Comments on: Global Warming, Gardening, and Your Civic/Patriotic Duty

By: Patti Garland

Patti Garland — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:20:15 +0000

It’s called evolution, folks!

By: Fern

Fern — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:35:06 +0000

Gen–Glad you liked that line. I considered editing it out since it was kind of a run-on sentence and hard to follow.

gardengrrl–Thanks for leaving such a thoughtful comment, I think you definitely provide some food for thought. I understand that looking at one year’s worth of data isn’t enough to detect a long-term trend, I was just trying to keep this post light-hearted. It is a container gardening blog, afterall. People don’t pay me the big bucks to spout off on my political opinions! I just really wanted to make the point that people who are ambivalent about global warming shouldn’t use their ambivalence to neglect their responsibility to be good stewards.

By: Understanding Climate Change | Gardensong

Understanding Climate Change | Gardensong — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:39:09 +0000

[...] just wrote this rather long comment on Fern’s blog, in response to her post on climate change. I really love her blog and don’t mean to sound [...]

By: gardengrrrl

gardengrrrl — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:02:41 +0000

Sorry, I have to pipe in. Jesse is right to point out that there is a big difference between observing the weather and measuring the climate. I understand why many people, including some scientists are still not sure, but it’s important to talk about why so many scientists are convinced. Weather in individual places over time might be warmer or cooler year to year or season to season–there are always those types of variations. What makes many scientists worry is the changes in average temperatures world wide. Also, as Jesse said biologists are finding many plants and animals who are changing their ranges or flowering earlier. If you want to monitor climate change for yourself and help scientists you could join the National Phenology Network. Their volunteers have been monitoring the dates of flower blooms (lilac and honeysuckle since 1956). http://www.usanpn.org/ It’s normal to see flowers bloom earlier one year and later another, but when you monitor for decades and the average bloom date gets earlier and earlier, that’s when scientists start to worry.

Your post makes a good point about conservation, we shouldn’t need the threat of climate change in order to be good stewards. I just wanted to point out that it’s common for people to look at year to year variations and wonder where the evidence is, but a climate scientist is looking at decades or centuries (if they are looking a CO2 levels in frozen ice.)

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 05:50:47 +0000

I’m not opening the climate change can o’ worms (it’s late!) but your point about the end result for all of us is totally true. It IS patriotic to conserve and be good stewards of our land and resources.

And I love this:
I am sure that if you aren’t secretly forming a voo doo doll that looks surprisingly like me and stabbing me repeatedly for suggesting that the jury is still out on global warming, you could come up with some ways to be resourceful too.

Now THAT’S a call to action!!! Damn straight.

Laughing,

Gen

By: christina soletti

christina soletti — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:57:49 +0000

great tips about conservation, regardless of how you feel about global warming. we should conserve our precious resources no matter what…

it doesn’t really matter why one makes changes (shorter showers, less plastic, etc), but rather that they make them. it’s just the responsible citizen thing to do…take care of what we have. that’s why i don’t think it should be a political issue at all…

By: Fern

Fern — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:51:40 +0000

Jess--I would think as a scientist you'd be more careful tossing around words like "fact." Fact means there is no room for disagreement, and I know for a fact that there are scientists that disagree with you. I don't know one way or the other, but I do know that there are arguments on both sides. You might find these articles by scientists (one a physicist at Princeton and one meteorologist at MIT) interesting:

By: cath

cath — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:28:27 +0000

Thank-you for this post, Fern.

Although I disagree with you about global warming, I appreciate the bigger point: Even if climate change weren’t happening, living and gardening as sustainably as possible, co-operating with nature rather than trying to conquer it, would still be important.

And I love your suggestion about the shower water. I’ve always felt guilty about the water wasted while it heats up, but somehow never thought of the obvious way to save it. I’m going to put a bucket in my bathroom… as soon as I put my voodoo doll away

BTW, I just discovered your blog a couple of weeks ago, and it’s quickly become my favourite gardening website. Thanks for sharing!

By: Jess

Jess — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:09:39 +0000

Ok, I have to say it. I’m an entomologist (the study of insects) and global warming is a fact accepted by the majority of the scientific community. Climate change is not weather change and there are varying effects. In the insect world, there have been extinctions and changes in populations because of global warming especially in high-altitude ecosystems. That being said, water conservation is a good thing as is examining your environmental impact.

By: Vani

Vani — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:57:02 +0000

Wow, Fern! Kudos on that post.

It exactly matches my thoughts. I also live in sunny India and we also face similar issues as you describe.

This post is well timed as I was reading an article in the papers just today that plants absorb more greenhouse gases when the air is polluted, so our supposed ‘bad behavior’ seems good . So, it is an even more complex issue than being propagated. Here is the link to the original news if anyone is interested [http://www.ceh.ac.uk/news/news_archive/2009_news_item_16.html].

While the scientists decide what is best, we should just continue conserving resources, as you rightly conclude.

Totally agree with you Patti!