In article
,
Chris wrote:

On May 30, 1:05*am, Billy wrote:
In article
,

*Chris wrote:
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

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.
--
- Billy

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

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
http://www.amazon.com/World-Edge-Env...llapse/dp/0393
339491/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306790530&sr=1-1
(Available at a library near you [while they are still open])
--
- Billy

Mad dog Republicans to the right. Democratic spider webs to the left. True conservatives, and liberals not to be found anywhere in the phantasmagoria
of the American political landscape.

America is not broke. The country is awash in wealth and cash.
It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the
greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks
and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/.../michael-moore
/michael-moore-says-400-americans-have-more-wealth-/