Our Slipping Zone Seven
There
seems to be a disconnect when we think, read, speak of climate
change. On the one hand it is cast as a possible situation in the
distant future, or even a mere glitch in an expected cycle. Others
avoid thinking too much about the problem on the assumption that if
it happens, there is little that can be done about it. The truth is
that climate change is here, right now, and a lot can be, and is
being done about it.
Literally
hundreds of solutions are not only being proposed, but are underway
and if we are not encouraged, it is because we are not paying
attention! Gardeners are aware of changes brought about by global
warming because they are seeing it under their hands and feet. Many
northern gardeners are seeing warming temperatures and more rain as
the answer to growing fruit that a few decades ago only flourished
further south.
One small
example given in an article by a scientist about her garden was that
maple sugaring season used to begin after the Town Meeting Day, the
first Tuesday in March, and now it begins before that traditional
day. Since temperature is the clue that starts plant and animal
growth in the garden, dormancy ends and active growth begins not on
a calendar date but when the optimal temperature has arrived. Growth
itself is something that begins on the cell level where proteins and
hormones respond to temperature.
As these climate
changes are both intricate and subtle, it is too soon for back- and
front-yard gardeners to understand precisely what the pluses and
minuses may be. It is difficult for us know how best to prepare our
gardens for potential changes. It is not only the plant environment
that will change, but the fungi, pathogens, and insect pests will
also present new challenges.
The March 2009
issue of ‘Garden Design’, that magazine of unaffordable and
unattainable gardening elegance, has an article, “A Change in the
Weather” about the effects of global warming on our gardens. The
author quotes Peter Del Tredici, senior research scientist at
Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum, “it’s a mistake to think of climate
change as this thing that’s going to happen. It’s already here.”
According to
Frank Lowenstein, a senior manager in The Nature Conservancy’s
conservation strategies division, “Climate change is consistently
moving faster than predicted. We’ll see very dramatic changes even
over the next ten to twenty years. By 2100, Minneapolis could
potentially have a climate like San Francisco.”
That is a
positive perhaps but Kudzu spreading north, no more cranberry bogs,
ultra-toxic poison ivy, along with mega storms, may give us pause?
Water availability, use and misuse will be a critical issue in the
future, and even in our water-rich area drought may be a problem.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is not yet available but we may
venture a guess: welcome to Zone Eight.
SHAMROCKS! This is
the week that everyone is Irish! It might be mentioned that Ireland
is one of the European countries that is making a considerable
effort to reduce its carbon footprint. The figure given by the Wall
Street Journal for our plastic shopping bag addiction is 100 billion
a year. That is a lot of plastic and I expect the WSJ has an
economist on staff who could tell us how many gallons of oil are
required to produce that many bags?
I have a bag,
caught up in a branch, I am not sufficiently athletic to dislodge, a
reminder of the bag blight. Deciding that plastic bags were a
nuisance, the Irish government initiated a ‘plas-tax’. Roughly
equivalent to 29 of our pennies, that made a difference in a hurry.
By reusing bags, string bags, canvas bags, the Irish eliminated 90%
of the plastic bags, a savings of one million gallons of oil. We
hope that some trash bags will stay with us until our recycling is
so sophisticated we can just sort our household debris into
permanent containers and have them toted away?