Global climate change and agriculture: an economic perspective

Climate change and related global concerns dominate the current environmental agenda, as evidenced by the recent wave of articles, symposia, workshops, and other scientific and lay forums dealing with this issue. While most atmospheric scientists agree that a climate change "signal" has yet to be detected, concern over potential climate change arising from increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CHF), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other "greenhouse" gases is motivating substantial funding increases for such research. Climate change is thus likely to be a major research and policy issue well into the next decade.