Friday, November 4, 2022


CBS EVENING NEWS 

"It ripples through the entire economy": Climate change costs cotton farmers billions

BY JANET SHAMLIAN, CHRIS LAIBLE

NOVEMBER 3, 2022 / 7:57 PM / CBS NEWS

Lubbock, Texas — Many tractors and other farm equipment are sitting idle across Texas as the cotton harvest season gets underway. Climate change is threatening the $7 billion industry. 

"Never has it ever been this bad," said Ricky Yantis, a fourth-generation farmer in west Texas. 

The region produces more than a third of the nation's cotton. Yantis has just 168 acres of healthy plants on his 6,000 acres — less than 3% of his land. 

"Where our harvest nearly normally lasts a month, month and half, it will last a day," he said. 

Extreme drought and a sustained summer heatwave taking an unprecedented toll. Farmers like Yantis had to plow fields without irrigation because plants were burning up. Statewide, almost 70% of cotton crops were similarly abandoned. 

Continues Here

 

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