From Bloomberg via Investing.com (also on blogroll at right):
Agricultural commodity traders will be among the winners as global temperatures warm so long as policy makers ease trade rules to allow them to adapt the food supply to climate change.
That’s the conclusion of a group of American and European climate scientists and resource economists who studied how higher temperatures will impact food and water supplies. Over the next three decades, a hotter environment means international trading volumes for grains including wheat, corn and rice will rise as much as a fifth, with landmass the size of Egypt entering new cultivation, according to their report published this week.*And from the American Geophysical Union's EOS, a topic of abiding interest
“The only way to protect flows and food security is to make trade as free as possible between countries with abundant water supplies and those facing scarcity,” said Amanda Palazzo, an economist at the International Institute for Applied System Analysis who co-authored the peer-reviewed report.
The findings, published in Axel Springer SE’s journal “Nature Sustainability,” underscore how shifting weather patterns will upend the fortunes of farmers worldwide, enriching some and making depressing yields for others. Large swaths of cropland across of China, India and the Middle East that depend on irrigation will find stiffer competition for water as the climate grows hotter. Landholders in South America and southeast Asia where rains are likely to increase are likely to see a boom in cultivation, according to the report.
The amount of land being farmed needs to increase by about 50%, or 100 million hectares (247 million acres), by 2050, the scientists said. They modeled climate, land and water data to reach the conclusions. While that massive agricultural expansion could double global food production and ensure the world’s population is fed, it will need policy makers to allow trade flows to make sure those commodities reach the right places.
That finding rubs against the grain of the current political atmosphere, with the U.S. and China locked in a trade war and singling out commodities for higher tariffs. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. will benefit from higher tariffs on imported products of all kinds, something the researchers dispute....MORE
Sand from Greenland’s Melting Ice Sheet Could Bring in Business
The effects of climate change could fuel a new sand mining industry in Greenland.
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as other parts of the globe, and the hot temperatures are leaving their mark: In Greenland, the ice sheet that covers 80% of the country is rapidly shrinking.
The melting ice brings more than just water to the coastline. Ice melt delivers tons of sand and gravel particles offshore, and a recent paper in Nature Sustainability suggests that Greenland could profit from this resource.
“Contrary to the general trend that the Arctic is facing a lot of problems because of climate change, we actually suggest that Greenland can benefit from it by exploiting [its] sand,” lead author Mette Bendixen of the University of Colorado Boulder told Eos. Sand harvesting could be one antidote to both the country’s stagnant economy and the growing global sand shortage.
But other scientists may not be convinced, citing environmental concerns.
“High-latitude marine ecosystems are among the last, most pristine places on Earth,” Whitman Miller, a research scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md., told Eos. Greenland must engage in “comprehensive and forward looking planning” to avoid damage from mining, he warned.
Sand Dollars
Sand underlies nearly every aspect of urban life: Highways, skyscrapers, dams, bridges, and other infrastructure all contain sand and gravel. Booming cities in Asia are buying sand by the boatload, and China used more cement between 2011 and 2014 than the United States did in the past century.
But the world is running out of sand. Global demand is projected to increase by nearly a third by the end of the century, but resources are limited.
Only certain types of sand, like those found in rivers, beaches, and seafloors, are well suited as construction material. The economic value of these types of sand has had troubling environmental and social consequences, including the disappearance of 2 dozen islands in Indonesia and the emergence of “sand mafias” in India.
Meanwhile, Greenland’s economy faces a host of problems: An aging population and a 10% unemployment rate have the country looking for new sources of income.Previously on sand (waay too much):
“They’re really short of money, and they have sought for decades to diversify their economy,” Bendixen explained.
A Shore Thing
Climate change clears the way for sand mining in Greenland in several ways. Not only does increased melting bring more sand and gravel to the coastline of Greenland (where it can be mined by boat), but warmer temperatures are also clearing bays and outlets of sea ice, making them accessible nearly year-round.
The researchers recommend that Greenland focus on mining several regional hot spots. One such hot spot is the Sermeq Outlet, which sits just 100 kilometers away from the country’s capital city of Nuuk. The outlet collects one quarter of the sand coming off Greenland and is accessible by boat nearly all year. This single outlet could supply double the amount of sand needed for construction in San Diego County, Calif., every year, the paper notes....MORE
Nov 2016
Commodities: The Next Big Thing Is Sand
....The link that starts this piece goes to Sand Wars: Beijing’s Hidden Ambition in the South China Sea a 22 page PDF, hosted at the College of William & Mary.
Now back to my secret shame. After the jump to the Bloomberg sand article my commentary continued:
We were on the story from the publicly traded get-go (almost), going back to April 2012's "What the Frack? U.S. Silica Up 24% since Feb. 1 IPO (SLCA)". Followed by "Commodities: "Midwest Sees a Sand Rush"". In 2013 growth was so good that a little Ouroboros turnabout was fair play, "More Natural Gas Needed For Frack Sand Suppliers"
By 2014 they were fine, strapping businesses:
"Sand: The Hot New Investment Opportunity" (SLCA)
State of Sand, 2014
What the Frac: "The Past Year’s Hottest IPO Is… " (EMES; SLCA)
From MoneyBeat:
The hottest initial public offering from 2013 isn’t a cloud technology stock, or a biotech company with a promising cancer drug.Having concluded that oil and gas were just a passing fad, this is what we were posting the month Emerge came public:
The company behind the top-performing IPO in the past 18 months digs sand.
Through Friday, sand-mining company Emerge Energy Services LP has rallied 462% since its debut on May 8, 2013, for the biggest share-price gain since its IPO among companies that went public last year, according to Dealogic....
The Internet of Things: Huggies App Sends You a Tweet Whenever Your Kid Pees...
The Ethics of Torturing Robots
British Psychologists Bashing British Psychiatrists
Psychologist Psychiatrist
I so wish I were kidding.Like that point in a "Behind the Music" where everyone goes to rehab, we knew it was ending:
What the Frack: "Good Times Run Out for Sand Producers"with, maybe a bit of forced jollity in March 2015:
Basic Materials: What's New In the Sand Business? (SLCA; EMES)But there was nothing new, it's sand.
