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THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2008
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VOLUME 118 ISSUE 138
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VOLUME 118 ISSUE 138
Chalmers ready for NBA Draft
Junior guard Mario Chalmers has made clear his intentions to enter the NBA
Draft. But, he is doing so without hiring an agent, giving him the option of returning to Kansas for another year. Although he is currently being featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and has the full support of Coach
Bill Self, Chalmers faces some pretty tough competition from other undergraduate
competitor guards who are throwing their hats into the ring.
@KANSAN.COM
Check out Kansan.com to view a video about Chalmers
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
FULL STORY ON PAGE 1B
Student selected to represent Obama
One KU student for Obama has received the opportunity to support Obama as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention. Only three students in Kansas were elected as delegates, and two others were elected as alternate delegates.
FULL STORY ON PAGE 3A
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALLEN TRADED TO VIKINGS
FULL AP STORY PAGE 8B
weather
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© 2008 The University Daily Kansan
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CHANGING CLIMATE
PARCHED FUTURE OF THE PLAINS
A warming climate is adversely affecting animals native to Kansas and the crops of local farmers
BY BRENNA HAWLEY bhawley@kansan.com
When Sam Funk walks on his family's farm near Holcomb, he sees golden fields of wheat, sorghum and hay and green stretches of alfalfa. What the KU senior doesn't see is corn, the second-most common crop grown in Kansas. He said his family quit growing it because it cost too much to water and they could no longer profit from it.
Birdwatcher and KU assistant professor Philip Wedge normally hears birdcalls of local birds like the American robin and house sparrow, but this year he heard the call of the Northern Saw-whet Owl, which doesn't usually call outside its breeding range in Canada.
Floyd Ott grows apples, nectarines, apricots, pears, peaches, plums and cherries on his 25-acre orchard south of Eudora, but last April a harsh freeze killed his fruit buds and cost him his entire crop.
Scientists widely accept that greenhouse gases are changing the climate, and Kansans like Funk, Wedge and Ott are already seeing some of the effects of higher temperatures and less water. The shrinking water supply will make it harder to grow corn. Disappearing surface water will make it harder for trees like sugar maples and bur oaks to survive, and birds like the red-headed woodpecker that rely on them may also disappear. The changes will make seasons unpredictable, disrupting the natural life cycles of honeybees and the flowers and fruits they pollinate. Each change will make life more difficult for humans, raising the prices of food and eliminating the state's biodiversity.
A CHANGING CLIMATE
Johannes Feddema, professor of geography, said Kansas was expected to get almost one degree Fahrenheit warmer per decade, which by 2100 could mean a nine-degree increase. In 2000, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
reported the average
reported the average May temperature in Lawrence was 66 degrees, but the predicted warming would se it to 75 degrees by 00.
Feddema said rain would come less often but in more violent bursts, which wouldn't allow the ground to absorb as much moisture and could cause flooding.
Kansas would especially be affected by this change, increasing water need six inches by 2100 Garden City, which is about 10 miles from Funk's family farm, experiences an average rainfall of 20 inches, and increased temperatures would mean the environment would need 26 inches to stay the same in 2100. Feddema said rainfall in Kansas was hard to predict because it was between different patterns in the environment.
Western
Donald Worster, professor of environmental history, said the climate change Kansas was experiencing now was similar to what happened during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.
Worster said in the '30s farmers plowed under native plants, which left the ground exposed to strong winds and dust storms. He said many people migrated out of the state to find more jobs, and some towns in western Kansas
never recovered from the population drain.
"Now we're facing what is the worst period of Kansas history," Worster said. "It's not a matter of belief. It's a matter of scientific research."
Worster said some food production would mo north toward Canada as surface water disappeared in the west and water for irrigation was depleted. He said some land could go out of production within 20 years.
Worster said these predictions matter because Kansas would not come out of the drought period as it did from
"You'll see more cost, greater risk and more uncertainty in food production," Rice said. He said water was discharged from the
He said water was disappearing from the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies water for irriza-
tion to western Kansas and seven other states, and wells would become more expensive each foot deeper they must be dug to reach the water.
Rice said that if farmers couldn't afford to dig deeper wells, some of their land might go back to non-irrigated crops, like wheat, grain sorghum and even natural grasses. The loss of crop land to grass might
SEE CLIMATE ON PAGE 4A
Wave the wheat
-headed woodpecker contributed by Ernesto Scott, Princeton Wildlife Management Area, Iowa; Bur Oak contributed by USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Herman, D.F. et al. 1908
Kansas is the top wheat producer in the country and has 47 million acres of farmland. In 2006, crops brought in about $4.2 billion. Here are the top five crops by how much they re-
worth:0
worth:0
$1.3 billion — Wheat
$1.1 billion — Corn
$615 million — Hay
$601 million — Soybeans
S487 million - Sorghum
Terms
Aquifer - underground layer of rock that holds water
Biodiversity- the variety of organisms found within a specified geographic region
Brood- when birds sit on or hatch their eggs
Deciduous- trees that lose their leaves at the end of the season
Irrigation- supplying dry land, especially crops, with water through ditches, pipes or streams
Reservoir- a pond or lake used for storage and regulation of water
Source: The American Heritage College Dictionary
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