We are in the middle of not one, but two pandemics. The less obvious one is climate change. Even the Pentagon regards it as a threat to our national security.
Racial and ethnic minority communities face the most harm from climate change. Those communities are the least likely to be able to prepare for and recover from threats such as heat waves, poor air quality and flooding.
The region is doing a relatively good job of accepting climate change and doing more to address it. Sadly, that work must continue, at double or triple the current speed.
While Missouri Gov. Mike Parson called huge animal confinements “the next generation of Missouri agriculture,” people who must live next them are increasingly fighting back.
A white-tailed eagle will be filming this week as he flies over the Alps and its once-magnificent glaciers, which are now crumbling because of global warming.
This spring’s floods on the Missouri River are a reminder that flood control works, but at a price in federal tax dollars. As floods increase with climate change, people outside of the flood plain will ask tougher questions.
New federal climate change report released Nov. 23 outlines impacts on Midwest agricultural economies. Crop failure, heat exhaustion and pests were mentioned.
