Will you be gardening 10 years from now?

OK, global climate change is a fact. I don't want to get into whether it is caused by humans or not, so I will ignore any replies that argue that.

My gardening question is this: all the best scenarios say weather will become more extreme and more variable. Variable extreme weather is death to the home gardener. Any suggestions on this?

Chris

Reply to
Chris
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For the last 4 decades, as I read it, there have been no global cold records, however there are a number of global record highs. The rain is going to move North, and the greatest temperature change will be at the higher latitudes. Water shortages may begin in 9 years. I don't mean to alarm anyone, but exponential growth is impressive. One becomes 2, becomes 4, which becomes 8, to 16, and so on and so forth, usw. Now, if you had a pond that filled exponentially in 13 days, at how many days would half a pond be?

For example, if just the ice around Greenland melted, it would raise the sea level 6'. Out of 150 original glaciers in Glacier National Park, 29 remain.

Do you know who your Congressional representatives are? What are they doing about Global Warming, over population, and the disappearing water, which without "modern crops" can't be grown. A whole lot of countries including China, India, and the U.S.A. are running out of water quickly, like in California where farmers can make more money selling water than they can farming.

Contact your Congresspersons, and maybe stake your claim to the first Arctic Ocean resort.

Reply to
Billy

In 10 years, I will be 80. I hope to putter, but I strongly doubt whether I will climb my hill to tend my grape vines. Even today, when I reach the top of the hill, I have to take a few minutes to catch my breath. The hill is more steep than the county's current grading codes allow; I can stand on the top and inspect the roof of my two-story house.

In 10 years, I am unlikely to still be pruning my peach tree or mock orange (Pittosporum tobira) bushes. I don't know if I will be able to drag my 75-foot hose around the yard.

That does NOT mean I am unconcerned about climate change. I am very concerned because I have grandchildren, and I want them to have grandchildren.

Reply to
David E. Ross

????? Garden as one would do in an area of extremes of course.

Reply to
FarmI

More and more companies are growing produce inside green houses where the environment is controlled. Here in Michigan, many stores get their produce from Canada where tomatoes and lettuces are grown year round indoors.

If the Earths environment gets real bad due to global warming, it will not be the end of human life. Nature itself will be destroyed, but humans and selected animals may continue in a controlled indoor environment. Like living on another planet like Mars or Eaarth.

Growing foods indoors on a personal scale is also a growing industry. Since Michigan passed the Medical Weed law, there are now many many hydroponic and gardening stores on every street corner. In those stores are all kinds of grow lights, large pots and fertilizers for growing just about everything. For others not so fortunate to have the money or land, the average person can consume a product called "Soylent Green".

Reply to
Nad R

Seems to me, they garden in Alaska and at the Equator. Aren't those both examples of extreme weather?

Maybe you have some other kind of extreme in mind?

The tornados ripping through the middle of the US affect a very small percentage of the total land surface.

Anyway, what's with the doom and gloom. Here in the northern hemisphere it's spring and phrases like "death to the home gardener" seem so inappropriate.

A robin has built it's nest on top of the box that was installed for FIOS on my house. I'm enjoying peeking out the door watching the robin sit patiently on it's eggs. It's nest is on the FIOS box and right under the electric meter. 2 days ago we had about 15 minutes of the heaviest rain I've seen in a while. The winds must have hit about

45MPH. I was a bit concerned about the robin so I peeked out the door and saw that the house and the electric meter protected the bird nicely. It looked like it was enjoying the weather.

Points are:

  1. Adopt a positive attitude.
  2. Life (and gardens) will find a way.
Reply to
despen

Not to mention the impending disaster when the aquifers in western North America are pumped dry. They're taking about 6 more inches out than are replenished, annually. If you think the price of bread or flour is high now, wait until that water crunch hits.

Chris

e conservatives, and liberals not to be found anywhere in the phantasmagori= a

Reply to
Chris

Extreme is one thing. When you toss in "variable" it becomes another whole problem.

Chris

Reply to
Chris

Of course they are. Extreme weather by itself is not a problem.

Extreme weather that has become variable IS a problem.

Nope. Extremes of temperature and rainfall are exactly what I had in mind.

Yup. I didn't mention those.

The only reason you HAVE a robin near your house is because Rachel Carson rang the doom and gloom bell and showed that pesticide use would be, say, "death to the Spring birdwatcher". (My words, not hers.)

Now, I am no Rachel Carson. But people like James Hansen and Carl Safina walk in her shoes (read "Song for a Blue Ocean").

I HAVE a positive attitude. That's why I am trying to do a little part to save the planet for my kid.

Sure they will. My question was, what way?

But if we can at least ameliorate an impending disaster, isn't that better?

Chris

Reply to
Chris

Ten years? In ten years several posters here will be dead, you imbecile!

Reply to
Brooklyn1

Thank you for that cogent, reasoned, detailed, and appropriate response.

Chris

Reply to
Chris

You forgot 'accurate', IMBECILE! LOL-LOL

Reply to
Brooklyn1

I disagree with your two points on life.

#1 Adopting a positive attitude is a risky game in my book.

Those that think with a positive attitude tend to cut corners where they should not. "Just get it done... And hope for the best". A person with a negative attitude knows things can fail and will try and foresee all negative outcomes and makes the best of it for the money and outcome. Spend some extra time and get it right.

#2 Life does not always find away.

The earth is in sad shape because of reckless human behaviors. People are always putting profit over health and environment.

Reply to
Nad R

The Ogalla Aquifer in Nebraska and Kansas seems OK, but it is running dry in Texas and New Mexico. Aquifers in Yemen, India, northern China, Afghanistan, Mexico, and Pakistan are being pumped faster than they can recharge. There is fossil water aquifers in Saudi Arabia, which are close to running dry. One fifth of the American grain, 3/5 Indian grain, and 4/5 of China's grain comes from irrigation. India and China account for 40% of the worlds population. These 3 countries account for 50% of the world's annual grain harvest. Half the world's population live in countries with falling aquifers. Forty percent of the world's grain comes from irrigated land, and 70% of the worlds fresh water is used for irrigation.

Add to this diminished snow falls, as on the Sierras in California that is diverted to farming in the Central Valley, and vanishing glaciers in Bolivia and India, and a scary problem presents itself. IIRC in 1970 there was 130 days of excess food for everyone on the planet. Today there is 40 days of excess food.

A 3 foot rise in the oceans would sharply reduce the amount of rice grown in Bangladesh, and the Mekong Delta. Vietnam exports rice to 20 countries.

When temperatures rise during the growing season, grain yields fall. Crop ecologists use a rule of thumb that for each 1-degree-Celsius rise in temperature above the optimum during the growing season, you can expect a 10% decline in grain yields. Photosynthesis plateaus at 95 degrees Fahrenheit, declines to 104 degrees F, and then stops.

My latest reading material is:

"World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse" by Lester Russell Brown

(Available at a library near you [while they are still open])

Reply to
Billy

Being afraid and expecting the worst is no way to go through life.

Somehow, with my basically positive attitude I manage to minimize my impact on the environment and leave the world a little better than I found it.

The earth has a lot of problems, but in my short life I've seen Blue Claws return to the Hudson. My neighborhood (NJ) is crawling with deer, I see foxes, wild turkeys, bears. There was a coyote in Manhattan a while back.

Reply to
despen

I am not afraid at all... I just do not trust others to make good decisions. I will try and protect myself from others overly optimistic views. I too try to minimize my impact on the earth and others, but it is not easy by any means.

I see deer overpopulation as a negative impact on the environment. I too have foxes and turkeys in my neighborhood also. Frogs seem to be disappearing and I do not see as many good bugs like praying mantis and stick bugs.

Reply to
Nad R

Extreme climates but predictably so. However there are risks there; for example in the tropics monsoons may fail.

Yes, the variable sort. This will make growing more difficult in two ways.

Variation in climate from the one you have now, so things that suit may not suit in future. Of course other things that don't suit now may suit in future. Both are going to be challenges of adaptation.

Secondly, stronger variations in weather, that is more extreme weather events. Dry may get drier, wet may get wetter, storms may get stronger. This is another challenge.

True, but a failed monsoon will affect hundreds of millions of people. Also tropical rain in what was the dry season will promote the spread of disease (like denque fever which has no immunisation) over wide areas.

Heat waves can be deadly for the old and weak in cool climates where neither buildings nor people are prepared to cope.

But you are right that we must be optimistic. I don't mean the foolish optimism of the deniers (if we close our eyes it will go away) but optimism that we can adapt.

Yes.

Ever heard the curse "may you live in interesting times"?

David

Reply to
David Hare-Scott

Poor bastard. I guess that means that rat is the low hanging fruit in Do-Wa-Ditty.

Reply to
Billy

Probably. But does that mean we should do nothing? Does it mean we should hold a party for them now?

Are you trying to say something in your pointlessly insulting way or just to be pointlessly insulting without saying anything?

David

Reply to
David Hare-Scott

You are so gloomy, I bet your glass is always less than half empty and you would be shocked if it got half full.

A person with a

This is where your sour view disables you. This is a non sequitur. There is no incompatibility between a positive attitude and using foresight, planning and risk assessment. There is incompatibility between a negative attitude and harnessing your maximum energy to take the necessary action that your planning tells you is required.

Short of a planet-cracking bolide life will endure, even then some microbes might make it to start all over again.

The challenge in front of us is to find a way to endure that will minimise death and pain.

That is true but it points to the solution: humans must fix what they carelessly put at risk. Hiding away and saying "oh woe is us" will not get it done.

David

Reply to
David Hare-Scott

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