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Texas farmers, ranchers lose billions to 2024 weather disasters
The total incurred damages in Texas was over $3.4 billion.
Drought and excessive heat contributed to more than 66% of Texas’ losses. The most severe drought impacts occurred between June and September.
Texas cotton farmers saw $1.8 billion in losses, and there was a loss of $768 million in forage and rangeland damage and $257 million in wheat losses from drought.
Early in 2024, the Smokehouse Creek Fire caused $123 million in losses, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. It was the largest wildfire in Texas and burned more than 1.2 million of acres in the Panhandle.
#Texas #drought #weather #cotton #fire #agriculture
https://texasfarmbureau.org/texas-farmers-ranchers-lose-billions-to-2024-weather-disasters/
@DeniseGutzmer can't wait for Big Ag to start suing Big Oil for damages.
> Currently, the synthetic ammonia for nitrogen fertilizer uses 3-5 percent of the world’s fossil gas but is projected to account for the largest share of the growth in global oil demand through 2026.
If you take this detail into consideration they'd be suing their own suppliers so it's probably not in their best interests to sour that relationship :)
@feld @DeniseGutzmer ammonia synthesis depends on hydrogen which mainly comes from methane. There are plenty of ways to produce methane already, and most of the methane from oil drilling is just burned (flared) onsite. https://scienceinfo.com/habers-process-history-synthesis-ammonia/
> There are plenty of ways to produce methane already
Yes, but cost is all that matters. Methane is basically a free byproduct of oil production. Farmers won't choose to buy a more expensive fertilizer to save the planet.
@feld @DeniseGutzmer the methane comes out of the ground for free at oil drilling sites but as I already noted, most of it is burned/wasted because it's not economical to contain and transport it. https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/gasflaringreduction/gas-flaring-explained
And that's also why the Bitcoin miners are putting up mining operations in the oil fields so they can use the free methane instead of it being flared off :)
@feld @DeniseGutzmer yea, seen that. Meanwhile, all the ammonia needs can be met using biomethane, produced from fermenting waste. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590332224005815
