Will global warming be advantageous for Scandinavia?

Climate change and global warming are currently hot topics in most countries around the world. Many governments are attempting to slow the trend towards higher global temperatures, and many are not. Whichever country you live in, chances are that global warming has already begun to affect you.

One interesting aspect of global warming is that for countries in the far northern hemisphere, warmer temperatures mean longer summers and thus more time for farming. One example of this ‘advantage’ is Norway, which may soon replace Denmark as Scandinavia’s top crop producer.

However, the warmer weather is not all good news for Scandinavia. Farmers in Finland will soon have to deal with new species of pests that threaten their crops and with winters that will become far more unpredictable than they are at present. This will mean more rain and increasingly unstable weather.

The new pests will also create a problem for environmentalists as farmers reach for more pesticides to keep their crops healthy. Researchers are, however, currently investigating how to tackle the new pests without automatically resorting to chemical pesticides.