This article made me cry it was that good and did, honestly, make me feel that there is maybe a tiny speck of hope- or at least of redemption. Maybe.
"Why bother? That really is the big question facing us as individuals hoping to do something about climate change, and it’s not an easy one to answer. I don’t know about you, but for me the most upsetting moment in “An Inconvenient Truth” came long after Al Gore scared the hell out of me, constructing an utterly convincing case that the very survival of life on earth as we know it is threatened by climate change. No, the really dark moment came during the closing credits, when we are asked to . . . change our light bulbs. That’s when it got really depressing. The immense disproportion between the magnitude of the problem Gore had described and the puniness of what he was asking us to do about it was enough to sink your heart.
But the drop-in-the-bucket issue is not the only problem lurking behind the “why bother” question. Let’s say I do bother, big time. I turn my life upside-down, start biking to work, plant a big garden, turn down the thermostat so low I need the Jimmy Carter signature cardigan, forsake the clothes dryer for a laundry line across the yard, trade in the station wagon for a hybrid, get off the beef, go completely local. I could theoretically do all that, but what would be the point when I know full well that halfway around the world there lives my evil twin, some carbon-footprint doppelgänger in Shanghai or Chongqing who has just bought his first car (Chinese car ownership is where ours was back in 1918), is eager to swallow every bite of meat I forswear and who’s positively itching to replace every last pound of CO2 I’m struggling no longer to emit. So what exactly would I have to show for all my trouble?" LINK
Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts
The Zones are on the move.
Gardeners rely on the idea of fixed zones, based on annual average low temps, to determine whether a plant or a tree will be hardy enough to live in their garden. Kingston, RI, for examle is Zone 6. New Orleans is Zone 9.
The Zones are having to be redrawn. The Arbor Day Foundation recently redrew their zone maps, and there's an animated transition between the 1990 and 2006 map that really takes your breath away. There people have no political agenda, they just want you to be able to find trees and plants that will live in your garden, and those trees and plants are changing, rapidly. Many Zones changed by 1, some changed by 2. Cape Cod jumped from 5 to 7 - that's the climatological equivalent of moving from Southern Maine to Northern Mississippi.
This article describes what these changes mean for New Jersey gardeners "Goodbye, Douglas fir and white spruce. Hello magnolia and stately southern oaks. "
Washington DC, too has changed: ""You could say D.C. is the new North Carolina," said Bill McLaughlin, a curator at the U.S. Botanic Garden on the Mall."
"In sections of Michigan, the weather was warm enough to suit southern magnolia trees, said Arbor Day Foundation spokesman Woodrow L. Nelson. The southern species Arizona cypress also seemed to be better adapted for some parts of the Northeast, he said."
In the UK, changes in climate are steering many gardeners towards planting Mediterranean plants such as lavender, rosemary, olive trees, and so on, that are drought resistant and love long hot summers and mild winters. Soon when people talk about an English cottage garden, they might be picturing something that doesn't exist anymore- so long to the lupines, the primulas, the foxgloves- all plants that need a winter chilling period to perform. Also, droughts in the UK led to extensive bans on outdoor watering, leading, last year, to what must have been a crash in hose sales: "Sales of hose pipes were down: in the country, by 25%; in the south-east, by 76%."
The Zones are having to be redrawn. The Arbor Day Foundation recently redrew their zone maps, and there's an animated transition between the 1990 and 2006 map that really takes your breath away. There people have no political agenda, they just want you to be able to find trees and plants that will live in your garden, and those trees and plants are changing, rapidly. Many Zones changed by 1, some changed by 2. Cape Cod jumped from 5 to 7 - that's the climatological equivalent of moving from Southern Maine to Northern Mississippi.
This article describes what these changes mean for New Jersey gardeners "Goodbye, Douglas fir and white spruce. Hello magnolia and stately southern oaks. "
Washington DC, too has changed: ""You could say D.C. is the new North Carolina," said Bill McLaughlin, a curator at the U.S. Botanic Garden on the Mall."
"In sections of Michigan, the weather was warm enough to suit southern magnolia trees, said Arbor Day Foundation spokesman Woodrow L. Nelson. The southern species Arizona cypress also seemed to be better adapted for some parts of the Northeast, he said."
In the UK, changes in climate are steering many gardeners towards planting Mediterranean plants such as lavender, rosemary, olive trees, and so on, that are drought resistant and love long hot summers and mild winters. Soon when people talk about an English cottage garden, they might be picturing something that doesn't exist anymore- so long to the lupines, the primulas, the foxgloves- all plants that need a winter chilling period to perform. Also, droughts in the UK led to extensive bans on outdoor watering, leading, last year, to what must have been a crash in hose sales: "Sales of hose pipes were down: in the country, by 25%; in the south-east, by 76%."
It's not often a meteorologist calls the weather "ridiculous" and "insane."
"Pittsburgh had less than an inch of snow in December which borders on the ridiculous. Equally insane is the near lack of any snow at all along the I-95 Corridor from Boston to Washington. The continuing dominance of the Pacific jet stream assures that most of the nation won't experience any of the rigors of winter this week, either."
Story By AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist John Kocet.
It's 5.30 pm, on New Year's day, and it's 55 freaking degrees outside. When it was raining so hard earlier today, it felt and looked like April- rainy, muddy, greening grass, leafing trees, daffodil leaves peeking out of the soil.
Story By AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist John Kocet.
It's 5.30 pm, on New Year's day, and it's 55 freaking degrees outside. When it was raining so hard earlier today, it felt and looked like April- rainy, muddy, greening grass, leafing trees, daffodil leaves peeking out of the soil.
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