Scientists are predicting that spring will be early this year — and every year after next because of global warming.
“Our projections show that winter will be shorter — which sound great for those of us in Wisconsin,” Andrew Allstadt, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lead author of a new study showing spring will be coming earlier in the future, said in a statement.
Allstadt and his fellow researchers used climate models to determine that spring is likely to arrive an average of 22 days earlier by 2100. While the potential effects of an earlier spring on agricultural systems and animal life are unclear, it will mean longer growing seasons. Allstadt also found that ‘false springs’ will become less common as the world warms, meaning fewer instances where frost returns after spring plant growth has begun.
Allstadt’s paper is not the first to point out that growing seasons are getting longer. Research from the University of Virginia and libertarian Cato Institute found the growing season has lengthened by three days in the southern U.S. and by a week in northern latitudes.
“Global changes in climate have eased several critical climatic constraints to plant growth, such that net primary production increased 6%,” argued a 2003 study by a team of international researchers. “We’re talking about a 10 percent increase in [green matter accumulation] by plants.”
Another, NASA funded study found that global warming will significantly increase the amount of food that can be produced in northern latitudes.
Environmentalists agree the effects of global warming on the food production aren’t yet clear, but effects like lengthening growing season are likely to be a net positive.
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