"Global warming" and related topics

7 years ago

I keep seeing the same topic arise through the forum: Global warming, and how it's affecting the garden.

I studied geological sciences at university before working professionally as a horticulturist. Climate change is something that happens in all regions of the earth, whether it be a flux in humidity/moisture patterns, a flux in geologic/tectonic movement shifting regions in relation to weather systems, or even CO2 induced warming, generally. Humans are increasing the speed at which the earth is currently warming, but the earth is certainly taking strides to equilibrate the imbalance. We will not stop climate change, and that's the most important take away of this post.

Even still, as the earth has warmed and cooled for 6 billion years and into the future, it continues to find a natural equilibrium. It did this when bacteria consumed massive amounts of iron from the atmosphere, and again when blue-green algae left water for solid ground, and it's finding an equilibrium for our human-driven carbon/methane emissions. We're experiencing this quest for equilibrium as extreme weather, but imagine what this must be like for Ginkgo biloba! This is a species who evolved almost 500 million years ago in a CO2 rich, turbulent climate. "Bring on the global warming," says Ginkgo biloba!!

Regardless, the best action any person can take to reduce their affect on climate change is to grow and produce as much as one can as close to where they will utilize the goods. Select plants that produce food, to reduce the amount of travel your food takes to reach your plate. Eat less meat, because meat producing organisms require more water than vegetable to raise. MOST IMPORTANTLY: SELECT PLANTS NATIVE TO YOUR GROWING AREA! These are plants that have adapted to surviving in our soil, climate and atmosphere during stressful periods like heat waves and droughts. They are typically more reliable than non-natives at adapting in these conditions. It is these plants that will coevolve with the climate as we continue to change it. And let's face it, humans will always affect the climate--we exhale CO2, a greenhouse gas.

WE WILL NOT STOP CLIMATE CHANGE, that is, unless humans become extinct. And once we're long gone, another species will adapt to take the most advantage of the current climatic conditions. We as a species need to leave the anthropocentric mindset behind. Climate change is only negative to those species that cannot adapt!

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I hope that this post starts a great discussion about climate change, and maybe we can draw the climate change issues from the rest of the posts into this single thread.

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Comments (3)

John Donovan
7 years ago
This is a topic I have come to embrace over the last 5 years. I was not a believer back in the 90's and 00's but as more and more data came in it became hard to just ignore. It has changed how I live my life. I now walk or take public transportation whenever I can. I now recycle everything and have actually pulled wood out of dumpster for reuse in my yard. It saddens me when government officials choose to ignore what 99.9% of scientists agree is happening.
Persimmons
Original Author
7 years ago
My two biggest contributions to curbing my affect on global warming are:

-Composting to reduce the volume of garbage that must be transported to the landfill to rot away inside of plastic bags.

and

-REDUCING AND REUSING, and only then, RECYCLING. It's one thing to recycle your goods, but most are not laterally recycled (that is, most goods must become a lower-grade quality of good when recycled). Reduce the number of resources you use, and reuse the ones that can't be easily recycled.
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"just because it is colder in Iowa doesn't mean it is colder everywhere else." Oh, How true. March 8th my wife and I left Iowa for an extended stay in Florida to try and get warm. Eastern Iowa had been in a cycle of Rain, Ice, Snow every 3-4 days since before Christmas. We just wanted to go south and get warm!!! We hit tennessee day after they got smashed by a blizzard. Went on to Gatlinburg, there it was 50-55. Went to Savanah Ga. It was 60 and rain there. Went down to Venice Fl. 60 and high wind. Couldn't dive because water was so turbulent you couldn't see your guages. Ft. Lauderdale and Deerefield Beach wind off the ocean was 40+ mph and temp not above 60 or so. Went over to Freeport Grand Bahamas for 6 days. Temp never got above 65 most of the time it was 50-55 and rain 4 days out of 6 it rained and had high wind. Tryed diving one morning and the waves came up so badly once we were out and underwater, the dive master came down and called us in and it was almost impossible to get back on the boat as the boat was rocking in 6-8' seas. 21 days gone and only a couple of them did we see 70+ temps. Got back to Iowa and we went right back into the winter rain ice snow cycle and we are still in it right now minus the snow. Still cold enough to freeze outside some nights yet. I just want to be warm. I will gladly put up with 90+ temps and 90% humidity. I am tired of being cold. I would like to break a sweat for a change. Of course the old saw still applies: "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still" Here is a link that might be useful: For those who wish to keep the debate going, ample fuel here!!!
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Let's put this thing to rest....... I didn't mean to get everyone all worked up. For that, I'm truly sorry I ever posted this. Perhaps I should have changed the title to "Map shows POSSIBLE Global Warming". On the other hand, it shows just how sharply divided people are on this isssue. Dragontek, your last remarks were uncalled for. Why resort to insults? It was in your very first post on this topic that you said "until something that comes along that disputes the rapid warming and melting in the arctic-", and then go in the opposite direction and state:"climate change and global warming does not mean it is going to become warm all at once". YOU are the only one who suggested that, but then insult anyone who might think that as being "from a red state and just plain DUMB".......how would you feel if someone here made a remark like 'people from BLUE states are arrogant, prejudiced and prone to childish name-calling'? It might bode well for you to remember that many of the people living in the warmer, more hospitable RED states are retirees and business people who relocated from the colder, less hospitable BLUE states. As for donray posting his link....sorry, you lost me there. A link to a page showing the Confederate flag and lyrics for 'Dixie'? Not sure what that has to do with global warming. Unless you were just trying to get back at dragontek....I fear all you may have accomplished by posting that link was to reinforce dragontek's rather outdated and predjudiced views. Maybe spockvr6 hit the mark early on....short-term data should not be ignored, but it's not a means to an end. Only another piece of the puzzle. In the grand scheme of things, a few years is nothing. From a chronological viewpoint, even 10,000 years is a mere wink in the eye of time. It's only been within the last 30 to 40 years that we as humans have become more attuned to our climates and the weather. There's still just so much we don't know, and can't predict. Loss of the ozone layer, factory and automotive exhaust emissions, the loss of wetlands and rainforests....all of which are playing a role in our changing climate, for better or worse. While I do not suggest surrender or indifference, just shrugging our shoulders and trying to roll with the punches, I do say that a lot of what happens with the weather in the coming years will ultimately be beyond anyone's control. It will be up to all of us to try and make the best of it and shape a brighter future with a more stable climate.
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zone_denial made an interesting point: "Most rational scientists(many of which thought the earth was cooling, thirty years ago. Indeed, all the other particles we belched out in the early 20th century slowed the warming process down, but as we cleaned them up in the 60's and 70's things have began to change" Remember the notorious 'coal fogs' of London and other cities during the Industrial Revolution? How bad the smog used to be for us in the US?...still is in many cities, but it's better than it used to be... At one time, a popular joke about at least one of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River was that the water was "too thick to drink and too thin to plow"....... We've come a long way with pollution control and recycling. A story that was making the rounds just a few months ago was that the reason for the increase in temperatures was because we had done such a good job of cleaning up the air, that more sunlight is now reaching the planet's surface. The liberal media very quietly and quickly dropped the story. I wonder why??? Another twist: A scientist happened to notice a sharp drop in surface temps immediately following 9/11. Remember how quiet the skies were following Sept. 11th? Many commercial flights were grounded. The scientist discovered that the temp drop was due to cloud formations returning to normal for a few days......the 1000's of jet aircraft had been disrupting cloud patterns and formation. This scares me a heck a lot more than worrying about Miami getting flooded 100 years from now. This was actually a special on PBS...an episode of Nova I think.
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spedigrees z4VT
7 years ago
My personal feeling is that the 6th extinction has advanced too far now to be reversed. We are so overpopulated now that our presence is unsustainable. That is my view of the situation. Slowing the extinction is the best we can hope for.

A longer view is that there is nothing to be done about the extinction of life on this planet, but that life will re-group and continue after we, and all other current life forms, are gone. Eventually our sun will go super nova and extinguish our planet altogether. However the laws of the universe will continue infinitely, and they contain the building blocks for life, planets, chemical reactions, and intelligence, so really nothing we do can affect this continuum. That is a comforting thought to me.

For the short view, in the little microcosm of my own life and the little plot of land I call my own for this brief space of time, I try to create and maintain a haven for wildlife, both plant and animal. I have cared for many generations of domestic animals in my life, animals that have fertilized the land in the animal-plant eco-cycle. We mostly feel that our greatest contribution to the ecological footprint of man as a whole, was our conscious decision not to reproduce. As to the rest of our contribution to the preservation of Mother Earth as we know it, well I sort out recyclables religiously, compost what little food waste we produce, buy all organic foods whenever possible, and support the sustainable organic small farms around us that treat their animals humanely and eschew toxic chemicals. I also re-purpose many items when they have outlived their original purpose. I guess this makes me a bit of a hoarder, but throwing things away, especially those things that cannot be recycled, offends me.

"Global warming" and related topics

Comments (3)

John Donovan

Persimmons
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"Global warming" and related topics

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John Donovan

PersimmonsOriginal Author

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Persimmons
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