Cornell Climate Stewards

Forget the winter of our discontent. For Northeasterners enduring one of the coldest, snowiest seasons in decades, it’s the winter of our exasperation, full-on funk and enough-is-enough rage.

From slush-covered Manhattan intersections to snow-choked Boston streets, moods are as low and tempers short as a record-breaking winter seems to have gone on all too long. …

The when-will-it-end winter has even spawned a Twitter hashtag, # nomoresnow, and prompted the tourism office in Ithaca, New York, to declare “winter, you win,” suggesting visitors try the Florida Keys instead.

The Northeast was “the standout globally” for being colder than normal in February, saidArt DeGaetano, director of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. At least seven cities — including Hartford, Connecticut; Worcester, Massachusetts, and Buffalo, New York — had their coldest months on record.

Read the whole article.

CICCA researchers will participate in the 2015 Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Conference in Montpellier, France, March 16-18, 2015.  See CICCA’s poster presentation for Farmer-Driven Climate Smart Decision-Making for the Northeastern United States.

The Montpellier global science conference will:

• Address key research issues, gather CSA facts and figures from developing and developed countries and support a collaborative effort with broad social participation. The conference takes place a few months before the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, Paris, France, December 2015). The conference will therefore provide a unique opportunity for the research community to update knowledge on CSA and to provide recommendations for policymakers.
• Pave the road for future cooperation initiatives to be taken in terms of joint and collaborative scientific efforts.

For more information on the conference, see CSA Global Science Conference, or contact Allison Chatrchyan.

Thanks to a changing environment, trees and other plants experience advanced budding and blooming – or season creep. Toby Ault, assistant professor of earth and atmospheric science, will discuss “springcasting” in a public webinar hosted by USA National Phenology Network on Tuesday, March 3, at 12:30 p.m.

“The timing of spring in North America is marked by the return of warmer weather, migrations of animals, birds and insects, and the emergence of foliage after being dormant through the winter,” said Ault, who directs Cornell’s Emerging Climate Risk Lab.

Ault will present an overview of climate patterns giving rise to year-to-year variations in the timing of North American spring. “I’ll connect these fluctuations in the world’s oceans and atmosphere to the kinds of observations made on the ground by citizen scientists collaborating with the National Phenology Network,” he said.

Viewers can log on to the webinar at https://www.usanpn.org/nn/Webinars.

Ault also will describe his lab’s pilot program on springcasting, which will allow scientists and observers to engage in dialogue about spring “green-up” and “leaf-out” as it happens.

Using historical observations of the timing of leaf-out and bloom in cloned lilacs, honeysuckle and gathering data from nearby weather stations, scientists have been able to determine the weather conditions that precede spring leaf emergence in these plants, as a composite for nature’s “start of spring.” Ault will describe how this springcast work extends to many other species and has direct utility to economic sectors.

On December 3, 2014, Dr. Allison Chatrchyan and Dr. Art DeGaetano gave expert presentations as part of the Stone Barns Center 7th Annual National Young Farmers Conference, providing participants with access to inspiring keynotes and unique workshops that address soil science, technical skills, agricultural policy, farm business management, conservation and more.

The CICCA presentations were part of the Pre-Conference on Agroecology and Climate Change, which was organized as a day of workshops and conversations with scientists, farmers and policy experts to explore issues related to agriculture and climate change, with a focus on mitigation and adaptation strategies. Dr. Chatrchyan provide an interdisciplinary overview of “Climate Change Impacts on Farms in the Northeast: Adaptation, Mitigation, Policy and Stakeholder Engagement Options,” while Dr. DeGaetano provided an overview of the science of climate change in a presentation on “Climate Change and Farming: Where We’ve Been, and Where We’re Going.

The Pre-Conference was covered by the national media:

• NY Times Dot Earth Blog, by Andrew Revkin
• Huffington Post, by Corinna Clendenen
• Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture

The League of Women Voters of Tompkins County and Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County (CCE-Tompkins) are hosting a seminar on:

Responding to Climate Change Can’t Wait: Two Examples

Monday, November 17, 2014: 7:00–8:30pm
Tompkins County Public Library-Borg Warner Room
101 E. Green Street
Ithaca, New York 14850

The Program features two Speakers:

• Climate Change, Food and Farming in the Northeast: Allison Chatrchyan, Director, Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture
• Slowing, Sinking and Spreading Water in Tompkins County in the Face of Climate Change: Scott Doyle, Senior Planner, Tompkins County Planning Department

The Program is Free and open to the public.

Albany, NY – On September 26, 2014, seven faculty from the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture (CICCA) provided a climate change briefing for the New York Governors Office and Executive Agencies on “Perspectives from Cornell as part of Climate Week in New York State.”

Cornell faculty, including Drs. Art DeGaetano, Shorna Allred, David Wolfe, Rebecca Schneider, Toby Ault, Mike Hoffmann, and Allison Chatrchyan, provided updates on Climate Change Science and Impacts in New York; New Yorkers’ Beliefs and Actions on Climate Change; Implications for NYS Agriculture and Natural Resources; Guidelines for Sustainable Water Resource Management as an Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change; Understanding near-term Climate Variability and Change; and Partnerships and Economic Opportunities in the Northeast.

The briefing was attended by staff from the Governor’s office, as well as representatives from NYS Ag and Markets, the NYS Department for Environmental Conservation; NYSERDA; NYS Department of Education; and other agencies. For more information on the briefing, contact CICCA Director, Allison Chatrchyan at amc256@cornell.edu.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has released updated projections of climate changes in New York State – changes that are already affecting the state and will likely result in greater impacts on flooding, agriculture, winter tourism, and many other areas in the future. This update uses the latest generation of climate models and methods to determine potential changes to New York State’s climate as a result of increasing greenhouse gas emissions. The results reinforce the importance of preparing New York for the realities of a changing climate.

As the understanding of climate science improves, it is important to re-evaluate the expected changes to New York State’s climate on a regular basis, to ensure that our responses remain relevant, effective, and based on the most up-to-date science. Released in 2011, “Responding to Climate Change in New York State: The ClimAID Integrated Assessment for Effective Climate Change Adaptation” is a 600-page report that presents the projected changes in climate for seven geographic regions of the state, ranging from the coasts of Long Island to the mountains of the Adirondacks and the farms of Western New York.

This 2014 update to the climate chapter of the original report presents refined projections for the seven regions based on additional and newer models, updated methods and science, and new emissions scenarios. The study fine-tunes projections for variables such as sea level rise and extreme events like downpours and heat waves. This update also extends the projections through 2100. The new climate projections for New York State use methods developed by the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) to provide updated climate information for the City following Hurricane Sandy. The climate projections for Region 4 (New York City and Long Island) in this update report were created as part of the NPCC process. The interactions between the City and State are illustrative of the cross-scale linkages that are essential to building climate resilience.

The original ClimAID report also detailed the potential impacts of these changes on eight sectors across the state: water resources, coastal zones, ecosystems, agriculture, energy, transportation, telecommunications and public health, as well as steps that government, businesses, and private citizens can take to adapt to those impacts. In general, the updated study confirmed and refined previous projections:

• Sea level could rise significantly, permanently flooding some areas and increasing the likelihood of damage to coastal infrastructure from storm surge, including roads and bridges.
• Inland and upstate, heavy downpours and subsequent flooding are expected to increase. In the winter, more rainstorms in place of snow are expected.
• While winters will be milder, summers are expected to see more extreme and longer heat waves, with more droughts as well.

The climate projections update to the original report was conducted by Columbia University researchers, with input from Cornell University and Hunter College at the City University of New York. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and NOAA Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast scientists also contributed to the work.

A copy of the study, as well as other climate research documents, is available at www.nyserda.ny.gov/ClimAID.

From the Webster Post [2014-08-03]:

By Julie Sherwood

Canandaigua, N.Y. – Vineyard damage in the Finger Lakes has ranged from 50 to 90 percent in some areas due to this year’s harsh weather.Spring floods washed out fields and delayed planting of many crops, as well as causing structural and road damage. Flash floods struck again this past Monday, July 28, wiping out fields in some areas not to mention flooding roads, homes and businesses — especially hard hit were Richmond and Canadice in Ontario County. Richmond in one day got an unprecedented 10.22 inches of rain, according to Weather Underground. Then, on Thursday, hail struck Geneva and photos and videos of the latest weird weather event lit up on social media.

“Extreme weather is definitely the new normal,” said Mark Nicholson, co-owner of Red Jacket Orchards, a third-generation family fruit farm in Geneva.”

“…While a certain amount of extreme weather events are to be expected, the frequency and severity of such dramatic events — from floods to drought and from overwhelming heat to bitter cold — present evidence of climate change.

“In New York, the average summer temperature is 2 degrees warmer than in 1970, and the average winter temperature is 4 degrees warmer. The earth is now warmer than it has been during the past several 1,000 years, and the climate models project a continuation of this trend, according to Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture, which facilitates research, education and outreach to reduce the collective impact of agriculture on the climate and help farmers become more resilient to climate change. …

“At Empire Farm Days this coming week, two experts will provide viewpoints and information on the effects of weather and climate on agriculture. Allison M. Chatrchyan, Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture director and faculty fellow with Cornell’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, will present ‘Climate Change on Farming in a More Extreme and Variable Climate.’ Josh Nichols, a News 10NBC meteorologist who teaches weather and climate at Monroe Community College, will talk on ‘Weather from the Farmers’ Point of View.’ …

More extreme weather events and temperatures mean, that crops that once flourished and readily fed Americans perhaps no longer can, says Mike Hoffmann in a Guest Comment in the Farm Progress magazine, American Agriculturist.

Ask any farmer about changes in growing conditions. Most will agree that today’s climate is very different for the one in which their parents and grandparents farmers. More extreme weather events and temperatures mean that crops that once flourished and readily fed Americans perhaps no longer can. And new pests now thrive in these different environments. Agriculture is on the front lines in our battle with a changing climate. Food supply is an issue of critical importance to each person. It’s the non-negotiable baseline of existence.

Read the Full Article [American Agriculturist, July 2014 – www.FarmProgress.com]

Via Cornell Chronicle [2014-07-30]

Hoffmann, director of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station and associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, discussed these issues July 29 for the Agricultural Working Group of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in Washington, D.C. In 2013 Hoffmann established the Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture to communicate climate change adaptation and mitigation measures. The institute is supported by funds from the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture, and Allison Chatrchyan serves as the group’s inaugural director.

The institute will be a clearinghouse for research, climate monitoring, decision-support tools and applications at the intersection of climate and agriculture. It will soon develop a website for disseminating and gathering information on farm-level impacts and trends, losses and gains resulting from warming and extreme weather.

“With climate change, agriculture has some challenges,” Hoffmann said. “Climate change adds risk to growing food. With more chances of flooding, frost and climate variability, the business of agriculture is no longer business as usual.”

At Gillibrand’s working group, Hoffmann explained the role of the institute and the partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Regional Climate Hubs. Climate change calls for “all hands on deck,” and the climate hubs are bringing all the partners together to help tackle this grand challenge.

Although climate change brings challenges, Hoffmann said, it also could provide some opportunities. “With longer growing seasons and adequate water in the Northeast  we have the potential to expand and diversify agriculture but farmers will need know the best time to make changes like adding cooling capacity to dairies or changing crop varieties. These changes need to be based on sound economics,” he said.

Hoffmann pointed out that carbon dioxide levels are smashing new records. NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii now regularly records 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the global atmosphere. By 2100, carbon dioxide levels could reach more than 900 parts per million.

The years 2001 through 2010 were recorded as the hottest decade. With an 8 degree Fahrenheit rise possible by 2100, the “rate of warming is very fast,” he said.

These changing conditions pose serious challenges but do offer the opportunity for expansion and diversification of what is grown in the region and potential job and economic growth, Hoffmann said. “To succeed under these changing conditions, those who grow our food will need to have the necessary tools to both mitigate and adapt to climate change,” he said.

Cornell Climate Change Institute Director to Speak on Extreme Weather and Farming at Empire Farm Days

Seneca Falls, NY – What is the one thing people always talk about? The weather.  Farmers may be weather watchers more than any other collective group. To accommodate their interest and provide them with a look at trends and how climate is impacting agriculture, Empire Farm Days will host presentations by Allison M. Chatrchyan, Director of the new Cornell University Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture, and WHEC News10NBC Meteorologist Josh Nichols, who also teaches weather and climate at Monroe Community College.

On Tuesday at 10:30am, Dr. Chatrchyan will speak on “Farming in a More Extreme and Variable Climate.” On Wednesday at 10:30am, Nichols will present “Weather from the Farmers’ Point of View.” The admission to Empire Farm Days and the weather presentations is free, parking is $10. The event is held on 300 acres of the Rodman Lott and Son Farms in Seneca Falls, NY.

The Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture (CICCA) will also have a weird weather display table in the Cornell Barn at Empire Farm Days. It will feature newly developed Climate Smart Farmers Video Stories and the work of CICCA 2014 CCE Climate Change and Agriculture Cornell student interns.

For More Information:

Melanie Wickham
Empire Farm Days Manager
877-697-7837
mwickham@empirefarmdays.com
www.empirefarmdays.com

A Global Climate Change Conversation

Presentation and Panel Discussion
Observations, Perceptions, and the Reality of Climate Change from Around the World: A Focus on Agriculture and Food Systems
July 8th, 2014, 4:00-5:30
G10 Biotech Building

Open to the Cornell Community

Climate Change Panel Members:

• Dave Wolfe, Professor, Department of Horticulture, CALS, Cornell University
• Allison Chatrchyan, Director, Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture
• John Murphy, Vegetable and Wine Producer, New Zealand
• Joseph Leonard, Dairy Farmer, Ireland
• Paul Niven, Dairy Business Manager, Australia
• Moderator: Mike Hoffmann, Associate Dean, Director, CALS, Cornell University

For more information on the panel.

The Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture is pleased to have two interns working on our team for this summer, Jacob Sackett and Rachel Erlebacher. Our interns will be working on a number of projects this summer with some highlights being our Climate Smart Farm Stories project, dairy heat stress project, and agricultural stakeholder assessment project.

The interns are already compiling lists of agricultural stakeholders in New York who will be tapped for future outreach and surveys. Over the course of the summer, our interns plan to visit farms and participate in Cornell Cooperative Extension  meetings for outreach and to collect firsthand information from farmers about how climate change is affecting them and what steps they are taking to adapt. They will be helping prepare for a weird weather exhibit at Empire Farm Days.

Jacob Sackett

Jacob is a rising senior in Cornell’s Agricultural Sciences program, concentrating in sustainability and minoring in business. Jacob is from Delhi, N.Y., a small, rural town in Central New York. He hopes to attend law school upon graduating from Cornell and has been interested in environmental science and climate change throughout his academic career.

This summer, Jacob will be based at the Climate Change and Agriculture Institute in Ithaca, working with  researchers from Cornell’s Pro-Dairy program on a dairy heat stress literature review project, to lay the groundwork for development of a dairy cattle heat stress tool that will be used to help dairy farmers in a changing climate. Additionally, Jacob will be scheduling farm visits with local farmers in the Finger Lakes Region to discuss how climate change is affecting farming in the region and steps that farmers are taking to adapt to the changes that they are seeing.

Rachel Erlebacher

Rachel is a rising junior in CALS, majoring in Environmental Science and Sustainability with a minor in Jewish Studies. Rachel is from Pleasant Valley, N.Y., a small town in Dutchess County. She is very excited to be working on climate change efforts in her hometown at the Cornell Cooperative Extension office in Dutchess County.

Rachel will be developing a statewide agricultural stakeholder list and preparing a literature review on farmers perceptions of climate change perceptions and adaptation, which will lay the groundwork for a stakeholder survey of farmers in New York later this year. She also will be interviewing and filming farmers in the Hudson Valley   about how extreme weather and climate variability is affecting their operations and how they are adapting. The videos  will be used for peer-to-peer outreach and education.

Learn more about the CCE Summer Internship Program.

Call for Proposals, July 2015
Finger Lakes Region, New York State
Paper proposals due November 1, 2014

This 3-day regional conference and trade show will feature a unique opportunity to learn about emerging dairy housing and manure management systems in conjunction with regional climate trends and adaptation strategies for the Northeast and upper mid-west U.S, and to visit the beautiful Finger Lakes region of New York. The conference will feature multiple tour options showcasing on-farm integrated waste handling/treatment systems and on-farm climate adaptation strategies. The synergistic nature of these two topic areas is sure to expose creative solutions to the most pressing of today’s dairy environmental challenges. Tours of interest will also be organized for spouses and families.

Target Audiences:
Dairy producers and their advisors, extension educators, agribusiness professionals, dairy scientists, agricultural and environmental engineers, farm managers, financial advisors and lenders, agricultural economists, policymakers and regulatory agencies.

Conference Goals:
The main goals are to equip attendees with state-of-the-art knowledge on manure handling systems and climate adaptation strategies, as well as to explore the intrinsic connection between climate trends for the Northeastern U.S., on-farm adaptation strategies, and related dairy environmental management issues. A desired outcome is to facilitate the decision-making process for farmers with regards to climate adaptation. In addition, it is expected that both farm and non-farm audiences will be better enabled to understand and support emerging dairy environmental technologies in order to enhance farms’ economic and environmental sustainability.

For questions, and to submit an abstract, please contact:
Jennifer Pronto at biogas@cornell.edu

Okra, peanuts, cotton and bananas are not exactly staple crops on Ithaca farms and home gardens. But as the world gets warmer, will there be a place for tropical varieties in New York state? And what will happen to current crops such as lettuce, radish and spinach?

Cornell researchers aim to find out by simulating potential climate change conditions under plastic.

A high tunnel – an unheated greenhouse covered by a single layer of clear polyethylene – is being erected at Cornell Plantations to house a climate change demonstration garden.

The high-temperature, controlled precipitation environment will be used by student and faculty researchers in the Departments of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture to research the effects of changing growing conditions on growth and survival of select plants, and potential adaptive solutions.

It will also be an educational tool for the 50,000 people who visit Plantations’ botanical gardens, arboretum and natural areas each year, said Sonja Skelly, Cornell Plantations director of education.

“It is an ideal location to mount such a demonstration, and we are excited to provide an additional opportunity for students and visitors to explore environmental issues through the lens of the garden,” Skelly said.

Read the whole article. [Cornell Chronicle 2014-05-29]

From Climate Change Is Already Here, Says Massive Government Report, Huff Post Politics, May 6, 2014

“Climate change is no longer a distant threat, but a real and present danger in the United States, according to a government report issued Tuesday.

“The report is the latest update from the U.S. Global Change Research Program, and details ways that climate change — caused predominantly by the emission of heat-trapping greenhouse gases — is already being felt across the country.

“‘Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,’ the report says in its introduction. …

“The report notes that American society and its infrastructure were built for the past climate — not the future. It highlights examples of the kinds of changes that state and local governments can make to become more resilient. One of the main takeaways, said David Wolfe, a professor of plant and soil ecology at Cornell University and a coauthor of the chapter on the Northeast, is that ‘you don’t want to look at the weather records of yesteryear to determine how to set up your infrastructure.’

“This report, said Wolfe, signals that the country is ‘beginning to move beyond the debate about whether climate change is real or not, and really getting down to rolling up our sleeves’ and addressing it.”

Read the whole article.

See also: Cornell Media Relations Office tip sheet.