We know the rising heat in the US isn’t good for climate change, but now we hear that corn fields in high temperatures also contribute to global warming? How??
Wait, Corn Sweats?
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We know how wildfires can exacerbate the high heat conditions that the US is suffering from, but corn? More specifically, the “sweat” seeping out of the corn?
But it’s true, and the proper scientific name for this phenomenon is called “evapotranspiration.”
Evapo-What?
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It works like this: the corn plants absorb water in the soil through their roots before releasing it into the atmosphere through their leaves, effectively becoming moisture that evaporates into the air – hence the name evapotranspiration.
Completely Natural
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As David Nicholai, an extension educator in field crops at the University of Minnesota explains it: “It’s not actually corn that’s sweating; it’s water movement coming out of the soil, going up through the plant, out through the leaves with a little opening — it’s called stomata on the leaf’s surface — and basically, the plant does that to cool itself.”
And it’s very similar to how we humans sweat when it’s warm.
That’s a Lot
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One of the main differences between us and the plants is that the latter produce much more sweat.
In fact, as Chris Clark, an agronomist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said to CBS News, one acre of corn (slightly smaller than a standard American football field) can produce between 3,000 to 4,000 gallons of corn sweat.
Not a Good Thing
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And that moisture that is released into the air when it’s warm just adds to the humidity.
Just ask the people living in the Midwest, where about 55 million Americans have been under weather alert because of the excessive heat.
Like We Need More Heat
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What’s more, the boost in moisture levels increases the dew points, which in turn makes it more difficult for water vapor to condense and, thus, cool off.
The dew point is the temperature level to which air must be cooled before water vapor can start condensing from the atmosphere.
Getting Warmer
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And according to Andrew Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, all the extra moisture being pushed into the air by the crops means “we can see some of our higher moisture values of the year at this time of year.”
Global Corn King
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What makes this situation worse is the fact that, according to the US Department of Agriculture, the US is the “largest producer, consumer, and exporter of corn in the world.”
And two of its states, Iowa and Illinois (both of which are suffering from heatwaves), produce about 33% of all the corn in the US.
The Sweaty States?
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This is making Iowans and Illinoisans, as well as their other neighbors in the corn-producing industry, literally hotter under the collar as their states’ temperatures are predicted to increase as high as 105°F to 115°F.
Killer Heat
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But Americans aren’t just experiencing discomfort from the high temperatures, as heat has been called the leading cause of the US’ weather-related deaths.
As per statistics released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1,220 US residents lose their lives to excessive heat every year.
A Vicious Circle
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This only worsens the climate crisis, which is produced by fossil-fuel burning, deforestation, and methane emissions.
And as the World Health Organization claims, our planet’s heatwaves are rising “in frequency, duration, intensity and magnitude.”
Why, Weather, Why?
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Just this week, US weather services warned about high temperatures and dangerous humidity levels (which usually affects the country’s hot Southeast) reaching widespread regions in the Midwest before reaching the mid-Atlantic states.
That means the weather can push those temperatures to become about 10°F to 15°F warmer than usual.
Much Harder to Keep Cool
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Add to the rising heat also increased humidity levels (from moist air coming in from the Gulf of Mexico and, of course, sweating corn) and it makes sense why those dew points are being pushed as high as 60°F or 70°F, even reaching the low 80s in some places.
Speaking of Extra Moisture
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Climate change isn’t just responsible for hotter days and warmer nights, which enables more moisture to be retained by the atmosphere.
It is now also affecting agricultural conditions, allowing farmers to plant corn in more northern territories, thereby upping the overall increase in corn production across the country.
Heating up the US
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This is particularly obvious in the Midwest due to all the corn being planted there.
And since all the crops reach the evapotranspiration stage at approximately the same time, “you get that real surge there that’s noticeable,” says Barb Boustead, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s meteorologist and climatologist.
From Corn to Ethanol
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But Lew Ziska has examined how climate change impacts crops.
And as an associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University, he has noticed a rise in demand for corn to be converted into ethanol.
Not a Fossil Fuel…
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Of all the corn cultivated in the US, more than 40% is turned into biofuels for cars and, occasionally, airplanes.
And according to research from the Renewable Fuels Association, there has been a consistent rise in global ethanol production, except for the decline that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
… but Still Bad
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And here’s the kicker: corn-based ethanol is a bigger contributor to climate change than pure gasoline, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, since it is at least 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline.
Worsening the Problem
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Dr. Tyler Lark, an assistant scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment as well as the lead author of this study, states: “Corn ethanol is not a climate-friendly fuel.”
Short and Simple
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And when Ziska was asked if an increase in corn sweat has an impact on global warming, he simply answered: “Yes.”
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