A few years back, while moving from Colorado to our current Susitna Valley home, my wife and I drove our truck and trailer up the Alaska Highway, a trip I can't recommend enough - but do it in the summer. We made the drive at the end of March, as the moving process required it, and road conditions at that time of year can be problematic. But one interesting part of that lengthy journey came before the official start of the Alaska Highway, which begins at Dawson Creek, British Columbia.
Leaving the Denver area and heading north, one takes Interstate 25 through Wyoming, I-90 to I-15 through Montana, and hence to the Canadian border at the Sweet Grass/Coutts crossing. Then one goes north through Alberta, and there you feel a lot like a tiny bug on a big, big plate. Only a few thousand years ago, mile-thick glaciers sat on this land, and it still looks to be ironed flat, which, in effect, it was. It's also some great agricultural land, with wheat and some truck crops grown there. And that might be getting more profitable for Canadian farmers in the future.
Why? Because as the climate over central Canada slightly warms, these lands may well become much more productive indeed. At the climate/energy website "Watt's Up With That," Vijay Jayaraj has the specifics.
Beginning about 11,000 years ago, the warmth of the Holocene and the receding of massive continental glaciers enabled people to farm. Humans transitioned from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to more sustainable lifestyles with permanent settlements.
North America was no different, with Canadian flora and fauna thriving in the newfound warmth. Studies on the spatial and temporal pattern of climate change through the Holocene in Arctic Canada show the temperature profile to be quite complex, following changes at the global level.
In fact, much of northern Canada endured a scary Little Ice Age in the 1500s, threatening to submerge again the continent’s vegetation under ice. Thankfully, the Earth returned to warming naturally by the 1700s.
The 20th century in particular saw considerable warming that has had profoundly positive impacts on Canada’s landscape and agricultural potential.
This isn't just happening in Canada. As I wrote in September, Alaska is seeing more potential in agriculture as well.
See Related: Alaskan Summers Are Getting Warmer - Resulting in New Farms
Jayaraj has the receipts, too - from the Canadian government, no less.
“Warmer temperatures and longer frost-free seasons could increase productivity across the board, but especially in northern regions and southern and central Prairies,” reports Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) of the Canadian government. Additionally, it ensures higher rates of survival for young animals while reducing the cost of energy and livestock feed.
This climatic shift — combined with man-made increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations that boost plant photosynthesis and with advances in agricultural technology — has contributed to a doubling of the size of the average Canadian farm in the last 50 years.
Canada, yes, could benefit from this slight warming, as Alaska already is. But consider much of Asia, as well as northern Europe. Parts of Siberia could literally bloom, along with the northern reaches of European Russia, the Baltic coastal areas, and Scandinavia. The climate scolds don't seem to be aware of this - or if they are, they are either ignoring it or denying it, just as they ignore the fact that natural events can have a much greater effect on regional climates than humans can.
See Related: Canada's Carbon Footprint Is Massive - but It's Because of Wildfires, Not Humans
As with all things, there are tradeoffs. The northern hemisphere's climate has been slowly warming since the Wisconsin Glaciation ended, roughly 12,000 years ago, and I'm pretty sure that the people around in that day were not building coal-fired power plants. The climate of the northern hemisphere will probably continue warming for a while longer, and Canadian farmers, it seems, will reap some benefits from that warming. As I've noted in the past on this topic, as far as humans are concerned, extreme cold still kills many more people than extreme heat, and it's pretty obvious why, if you compare humans to other large mammals native to the northern latitudes; we are still, biologically, a creature of an equatorial savannah, not the great north woods.
We're also creatures who need to eat, and a warmer climate can greatly expand food production in northern latitudes; we are also technological beings, largely dependent on a high-tech lifestyle that requires abundant, reliable, and cheap energy. We should also note that modern agriculture also depends on abundant, reliable, and cheap energy - and there are climate scolds in Canada who are already whining about that.
Yes, the climate is warming. Yes, humans have some effect, although one good volcano or a shift in the solar cycle makes us look pretty puny by comparison. But climate scolds never consider the tradeoffs: That a slightly warming climate could make many parts of the vast northern plains into some of history's most productive agricultural lands.
There are always benefits. The "Chicken Little" crowd likely will never admit to them, but they are there nonetheless.
