Big Climate Change Realities, Beginning Small Adaptations

The recent climate headlines have featured the continued press of the climate change agenda “hoax” at the GOP debate, severe heat-related fatalities, the Maui firestorm and the flooding from the “once in a generation” assault on the Florida bend by water-laden Hurricane Idalia. Big stories. Big disasters. A strong push from the rightwing House Freedom Caucus to defund prior legislation targeting moderating global warming as a condition to approving interim and final federal budget approvals. As Americans suffer, from property loss, sheer misery and deaths, as taxpayers continue to foot post-climate change disaster recovery costs and major insurers pull out of regions where climate-related disasters are most common, I am puzzled how any non-delusional human being, almost anywhere on earth, questions the escalating realities of man-accelerated climate change.

Aside from desertification, migrating insects and associated diseases (e.g., malaria has returned to American shores), starvation and the rise of intolerable heat, we are facing horrific challenges in the cultivation of myriad crops, plants that are unable to adapt to steadily rising temperatures. Fish populations face depletion as sea temperatures rise – yes those same rising water temperatures that feed and intensify tropical storms – and even our livestock is beginning to wither and die under this constant temperature rise.

There are a few farmers and ranchers who are beginning to understand that their livestock will not survive if temperatures rise much more… which they appear destined to do. It’s not just the loss of feed crops that is at stake, but many animals simply do not survive in sustained heat. One small example of adaptation has taken place in a dairy farm in the warm climate of Puerto Rico, as reported by Katherine Rapin in Nexus Media News, reproduced in the August 28th FastCompany.com:

“[Dairy cows] are most comfortable in temperatures between 41 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit, which means livestock around the world are struggling to cope with hotter and longer summers. Over the span of just two hot, humid days in June 2022, an estimated 10,000 cows died in Kansas. Experts say it will only get worse… Decades of breeding dairy cows for increased milk production have made them even more susceptible to heat…

“At Vaqueria El Remanso, a small dairy farm west of San Juan, Puerto Rico, the cows are different—they have a freshly shaven, suave look. Their short hair is the result of a natural mutation known as ‘slick,’ which Rafael López-López, who runs El Remanso, has been breeding into his cows for decades.

“‘In hot, humid conditions, the slick cows have an advantage,’ López-López said on a scorching spring morning, walking among his herd in the shade of the milking barn. The genetic mutation that gives slick cows a shorter coat and more active sweat glands helps them maintain a healthy body temperature—an asset on a heating planet…

“‘How do they produce more milk? They eat more, they metabolize more,’ said Peter Hansen, a professor of animal sciences at the University of Florida who studies the slick mutation. ‘So any cow that’s producing more milk is going to be producing more body heat, which makes it harder to resist heat stress.’

“When a dairy cow’s temperature rises above her normal core body temperature of 102.8 degrees Fahrenheit—which happens when the heat index is greater than 72—she experiences heat stress, meaning the ability to regulate her internal temperature is compromised. She grazes less (eating about 3% to 5% less per additional degree of ambient temperature) and has greater difficulty getting pregnant. That, in turn, compromises her milk supply. Heat stress also suppresses the immune system, leaving her more susceptible to disease.

“Heat stress costs the U.S. dairy industry as much as $670 million annually, and scientists predict it could cause a 6.3% drop in milk production by the end of the century. To cope, farmers spend thousands of dollars running massive fans, sprinkler systems, and even fog machines to keep their cows cool… Cows with the slick mutation, however, appear to be coping relatively well.” Indeed, this slick mutation, some of it naturally evolved, is present in at least six breeds of cattle around the world. Dairy cows evolved mostly from European stock, obviously from a temperate climate.

Here in the United States, Rapin tells us: “Dairy farmers are paying closest attention to the slick Holstein. Traditional Holsteins are the top milk-producing cow in terms of volume, but the temperate breed that originated in the Netherlands about 2,000 years ago isn’t well-adapted to heat and humidity. However, studies have shown that Holsteins with the slick mutation are able to keep their body temperature about 1 degree Fahrenheit cooler, meaning their milk production and fertility don’t drop as much as non-slick animals during the hottest months… ‘I get 1,800 pounds [more] of milk per lactation from these cows, and they reproduce more effectively,’ said López-López.” Welcome to reality, climate change deniers and marginalizers. This is our future, whether you accept it or not.

I’m Peter Dekom, and while this is a seemingly little story, when our required adaptation efforts to make global warming more tolerable are aggregated, this rear guard resistance to doing what must be done seems almost criminal.