"Global warming" and related topics

9 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!

______

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.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (3)

John Donovan
9 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
9 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.
Related Professionals
Montgomery Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Tulsa Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · McAllen Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Moline Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Syracuse Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Hudson Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Ogden Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Wichita Landscape Contractors · Marietta Landscape Contractors · Dubuque Landscape Contractors · Bozeman Landscape Contractors · Hagerstown Tile and Stone Contractors · Syracuse Tile and Stone Contractors · Reno Tile and Stone Contractors · San Angelo Tile and Stone Contractors
spedigrees z4VT
9 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.