Final Summary Paper (Midwest)

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Final Summary Paper (Midwest)
The Midwest region of the United States consists of Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Indiana. A major source of the Midwest region of the United States is agriculture. The biggest issue the Midwest faces due to climate change is the effect of flooding on agriculture. Without agriculture the Midwest would not be what it is today. Over the years as flooding has increased planting and crop establishment has been delayed (US Global Change Research Program). Also flooding has changed the types of crops that can now be planted in the Midwest (Ben Chou). The extreme rainfalls and flooding have become more common over the past century and are expected to keep on increasing causing many harms for the Midwest including hurting agriculture (University of Michigan).
The Midwestern United States has experienced flooding for a long time now, but recently the annual precipitation has been far greater than before. Precipitation has increased 37 percent since 1958 (Jeff Spross). However a few major floods have been recorded dating back to 1913. In 1913 torrential rainfall hit Indiana and Ohio. The ground was greatly damaged from the flood causing difficult agricultural years for many years after the flood. Another flood hit a large portion of the Midwest region including the eastern Dakotas, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Indiana in 1993. Recovery costs for the Great Flood exceeded $4.2 billion. Like the flood in 1913 agriculture was affected for many years hurting the economy of the Midwest. A more recent disastrous flood hit mainly Iowa in 2008. After the flood in 2008 agriculture again took a hard hit and since the government ...

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...ichigan+News+Service+-+Sustainability)
"Midwest." Http://downloads.globalchange.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/midwest. US Global Change Research Program, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. http://downloads.globalchange.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/midwest.pdf
Chou, Ben. "Floods, Droughts and Agriculture." Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2014. http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/bchou/floods_droughts_and_agricultur.html
Spross, Jeff. "The Impact Of Climate Change On The Midwest: More Heat, More Droughts, More Floods, Fewer Crops." ThinkProgress RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2014. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/07/3434933/national-climate-assessment-midwest/
Rosenthal, Andrew, and Dustin Devine. "WeatherBug® Your Weather Just Got Better™." USA Weather and Forecast Information on WeatherBug.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2014. http://weather.weatherbug.com/weather-news/weather-reports.html?story=8170

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