How do we cope with climate change?

It's a tough one. We know that man is changing the climate dramatically, but don't know how it will affect the weather on a year-to-year, season-to-season basis.

All we know is that we will have more extreme weather and more unpredictable weather, and we are already seeing more 'odd' behavior from plants and gardens as a result.

So how on earth do we average gardeners deal with climate change?!

 

We ignore it, (well I do anyway) we've had climate change for years, we'll have good and bad winters, hot and cool summers have done and will continue to do so. There has been a rise in average temperatures but it has happened before.

"Climate change" is a "cash cow" for any scientist who wants money off the government. That's why there's so much "research" going on. The information on climate change is therefore rather biased, because if they wanted to research into "non climate change projects" the cash is harder to come by.
The ony difference to me is that I'm pruning my wisterias between Christmas and New year now instead of early January.
I can't honestly say that's due to climate change or because of convenience.

 

just take each month as it comes...welcome twice flowering lilac, roses that just continue to flower for ever and wonderful autumn colours extending far beyond normal parameters...batten down the hatches and prepare for anything anytime?!!! We WILL get longer harder frosts and we WILL get stronger winds - we just have to prepare I suppose! Every year has its abnormal benefits too - this year here in Cornwall due to wetter weather we have all had a bumper apple & soft fruits crop, can't complain about that! Where ever you live there will be something to be thankful for in your garden...but i do feel for those who end up with fish in trees!!! :cry:

 

Exactly,
Climate Change means exactly that, the climate is always changing.

An interesting fact came up about air polution. The "greens" are always bangin' on about that. Core samples of the ice in Antartica last year, showed an extremely high amount of lead in the air.
Not recently, but back in Roman times. They used a lot of it.

 

You're right Wiseowl, we've always had extremes of weather.

We've never had climate change at the pace we're seeing now, though, and the problem is that we're getting more extreme weather, more often, and it's going to get worse.

I guess Jenny is right - we'll just have to carry on and hope for the best. It's certainly going to make things more interesting, and make a lot of gardening 'textbooks' redundant!

I read an interesting magazine article on this recently - RHS I think - I'll see if I can dig it out for anyone interested.

 

I think people are misinterpreting what climate change actually means it's not something you can say is happening after say 20 years of Indian summers it has to be recorded over a substantially longer time frame...

after all as others have said our climate is ever changing =]

 

In the time frame its not long, I know, but cant say I've noticed much change in the climate in the last 40yrs, some good years some bad.
Gardening wise I've not noticed much either.

To be quite honest, nobody bothered 100yrs ago what shape the planet would be in now, so do I really care what it will be like in 100 yrs time, not really.

Either nature will sort the world population problem out, or everyone will be living in their own effluent.

My money is on nature.:wink:

 

The pace of it is so drastic that in my lifetime I expect gardening concepts like hardy, drought tolerant, moisture loving and so on are going to take on whole new meanings as well as planting and sowing times etc.

All those much loved gardening books and traditions will be a quaint memory!

As for the wider situation, I'm kind of resigned to our leaders doing nothing about it, and our kids and grandkids living with some horrible consequences. But as Pete says, I'll probably be gone before the worst, so I've almost stopped caring. Depressing, really.

 

Weatherwise, I haven't seen anything I haven't seen before.
Like WOO I've lived and gardened through extremes of everything.
In the garden you just have to deal with situations as they arise, and if you hit a bad patch - well, there's always next year.

 

Well I have to say this thread has as usual those who think climate change is a conspiracy and it is not really happening. As someone who knows a bit about climate I wish it were true. Climate has varied in the past but not on the scale and speed we are getting now. Variations before were easily explained but this one is connected to Co2 levels. Yes lead in the ice cap has long been known, lead gets around all over the place but the Romans did not pollute the planet to the extent we do now cause there weren't that many people then. Did you also know that you can take ice core samples that can be dated and analyse the atmospheric content when the ice was formed? That has perhaps enabled scientists to understand why we had warm interglacials during the Ice Age. It has been found that CO2 levels increased at the beginning so triggered melting and then declined causing the ice to return. They think the reason might have have been to do with the amount of vegetation present.
The trouble is it is global warming and in some parts of the world it is more obvious than others. Springs have tended to come earlier even over the last 30 years. So the trend is to be warmer. However for us we can still get the odd really bad winter to kill off all your borderline tender plants. As the atmosphere has more energy because the planet has warmed up then winds can be stronger and we get more extremes, so bad floods become more common than say once every hundred years. It seems that climatically every year we seem to be breaking some sort of climatic record. Now that is unusual.
I think it is probably the most serious threat we have. Some parts of the world are getting drier such as the interior of continents, where most of the world's what is produced. Look at what has happened in Pakistan that has ruined the rice crop. Those sort of things could become more frequent, added to which is sea level rise, which is happening. There is an awful lot of people in Bangladesh, most living and farming a few feet above sea level.
Ironically global warming could cause our climate to cool. If the North atlantic Drift were to slow or stop then it would cease to transfer heat from the tropics to our cooler climes and our winters would get more severe. There are too many unknowns as to what might happen. There is more unpredictability about the climate.
The more you know about climate warming the more you realise how much we don't know and that is scarey.

 

It's not worth worrying about people who ignore science, really, Geoff. There will always be that - those who thought the Earth was flat weren't bad people.

I'm just interested in how gardeners are dealing with our changing climate. Difficult to know whether to plant out my Runners in March or June!

Play it all by ear I suppose, then watch everything be killed by some more freak weather!

 

The problem is of course, that every Tom Dick and Harry has jumped on the Global Warming bandwagon. It's a vehicle used to rip off the tax payer at every opportunity. No wonder the public are getting sick of being thrust down their throats.

 

You make a good point Geoff, however (guess you hate that word), who are we to trust. For example the receding Glazier quoted, which actually wasn't receding and was used from newspaper report if I remember rightly. Yes the earth is going through a change, this change will change the way we experience weather but as has been shown time and time again the earth has done this before.

Around where I currently live, in the hills are settlement after settlement which were lived in when the area was warmer. They were abandoned when the world became wetter and colder and people moved down into the valleys.

Yes, man isn't treating the earth well but living in the UK I get sick of having to pay more and more in taxes, made to feel guilt about using a plastic bag, recycle as much as possible because I live in a civilised society. Whereas the developing countries (Including China) are polluting left right and centre and even worse taking our recycled waste and selling it back to us because they use factories banned in this country!

Is the world changing - yes
Is man to blame - in some ways yes
Do I trust the information I get given - no way
Can it be sorted alot better - YES YES YES

Bring back Returnable bottles. Meat wrapped in one sheet of grease proof paper instead of plastic. Paper bags from sustainable sources. Oh yes thats not happening is it ?

 

"who are we to trust."

Erm. Scientists!

I don't know why "tax" has come into this. I don't recall paying any more tax to deal with climate change.