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Brits Ready Crops For Global Warming

Posted by Hemos on from the gearing-up-for-a-brave-new-world dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Not wanting to come up short at the dinner table, British researchers are developing new crops for a dryer, hotter UK. Starting with barley, they're turning genes on and off to help plants overcome their affinity for the country's cool, wet summers."

7 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Thats good... by tgd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unless of course the other half of climatologists are right and global warming shuts down the north atlantic current and "buried under ice" is what they get instead of "hot and dry".

    1. Re:Thats good... by NickFortune · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Correlation does not imply causality

      Well quite. However, by that yardstick there's insufficent evidence for gravity. The fact that the theory has never been observed to fail hardly precludes the possibility that we have been experiencing some local temporary phenomenon, and since correlation doesn't imply causality, we therefore have no proof.

      Of course. most sane people have a point at which they're wiling to accept that the evidence before them justifies taking some sort of action. I'd have a lot more time for your line of argument if you were to offer some criteria in that regard, a set of observed phenomena and associated timescales that you would accept as sufficent evidence to warrant action.

      For instance, if this year was to have three times the hurricane count of last year, would that be enough? How about five times? Mayeb quintiple the rate averaged over a ten year period, just to be sure it's not a statistical fluke? Is there some percentage of melted permafrost that would do the trick, or can all the trailers in Alaska sink into the mush and still not satisfy your passion for intellectual rigor? Will you say "perhaps you have a point" after all the arctic ice is gone, or will you wait for the antarctic icecap to go too, just to be sure?

      Perhaps there is no combination of events that could ever bring you to that point?

      See, I have this impression that, rather than upgrade their factories, or expose themselves to the risk of lawsuits, the industry reps lobbying against global warming would sooner see the planet catch fire. So: where were you planning to draw the line? I really want to know.

      --
      Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
  2. What a bloody brilliant idea! by AEther141 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Instead of worrying about all this climate change nonsense we can just genetically modify ourselves and our food to suit. Oh, except if these guys had spent half an hour ringing round a few climatolagists they would have found out that the most likely outcome isn't a smooth, predictable change in temperature but wild, chaotic swings in climate caused by a million climate systems and feedback loops (not limited to the gulfstream) going totally out of whack.

  3. Re:That's all well and good... by VitaminB52 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    ...assuming global warming is real, of course.

    Suppose global warming isn't real, then the British can sell these new crops to those countries that are dryer and hotter than the UK.

  4. solution in search of a problem by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why not just plant crops that come from hotter, dryer, climates? Or if the other climate model prediciton comes true, shorter, colder growing seasons?

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  5. Re:What is the Timeline for global warming? by freeweed · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, 2 summers ago Winnipeg experienced its first August snow in recorded history. It was the coldest summer overall, by leaps and bounds. Calgary just experienced a colder than average spring and summer, with snow in the mountains lasting well into August that normally melts by June.

    For every anecdote of a warmer-than-average day/month/season, you can find one of a colder-than-average day/month/season. It doesn't mean the sky is falling, it means that there's no such thing as "normal" temperatures.

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    Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
  6. Re:Meh... by Vellmont · · Score: 2, Insightful


    Ever see a fish mating with a wheat plant?


    And here lies the central problem with the anti-GM crowd. The FUD they (and you in this story) spread is that GM means inserting "fishiness" in our plants. If you knew a little bit more about biology and genetics you'd know there's no such thing as a fish gene. The argument is a little like saying there's such a thing as "car steel" and putting "car steel" into an airplane makes the airplane tainted because it now has "carr-i-ness" associated with it.

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    AccountKiller