16, 2019

• Arctic permafrost is thawing fast. That affects us all. by Craig Welch, Environment, National Geographic, Sep 2019 Print Edition
• U.S. scientist to file whistleblower complaint after agency halts his climate work by Timothy Gardner, Reuters, Aug 15, 2019
• Scott Morrison's betrayal of the Pacific was immoral – and completely unnecessary, Opinion by Nicky Ison, Comment is Free, Guardian, Aug 16, 2019
• Molly Ivins on Climate Change Deniers, Texas Observer, Sep 2019 Print Edition
• Chopping down and burning our forests for electricity is not a climate solution, Opinion by Mary Anne Hitt & Danna Smith, The Hill, Aug 10, 2019
• Video: The North Atlantic ocean current, which warms northern Europe, may be slowing by Peter Sinclair, Yale Climate Connections, Aug 15, 2019
• July was Earth’s hottest month since records began, with the globe missing 1 million square miles of sea ice by Andrew Freedman, Capital Weather Gang, Aug 15, 2019
• Will I be able to tell when we’ve reached a climate tipping point? by Eve Andrews, Ask Umbra, Grist, Aug 15, 2019

Sat Aug 17, 2019

• Scott Morrison blasted by Pacific heat while trying to project calm on climate by Katharine Murphy, Environment, Guardian, Aug 16, 2019
• Sydney dams set to drop below half capacity for first time since 2004 by Peter Hannam, Sydney Morning Herald, Aug 15, 2019
• Storytelling is fueling climate conversations at Appalachian State University by Laura England, Yale Climate Connections, Aug 13, 2019
• Top climate scientist: I put myself through hell as an IPCC convening lead author, but it was worth it by Pete Smith, The Conversation UK, Aug 15, 2019
• In Iowa, Candidates Are Talking About Farming's Climate Change Connections Like No Previous Election by Georgina Gustin, Inside Climate News, Aug 15, 2019
• Scientists decry 'ignorance’ of rolling back species protections in the midst of a mass extinction, Analysis by Christopher Ingram, Business, Washington Post, Aug 16, 2019
• The U.S. left a hole in leadership on climate. China is filling it. by Luiza Ch. Savage, Global Translations, Politico, Aug 15, 2019
• Sea level rise could claim Mar-a-Lago — and Trump’s empire, Opinion by Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, Aug 15, 2019