Weirdest .....Weather..... Ever

[canadianplant]

Ive always been an avid weather watcher. Ive always been interested in climate, and the whole world of weather.


Now, after having the winter of "no winter" in Canada, and seeing record snow and cold in the states, and Europe, and northern china, and seeing how my spring here is literally a month ahead of schedule, I'm starting to wonder if this is the beginning of climate change, which so far hasn't really shown itself for such a long stretch here.


Now I say climate change, NOT global warming. The earth is in perpetual change. Right now, were near the ending of a cool cycle. During the times fo the dinosaurs, the arctic was 10- 30C warmer then it is today. Canada was tropical, and so was most of the world. There was some polar freezing, but only when they were in their sunless period. There is even evidence of Ginko Biloba and palms all the way up above 60 degrees latitude.
Europe right now, is actually warmer int he summer, and cooler in the winter for 5 years straight, not to mention more snow. Europe itself is getting cooler, if you look at the data. Some scientists actually believe that the ocean and air currents int he Atlantic have shifted. That could many things from a new ice age, to cooling in Europe, and warming in Canada.


And its not just us. Think of how plants are effected by it. IT causes plants to run to the south so to speak, adapt to the new climate, or die. Most of the plants we have around us is a small number of tough adaptable plants. Us, and invasive animals and diseases, and climate change has decimated the plant life around us. There was once rhododendrons in southern Ontario, and magnolia. Not to mention apparently some Rivercane bamboo ( Arundinaria gigantea ). There were, and possibly still are some species of pitcher plant native my my neck of the woods ( NW Ontario), the west shore of lake Superior.


A squirrel used to be able to run from Spain all the way to Turkey because of all the trees, only 500 years ago. Think of what was lost? Or what we had no idea was there? Some of if was caused by us , while some of it was caused by climate change. But there is never blame on only one thing in nature. It is too complex of a system for our computers to comprehend. And we barley understand how it works ourselves.


In ways climate change actually made us who we are as a species. Climate change around 12 000 years ago caused the separation of the UK from Europe, and also created the black sea. Not to mention around the Nile, and in Africa, where it went from a lush semi arid climate, to total desert in less then a few thousand years. This caused peoples to stay in one place and develop farming, the most important thing in our evolution. IT enabled us to pick and grow crops at our leisure, and cause us to change the flow of rivers and lakes at our whim. These both are destructive enough to cause whole countries to go from Mediterranean climate, to a total Sahara desert climate.
　
In far north Ontario around at that time, there was one of the last remnants of the large glaciers. IT was in the middle of what is now Hudson's bay. This caused all the run off, and river water to flood north Ontario, from lake Nippon, west to lake Winnipeg and east to western Quebec. Climate change caused the ice dam to fail, and cause a massive tidal wave of fresh water that separated the UK from Europe, and caused a mini ice age in Europe, due to the desalinization of the ocean water. This caused the ocean currents, which feeds Europe its warm mild climate to either stop, or change flow.


I think the main thing to remember at these times, especially as a Gardner, or nature lover, is to be as earth conscious as you can be. Use no chemicals, recycle, and try to make sure you can control your plants, from taking over.
Try and make your garden into a self sustaining ecosystem. Using compost, microbes, and insects and animals to make your yard thrive, instead of pesticides, and artificial products. The less hybridized the plants are, or cross bread the better. Look at whats happened with Canna, and many many other types of plants. Disease, lost origins, loss of whole species and genera due to just hybridizing. I'm glad these days, more and more people are getting conscious of where their plants come from, and are even going as far as growing them from seed.


Gardening has even saved many types of plants from extinction, and also caused extinction due to jut taking from nature, instead of preserving. To me that’s what gardening is about, preserving and helping nature do its job. Did you know a grove of bamboo, removes 30% more toxins from the air, and replaces 40% more oxygen back into the atmosphere, then a same size grove of trees? Some very gorgeous and exiting plants actually replace minerals and nutrients back into the soil? Just because they aren't a showy as a prize azalea, or as commercially profitable as bamboo, doen't’t mean it shouldn't’t be used. But to my knowledge most gardeners just over look them, for better looking plants.

Now it seems thats what plant growers are doing. Creating for look, and also not functionality.


Even planting a few plants and forgetting about them, has good implications to the environment. But planting without care, can cause as much damage as climate change. A martial artist who is trained to kill at need, doent’t run around killing people for fun, or even starting fights. The most powerful thing we can do as gardeners is learn, and teach each other.