Scorching weather across the globe makes fields too dry for crops, rivers too warm to cool power plants, and leaves wind turbines idle – and it’s pushing commodities prices higher
A combine harvester cuts a field of rapeseed in the U.K. Major crops are expected to be smaller due to dry conditions. Photographer: Bloomberg Creative Photos/Bloomberg |
A heatwave across swathes of North America, Europe and Asia, coupled with a worsening drought in some areas, is causing spikes in the prices of anything from wheat to electricity. Cotton plants are stunted in parched Texas fields, French rivers are too warm to effectively cool nuclear reactors and the Russian wheat crop is faltering.
The scorching heat is extracting a heavy human cost – contributing to floods in Japan and Laos and wildfires near Athens. Relief from soaring temperatures, which topped 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Arctic Circle, may not arrive for at least two weeks.
It’s a timely reminder of the vulnerability of global commodity markets to the changing climate, as human activity disrupts the behavior of plants, animals and the march of the seasons.
Grain Pain Wheat prices surge to a three-year high as the heatwave hurts Europe's crop |
Source: Euronext |
After years of bumper harvests, global output could drop this year for the first time since the 2012 to 2013 growing season. This could have political and social ramifications. Egypt, which relies on subsidized bread to feed its almost 100 million people, is already paying the highest price for its imports in more than three years.
French Power High temperatures are forecast to continue in France, disrupting power plants |
Source: The Weather Co. using GFS model |
French farmers aren’t the only ones finding the weather too hot to handle. The country’s fleet of nuclear power plants is also suffering. Rivers have become too warm to effectively cool the reactors, and Electricite de France SA may be forced to cut output later this week at two stations. The hot weather also has forced a German coal-fired plant to curb operations and reduced the availability of some plants in Britain fired by natural gas.
France gets more than 70 percent of its power from 58 atomic stations and is a net exporter of electricity to neighboring countries. Any reductions in output would potentially boost prices across the continent.
The sultry conditions are also leaving wind turbines virtually at a standstill. In Germany, wind output over the past 10 days has been a third lower than the average for the year so far. Windmills are also becalmed in Spain, Italy, the U.K., Denmark and Sweden. Solar operators are enjoying the weather, but they can’t fill the gap left by wind and demand for natural gas is rising.
French and German day-ahead wholesale power is at the highest for the time of year for a decade, while in Britain they’re the most since at least 2009.
Texas Power Surge Electricity prices surge as Texas heat smashes records |
Source: Data compiled by Bloomberg |
Temperatures got so high that the National Weather Service was advising north Texas residents to avoid walking their dogs, lest they burn Fido’s paws. But for farmers in the west of the state, the drought was hurting even more than the heat.
The West Texas cotton belt – the world’s most productive area for the crop – is brown, baked, cracked and dusty. The dryness is so bad that close to half of the state’s crop is in poor or very poor condition, U.S. government data show. About 4.5 million acres of the fiber are planted in the region, 60 percent of which depends on rain because it isn’t irrigated.
"I lost everything in the dry land,” said Lloyd Arthur, a fourth-generation farmer in Crosby County. He’s not expecting to harvest anything from about a quarter of the 2,000 acres of cotton he sowed this season.
Stunted Crop Cotton futures are up more than 10% this year on drought fears |
Links
- The world is hot, on fire, and flooding. Climate change is here.
- Global heatwave: Hundreds killed and injured across Europe and Asia
- Why is Europe going through a heatwave?
- Droughts, bushfires and heatwaves: Scientists' warning on global temperature rises
- A Global Heat Wave Has Set the Arctic Circle on Fire
- Greece wildfires: Dozens dead in Attica region
- Europe burns as climate change fuels 'forest fire danger extremes'
- Climate change brings catastrophe across the world
- The big heatwave: from Algeria to the Arctic. But what's the cause?
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