Even here, we'd better start planning for growing food under altered conditions: more high heat, more dry spells, more flooding. Our climate is changing also.
Why is there so little coverage in the media--including the Ithaca Journal--of the connections between the 3 year drought in Ca, the 12 year drought in Australia, the infernos that "wildfires" in both those locations have turned into, and climates already changed by global warming? There is a new film out with Peter Postelthwaite as a reporter looking back on 2008 from 100 years hence and wondering why "we" were so oblivious, when we "knew" our inaction could start causing temperatures of 101 degrees in once-temperate places (from the trailer that seemed like a projection for the distant future). That future is already here, even in Ithaca, where average rainfall is the same, but higher spring and summer temperatures (many more days in the 90s than ever before) and then more rainfall during violent storms (AKA "rain events") leads to runoff and thus flooding instead of "watering" our soil and recharging our aquifers. Melbourne has been reaching 115 many times this current summer/fire season; and the countryside outside Melbourne was often going closer to 120. This is not Death Valley or the Red Centre of Australia but the once green agricultural district, once upon a time cooled and watered by the Southern Ocean (think of the pastoral movie "Babe," shot in nearby New South Wales). And that kind of heat means less water, worse fires. Two years ago Australia had to start thinking about choosing between agriculture and drinking water in cities (it rained in the nick of time in 2007). At least one Australian city already partially drinks recycled sewer water, and more will be going that way. Ann Landers used to say, "Wake up and smell the coffee." I wonder if some people in the media, even some scientists, let alone some politicians, aren't blowing the coffee aromas out the window (with a coal-powered fan, no doubt) so that we won't smell the coffee. Sure most people admit maybe some global warming is happening, and maybe some climates are going to change, but there is little public discussion about how much has already changed. Or maybe the media does see the writing on the wall and is too scared to talk about it. Arnold makes the connections; my brother in Southern CA does. And my family and friends in Melbourne, well, that message is literally "blowing in the wind." I just received a copy of the 2007 IPCC "update" on how fast GW is actually happening--the part that was suppressed by the major polluting countries. The Nobel Prize was being given for 2004 data at the same time that the 2007 data was being suppressed! Thank goodness many politicians are finally talking about it. But I hope they know how bad it already is so that they start taking truly bold actions. Now that scientists are finally noticing reality is worse than their computer models predicted, maybe the rest of us will start noticing as well (albeit that a long, cold, snowy, winter is consistent with models of climate change in the NE). Pardon the rant. I'm just tired of only half the story being told by most of the media. Margaret On Feb 28, 2009, at 9:08 PM, [email protected] wrote: > As a likely trend, this kind of event should eventually stimulate > relocalized food growing here. > > Karl North > Northland Sheep Dairy, Freetown, New York USA > www.geocities.com/northsheep/ > "Mother Nature never farms without animals" - Albert Howard > "Pueblo que canta no morira" - Cuban saying > > > http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE51J6MO20090221?feed > Type=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0 > > LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's main source of irrigation water > is > expected to go dry this year for most of its growers due to drought, > idling at least 60,000 workers and up to 1 million acres of farmland, > federal officials and experts said on Friday. > > > The zero allocation for most of the farmers who buy water from the > federally managed Central Valley Project was declared as California > water > officials repeated their plans to cut amounts supplied from a separate > state-run water system to 15 percent of normal. > ____________________________________________________________ > Best Weight Loss Program - Click Here! > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTFoYb3hB3tQPt12fJpIQeaSAortfuZJLqpnt5sCebkCVb4KrneDmg/ > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County > area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > Questions about the list? ask [email protected] > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
