Higher temperatures could have a serious impact on New York state's farms.Cheryl Rogowski, an Orange County vegetable farmer, has noticed the effects of climate change on her planting and harvest schedule. As spring arrives earlier and summers are warmer, she can plant her hot peppers two weeks earlier than in the past, and the harvest season has stretched to six weeks when it used to be two.

Rogowski's observations are in line with reports from the world's top scientific bodies. Rising levels of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas released by burning fossil fuel, are causing increasing temperatures, rising seas and shifting weather patterns around the world.

Scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig, from NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, spoke at a public meeting along with Rogowski in a panel sponsored by Honest Weight Food Co-Op of Albany.

The Times Union reports that New York state already is showing warning signs. In the 1970s, upstate had snow on the ground an average 87 days -- a full two weeks more than now. Since then, the average winter temperatures in the region climbed 4.5 degrees, and more rain is replacing snow.

Continued warming temperatures will hurt dairy and fruit farms. Cows produce the most milk when temperatures are between 40 and 70, and by 2070, milk production could be off by as much as 20 percent, said Rosenzweig. And apple trees, which are a quarter-billion-dollar-a-year industry in the state, won't flower properly.

The problem is large but that doesn't mean we can't take steps to fight climate change. Click here to read NYLCV's 2008 New York State Policy Agenda and its section on climate change.