Mass Takes on Times Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. The Seattle Times take on climate change and global warming is rubbing at least one atmospheric scientist the wrong way of late.
University of Washington professor, Cliff Mass says a recent story made it sound like Washington was in a serious drought … AND that global warming had a huge impact on our most recent cherry crop …
MASS … “Well, it’s just the opposite. So, California was cooler and wetter than normal. And so, that resulted in a bountiful cherry crop that was available late. So, when we think about global warming, we don’t think about cooler and wetter in California. That’s not what you think of, do you?”
So, why were so many Washington cherries left on the trees? …
MASS … “The essential thing that happened was not global warming. It wasn’t like the cherry crop in Washington state was going to be very poor. By itself, it was excellent. Excellent quality and excellent quantity. So, we would have had a lot of cherries, and nice cherries, but they weren’t economical to pick them because California came in at the wrong time with large numbers. But there was none of that in the Seattle Times.”
Our crops, Mass says actually did pretty well last year …
MASS … “So, they’re talking about how the agriculture is going bad, and the apple crop was tremendous, right. The milk harvest was very, very good. So, it’s not like agriculture was collapsing due to drought. I mean, it didn’t make any sense at all.”
To get more of Cliff’s weather insight, check out his weather blog at www.cliffmass.blogspot.com
