I know it is not PC, and that I'll probably get flamed for this, but
as a gardener, I can't bring myself to see limited Global Warming as a
100% Bad-Thing.

We are supposed to be USDA Zone-6 here in SE Pennsylvania. That means
an absolute winter low of -10F (-23C), which is pretty damn cold. In
years past we have usually broken 0F, and occasionally flirted with
breaking that -10F mark. Within memory, we have also had a killing
frost as late as May 10. Those April and May frosts would burn out our
magnolia tree buds, probably 3 or 4 years out of 5. Recently, however,
we have not gone below 0F (USDA Zone-7 rating) and last frost has
regularly been sometime in March. Our magnolias are beautiful, and we
are getting a good 3-4 week jump on getting out annuals and starting
seed in the ground.

I have long though that Zone-7 would be the perfect gardening climate,
but I always figured that I would have to sell my house and move to
get it. Maybe, however, Zone-7 is coming to me.

JD
Canon 1D-mkIII
EXIF Data Included
e-mail: blissful-wind(at)usa.net

Additional images at;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/john-pa/

John - Pa. wrote:
I know it is not PC, and that I'll probably get flamed for this, but
as a gardener, I can't bring myself to see limited Global Warming as a
100% Bad-Thing.
[...]

It isn't - if it happens slowly enough. Major climate change has
happened many times in the past, and minor warmings and coolings lasting
a century or two have occurred in historical time. Not that these minor
climate swings were universally minor in effect: in borderline climate
zones they made a huge difference. The southern Greenland Norse
settlement for example was wiped out by the minor cooling (about 1
degree C on average globally) in the 1500-1600s.

The evidence suggests that a) the present change is greater than the
minor changes that occurred in the past; and b) it's happening very,
very quickly. That will throw off a whole raft of seasonal changes. As
you know, some plants and animals respond to changes in light, others to
changes in temperature. Further north (towards the Arctic circle) there
is already a serious enough mismatch between these two seasonal
responses that some pollinations will not occur or be seriously
diminished. That's not good.

Of course, yearly weather fluctuations can and do mask the long-term
trends in climate. That's why deniers can make plausible-sounding cases
against the near certainty that we are living through a fast change in
climate. Not that the rate of climate change is well understood.

Nobody really knows how fast the climate is changing, and whether or the
rate of change will speed up or slow down. If the climate is changing
very, very quickly, we'll know within 10-20 years. If it's changing very
quickly, our children and grandchildren will know in 50-100 years. If
it's changing quickly, our multi-great grandchildren will know in about
500-1000 years. If it's proceeding at a "normal" pace, our descendants
will know in about 5,000 - 10,000 years. But of course we'll all have
been either rapturised or condemned to hell forever long before then,
according to some interpreters of secret codes embedded in one or
another of the world's sacred texts.

Yer pays yer money and yer makes yer choice.

HTH

--
wolf k.

On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:44:07 -0400, "Wolf K."
wrote:

John - Pa. wrote:
I know it is not PC, and that I'll probably get flamed for this, but
as a gardener, I can't bring myself to see limited Global Warming as a
100% Bad-Thing.
[...]

big snip

Yer pays yer money and yer makes yer choice.

HTH

Thanks for that excellent exposition. Here in the UK our forecasters
are saying we are to have a "normal" English summer, that is to say,
unpredictable and mixed! That the climate has changed, warmed, is
undeniable even in my short (in climate change terms) life of about 80
years so far. At my boarding school in the 1940s it was utterly
inevitable that there would be lots of ice in January/February but
just how good it would be for skating depended on whether the River
Trent flooded before the freeze - if it, did, fields of level ice to
skate on! Now? A minor frost or two, although it has been colder
than usual in parts of the UK this winter.
Even in the south of England, every household had sledges for when the
snow came, but now the opportunity to use them rarely arises so they
no longer exist. Bad for sledge makers!
Time to stop this non-photographic chatter.

Guy Gorton

Especially when I'm freezing my butt off in the winter. ;-)

--
In the beginning there were people - only people.
Governments, armies, restrictions, politics - all invented by us.

my.photoshelter.com/stanleybeck

Stan Beck From New Orleans to Brandon MS
To reply, remove 101 from address.
***

John - Pa. wrote in message
...
I know it is not PC, and that I'll probably get flamed for this, but
as a gardener, I can't bring myself to see limited Global Warming as a
100% Bad-Thing.

We are supposed to be USDA Zone-6 here in SE Pennsylvania. That means
an absolute winter low of -10F (-23C), which is pretty damn cold. In
years past we have usually broken 0F, and occasionally flirted with
breaking that -10F mark. Within memory, we have also had a killing
frost as late as May 10. Those April and May frosts would burn out our
magnolia tree buds, probably 3 or 4 years out of 5. Recently, however,
we have not gone below 0F (USDA Zone-7 rating) and last frost has
regularly been sometime in March. Our magnolias are beautiful, and we
are getting a good 3-4 week jump on getting out annuals and starting
seed in the ground.

I have long though that Zone-7 would be the perfect gardening climate,
but I always figured that I would have to sell my house and move to
get it. Maybe, however, Zone-7 is coming to me.

JD
Canon 1D-mkIII
EXIF Data Included
e-mail: blissful-wind(at)usa.net

Additional images at;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/john-pa/