More farmers believe in climate change, but it may not change their votes; Dems try to appeal to them anyway

Washington Post map based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data

The U.S. is beginning to see extreme effects from climate change, as a multimedia piece from The Washington Post illustrates. A United Nations climate change panel warns, "If Earth heats up by an average of 2 degrees Celsius, virtually all the world’s coral reefs will die; retreating ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica could unleash massive sea-level rise; and summertime Arctic sea ice, a shield against further warming, would begin to disappear," the Post reports. "But global warming does not heat the world evenly. A Washington Post analysis of more than a century of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration temperature data across the Lower 48 states and 3,107 counties has found that major areas are nearing or have already crossed the 2-degree Celsius mark." That affects everything from agriculture zones and invasive species to disappearing farmland.

According to another recent Post story, climate change will likely trigger extreme heat waves in the "breadbasket regions of western North America."

Partly because of this year's terrible weather, more farmers now believe in climate change, Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's "Morning Agriculture." But, a recent study found that increasing belief in climate change may not prod staunchly Republican farmers to vote for a Democrat, Bryce Oates reports for The Daily Yonder: "Instead, farmers tackle to the impact of climate change as a business challenge that they address through standard farming practices, like applying more fertilizer after heavy rains." Nevertheless, Democratic presidential candidates are trying to appeal to rural voters by touting plans to give farmers incentives for adopting greener practices, notes Editor Art Cullen of The Storm Lake Times in Iowa.