Oh, yeah, anthropogenic climate change is definitely real. There's no doubt about it. Heat records are being broken far more often and by much wider margins than cold records, and we're seeing more and more record-breaking floods in already-rainy areas and record-breaking droughts in already-dry areas (which is to be expected because hotter air evaporates more water). Also, average temperatures in most of Tennessee have risen a few degrees in the past decade alone (1991-2020 vs. 1981-2010 NOAA climate data); average precipitation risen a few inches equally rapidly, too. I find it more likely that the destruction of wild palm populations was due to urban sprawl, irresponsible agriculture and rampant fire suppression. (Dwarf and saw palmettos actually thrive in fire-stricken pine savannas.) We've seen this with longleaf pines, too. The construction of reservoirs can't have helped, either; most subtropical North American palms actually thrive in poorly-draining soil, contrary to stereotypes about palms needing well-drained sandy soil. Besides, the wild dwarf palmettos in Cherokee County, AL and Hardin County, TN were seemingly unknown prior to the 21st century and are still little-known; if they could survive the severe volcanic winters in 1783-84 (which caused ice floes off of the Louisiana coast and a frozen Mississippi River in New Orleans) and 1816 (which caused deadly June and August frosts at least as far south as East Tennessee), surely the ones in the Deep South would've been unfazed by a volcanic winter in the Little Ice Age too! My guess as to what happened at Cape Hatteras is maybe a severe Category 5 hurricane snapped or washed away all of the cabbage palmettos (and the land they grew on); it's more hurricane-prone than anywhere other than Florida and parts of the Gulf Coast due to its extremely exposed location right by the Gulf Stream. With the Cuban royal palms in Central Florida, I'd guess that the Little Ice Age did them in (probably same for the Spanish moss in colonial-era Maryland), whereas other palm species were able to adapt to the centuries of a slightly cooler climate; some things are just down to chance. As for the Brazoria palmettos in Texas, I seriously doubt that those are cabbage palmettos. It's more likely that they're an ancient hybrid between dwarf and cabbage palmettos that migrated westwards. Maybe they could also be a more evolved subspecies of the dwarf palmetto than the Louisiana palmetto is. They're too cold-hardy to be pure cabbage palmettos, and them being a hybrid of the dwarf and Mexican palmettos has been ruled out. P.S.: There were no glaciers in Virginia in the Quaternary Ice Age as far as I know. The only Quaternary glaciations that I know of in the South were an alpine glacier on Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina and the southern edge of the Laurentide Ice Sheet covering modern-day Louisville, KY. Even the majority of Missouri, parts of Southern Illinois and most of West Virginia and the coastal mid-Atlantic escaped glaciation during every Quaternary glacial period; anywhere that was once covered in alpine glaciers would have cirques, while the LIS destroyed bedrock in old hills and left behind glacial till on top of whatever was left.

Climate in Florida seems to varie greatly from what I see. It seems to rain very regularly in West Palm Beach and fort Lauderdale for instance, even in winter. Actually I researched their climate and they're catergorized as a rainforest climate with no real dry season, while here in St. Pete it's a Savannah climate with long periods of dry weather. I'm considering one day moving as I can't stand the long dry season here, my soil is just nearly always dry and having to water so very often by hand is becoming too much. I was just talking to my friend about the weather in my area this summer. We both find it's been a mild summer in my area. Most days have been 90° or below while last summer it seemed like every single day was 95° or above. I just checked next weeks forecast for my area and we have most days only in the mid to upper 80's.

You know this “change” we’re starting to go thru-and let me be clear-starting to go thru. We shouldn’t be looking to blame. To point fingers at an blame. This is about what we can do to survive it. Water, you know having Rain water storage spoiled me. Lost 250gal Rain water to a loose hose. Had to use city water for the first time in ten years. Better believe I figured out something better. That was one of those times they say makes you grow hair on your chest or pull it off your head. But hey that’s why we’re out here, well not yet it’s still too hot. Water, you know having Rain water storage spoiled me. Dropping that hose schooled me. If I didn’t have that water connection those trees would have dried up. All that fruit, hell even the plum tree is full of fruit. Yeah, the trees that are in my system would have been fine for months. But the one’s in media. As the vast number of them are. That would have been the suffering or loss of more that 65 different fruit trees. Right now things are going fine for me. But what if I really depended on that food this year. Didn’t have that expensive water connection. I can breathe a sigh tho because it rained today. All the trees are soaked and my tanks are refilling with another storm predicted Friday. All’s right with the world again. But that hiccup. Time to make the change over to the system complete. Time to see about another $500 to buy more trees. More water storage. With what I saw those four weeks there wasn’t any rain showed me the short coming of what I was actually doing, prepared for. Water that I took for granted, it was free from the sky, the life blood of everything I grow stopped. Four weeks it stopped. Of course I see a Youtube on the drying west. Their tearing out trees and putting plants that require less water. Tearing your trees out because they consume too much water. Is that the kind of decision I have to make and I mean in the next year or two. I don’t think I’ll have longer than that. I’m telling myself that I’ll have four trees where one is now. The more I think on it the more agreeable it becomes. Even if I do it with these half barrels which I think is better, could even make 5gal inserts with a 30gal container. This has all gotten very interesting in a short period of time and I should take MYSELF seriously. Plants in medium aren’t going to work because the moisture evaporation is against that. Hydroponics is even worse shape. Wanna bet in five, no three years hydroponics is outlawed. Those bulk chemicals mined from some where else-that’s going behind the counter at pharmacies and you won’t be able to get anything but an ounce. Change is already here the starting gun has been fired. Did you miss it?

Folks, Thanks for the feedback so far. Clarification on the electrical situation: The building has a 200 amp service. This means that the building gets a maximum of 200 amps at any given time. There are individual electrical panels for each of the 12 units. Each panel pulls in about 60 to 100 amps at any given time. When the trustees were looking into this whole issue last year, they informed us that: "It is theoretically possible for the demand from the individual units to vastly outstrip our 200 amp capacity if usage spikes across all units at the same time (e.g., 12 x 60 = 720 amps)." So far, according to a survey done in the building, electrical usage is not to the level where it's a safety issue. But this will need to be monitored yearly.