海角大神

Everything from to to the of polar bears, sea turtles, and giant pandas around the world has been attributed to climate change.

But this Thanksgiving, climate change may hit a little closer to home.

Libby's Pumpkin, which supplies more than 85 percent of the world's canned pumpkin, says an unusually rainy spring and summer will slash annual pumpkin yields by half this year.

Morton, Illinois, which grows most of the pumpkins prepared and canned by Libby's, has been experiencing increased rainfall for decades 鈥� 10 percent more, in fact. The rainfall has been especially severe during spring planting season, a critical time in pumpkin growing.

This past June, Illinois got more than 9 inches of rain, more than 5 inches above average, , Illinois鈥檚 state climatologist. Between May and July 鈥� critical growing months for processing pumpkins like those used in Libby's cans 鈥� almost 2 feet of rain fell in Illinois, more than 10 inches above average.

鈥淭his year鈥檚 harvest was reduced because rains came early in the season during a critical growth period,鈥� Roz O鈥橦earn, corporate and brand affairs director for Nestle USA, which owns Libby's, 鈥淭he result: not as many pumpkins formed from the flowers.鈥�

鈥淲e originally reported our yield could be off by as much as a third, but updated crop reports indicate yields will be reduced by half this year,鈥� O鈥橦earn added.

For Illinois, that upward trend in precipitation is consistent with the sort of weather experts at the and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration anticipate due to climate change.

While that's bad news for pumpkin pie fans, it may come with an inadvertent side effect: If it hits them on their dining tables, climate change may be perceived as more real, or more of a threat.

When climate change hits close to home 鈥� in the form of warmer temperatures or changes in precipitation patterns, for example 鈥� people are more likely to perceive climate change as a serious risk, according to a published in July in the journal Nature Climate Change.

According to the study, which studied populations around the world, Americans are more likely to rate climate change as more serious if they felt local temperatures were getting warmer. In China, people were more likely to see climate change as a greater risk if they felt air quality was getting worse.

And tellingly, people who were aware of climate change in developing nations 鈥� which scientists have long warned would be hardest hit by the effects of climate change 鈥� than those in developed nations. Even those who hadn't been educated about climate change said they noticed local changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, according to the study.

That's a trend Leo Ondrovic, a Saint Leo University science faculty member who tracks global climate change research noticed in an

A majority of respondents in that survey felt strongly that climate change is responsible for certain environmental changes like warmer temperatures (69 percent), severe storms (67 percent), worsened drought conditions (66 percent), rising oceans (65 percent), and beach erosion (62 percent).

鈥淭he majority of respondents have noticed some changes,鈥� Dr. Ondrovic said. 鈥淪o the general public sees effects of the climate changing, although a majority did not attribute any single effect to climate change, even though all of these can be tied to climate change. So while this is encouraging, it seems there is more work to be done in explaining these connections to the general public.鈥澛�