Climate Change, Global Warming Get Minor WI DNR Billing

It may be that decision-makers at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources don't read the papers, or get outside much these days, since they are not reacting to events:

Record heat not seen in Wisconsin since 1936.

Destructive drought. Major farm losses.

The state's condition has been reported nationally:

Wisconsin Drought 2012: USDA Designates 23 Counties As Natural Disaster Areas

AP  |  By DINESH RAMDE Posted: 07/26/2012 9:52 am

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Federal officials on Wednesday declared 23 drought-stricken counties across southern Wisconsin as natural disaster areas, making farms in those areas eligible for low-interest emergency loans.

The counties have been scorched by a recent stretch of heat waves, where temperatures sizzled in the 100-degree range and left severe drought conditions that took a toll on crop production.

The declaration came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which also applied the same designation to 53 other counties in Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan and Nebraska.

But as I noted several times on this blog, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, with a staff that knows a lot about our state and world's air and water resources, has had little information or context to offer on these matters.

It had been a while since I checked the DNR's web pages, but still see over the weekend only one paragraph with one link on the agency's climate change page - -all that was left after more substantive information and multiple links to agencies and programs was scrubbed.

And if you insert "global warming" in the agency's web search box, the first entry is EEK! a children's site - - useful to be sure - - but how about more from the scientific community? 

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