What's going one here.....

Discussion in 'Annuals, Biennials, Perennials, Ferns and Bulbs' started by Pieter, Nov 18, 2007.

  1. Pieter

    Pieter Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Here it is November 18th and I'm noticing all kinds of unusual things happening in the yard. Daffodils are breaking ground, the Honeysuckle is sprouting all sorts of new growth and this Helleborus hybrid is in bloom about 6 weeks early! I would normally expect the first of the Helleborus buds to start opening around the New Year, but no, not this year, this year it's 6 weeks early! What's going on?
     

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  2. Liz

    Liz Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Welcome to the world of global warming. Our daffodils down under have been coming out at the beginning of winter for several years now. Our winter seems to be becoming our spring. For the first time in about 6 years I actually have a good growth of grass thanks to some nearly "normal" spring rain.

    Liz
     
  3. edleigh7

    edleigh7 Well-Known Member

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    Great observation Liz!
    I have noticed, in Brisbane, this year, that we have nearly gone back to "normal" spring/summer rain!!
    We have been begging for rain in the last 3 years...

    Ed
     
  4. levilyla

    levilyla Active Member

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    We had the same thing happen last year here. all my early daffs. were in bloom (and Hellebores) in January. then Feb freeze and they all turned to mush. arrrrrrrgh.
     
  5. Pieter

    Pieter Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    You know, perhaps you're right. Maybe what I'm witnessing here is indeed due to that millennium old cycle of heating and cooling our planet has gone through forever. All this talk and fear mongering of climate change makes me shake my head time and again in disbelief. While our human activities are contributing to the slight acceleration of this cycle I can accept, the notion we can stop the cycle is sheer and utter nonsense. Then again, perhaps that's only human nature, to think we can control mother nature. 5000 years from now the earth will be in a cooling cycle again, coast lines and land masses will have changed and the archeologists will be having a field day....

    OK, I'm off my soapbox now....
     
  6. levilyla

    levilyla Active Member

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    How true...."global warming" is NOT manmade.
     
  7. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Snowdrops and daffodils in flower last week in southern England.

    Global warming IS man-made - 90% certainty, see the new IPCC report out a couple of days ago. You can't have a 30% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels without affecting climate. It's a physical impossibility.
     
  8. Liz

    Liz Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    If it is not entirely man made we have certainly helped it along BIG time. Just in my life time of 50+ I have witnessed huge changes in our weather pattern. Things like Jan Feb summer school holidays hot but not overly. Now the heat starts early november. Our bushfire season is extended by 2 months of stinking hot weather. Spring rains that used to hamper my horse riding are no more for at least 12 years now. Early blossoms and bird nesting in WINTER when they happened at least 2 months later.....Animals that no longer put on huge winter coats....I could go on. I have always been an observer of things weather from my very youngest days and I think yes there is a cycle BUT it is moving VERY fast. There are so many records being broken re hottest this and that. One more comment re glaciers. My mother made the observation that a glacier she knew well in her childhood (80+yrs) was about a kilometer down the valley. When she and I visited it for a second time 3 years ago she was shocked as to how much further it had receded since our visit in 1988.

    Liz [from a predicted 36C in mid november!!]
     
  9. levilyla

    levilyla Active Member

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    I don't think that we definitely know that the globe is warming long term (hundreds of years). It has been warming over the last 50-70 years. I wouldn't
    be surprised if the amount of carbon burning will have an increasing effect, probably in the sense that the climate people are worried (warner).
    Weather is complicated and definitely unpredictable. I view it as only one more reason to try to conserve our oil and coal usage since these are not
    renewable in the mid term (50-50,000+ years).
     
  10. mama flora

    mama flora Member

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    Definitely, human is the only aminal who destroys it's own habitat.

    In this latitude we've had hailstorm on mid spring time! And cold rainy days as in autumn followed by days of 85º F !!
     
  11. alabama

    alabama Active Member

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    I think that global warming is real. I think it is a manmade problem. Just think about it. Less forest, less grassland, and more stuff being put into the air. Photosynthesis takes carbon dioxcide and water and makes glucose and oxygen. The animal cell takes oxygen and glucose and makes carbon dioxcide and water. What happens when the balance is disrupted? Then add tons and tons of carbon dioxcide from burning fuels.
    One thing that may be slowing down the process of global warming is particle pollution in the atmosphere. This would reflect some sunlight back into space. If we clean up the soot and smoke air it may make it worse!

    Now I am off my soapbox!!

    I am so glad you have rain Liz. Did you do a raindance? We could still use a lot of it here. We are one year behind!
     
  12. Liz

    Liz Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Yes the rain has been reasonable if not quiet normal for my state. Further north along the coast where Sydney and Brisbane are they have been getting some good falls but I think the water restrictions will be here for some time. (years) Meanwhile the whole culture has to change on how we use it in the house and gardens and industry. We also have a new government that is pro Kyoto at last and hopefully good things will start to happen such as the support of a very viable solar industry. We are supposed to be one of the most sun exposed countries yet have very little in the way of solar. Here's hoping...
    Liz
     
  13. KarinL

    KarinL Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    As long as people aren't using totalitarian tools to subvert democracy, they can believe what they want as far as I'm concerned. My fear is that climate change will become a new religion, and we will have inquisitions in its name as one nation's government after another signs on to the crusade to cool the planet. Will we have wars where Kyoto countries seek to enforce Kyoto on others? We already have a good amount of tree idolatry and other factions that will demonize others who do not share their beliefs; how far will that go? Kyoto is a tool that more fanatic nations and individuals can use to control others. The Christian world might yet follow Islam from an enlightenment into fanaticism, with the Goracle at the helm.
     
  14. Liz

    Liz Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Karni politics aside, its not going to hurt to clean the joint up a bit :) We could at least try at the grass root level by using just a little less. Do we really need to maintain a lush lawn in a desert when other areas in deperate need have the river run reduced because a golf course needs to be kept in pristine condition for a few. Or is it necissary to have a million extra lights on to shine on a building and at the same time disrupting the migratory path of birds. Is it really necissary to burn jungle to grow palms (name escapes me at the moment) to create a fuel to run a car. May be climate friendly to run car on said product but laying waste to jungles (lungs for the atmosphere) to grow the wretched stuff seems to me a littlew narrow sighted.

    Off the soap box I am going to keep plugging away down here in the grass.

    Liz
     
  15. alabama

    alabama Active Member

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    I am hoping that our drought will soon be over. Cool water in the Gulf of Mexico could hurt us this winter. Texas,( just three states away) had more rain than they needed last summer. If it would rain like that in Alabama,Tennesee, and Georgia next spring and summer we would be in the clear for a while.
    Golbal warming is a problem,not a religion. Why burn what we cannot replace when we have so much free energy out there for the taking? Do we support our enemies by buying oil at almost a hundred dollars a barrel? How much terrorist activity could be supported without money? Would a greenhouse save me money if I didn't have to buy fuel for it? What happens when the Coosa river runs dry?
     
  16. KarinL

    KarinL Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Re: What's going on here.....

    Those are some interesting thoughts, Alabama.

    Liz, don't get me wrong; I've been a dedicated environmentalist for two decades. I don't dispute we should be living differently. The thing is, who's going to decide who is to do what differently? My neighbours recently fancied themselves quite the environmental champions when they decreed that their large tree that dominated my property was a good thing, notwithstanding what I thought. The bylaw structure in my city actually supports that mentality that some people (those that have trees) can bully others into sacrificing jurisdiction over their own properties for the good of the environment. There is no way to discuss this "politics aside." The politics are what it's all about. The politics are going to determine who gets to dictate what changes are made by whom. There is absolutely nothing wrong with educating people about excesses and offering or suggesting alternatives. The problem is that alternatives always mean sacrifices - trust me on this, I've been making them for twenty years. But the moment you sacrifice the freedom to make sacrifices voluntarily, you lose the point of the whole exercise. On a global scale, the sacrifices required are economic. You cannot sustain economic prosperity or growth in a sustainable manner. Environmental stewardship means growth must be limited or reversed. And who is going to limit whose growth?

    Would you choose an Iraq or Uganda (under Amin) -like state with a dictatorship of the green, for the good of the planet? And if you don't think an environmental dictatorship would excuse itself from any sacrifices, you haven't been watching Al Gore's energy expenditure. It's no accident that green parties worldwide are among the most totalitarian in terms of both party discipline and public policy. That's why they identify as left. "For the common good" always means "the common shall do it as I deem good."

    On my current city garbage can, it says "no cardboard." Theoretically, there is no harm in this if it functions to encourage people to recycle instead. But with the wrong people in charge, this could be an excuse someday to put me in jail if I have criticized the green government and one day someone sees me pick up a sodden piece of cardboard that I've used for weed suppression and, deeming it unrecyclable because of attached dirt, put it in the garbage instead.
     
  17. Liz

    Liz Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Yes I can see your argument when it is put that way. Re the economic thing that is why our former Prime minister did not sign Kyoto. There is some good stuff happeing in industry who seem to be taking up some of the running on this and if we as a normal citizen work at the lower level to keep the polies honest and try and turn them all a bit more green so the "greens" don't get the front running then maybe it will not turn in to a reason for the totalitarian state. Do you realise this conversation all started over some early flowering bulbs. :)

    Liz (Heading for a 31c and possible t-storms)
     
  18. fernwood

    fernwood Member

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    i love global warming...great we can grow subtropical plants in London UK..we only dropped -1c for a couple days this winter and not even come close to our min of -4 in the last 7 years..get your gardening books out and enjoy
     
  19. Liz

    Liz Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Ah Fernwood wait till the water disappears and you have to bucket waste water around a half acre or hike down the paddock to fill the stock trough. One can kinda lose interest and just let it go. I for one would like it a bit wetter and cooler in summer.
    Liz
     
  20. fernwood

    fernwood Member

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    hey Liz....i love oz ..but you're cursed with baking hot summers and drought .global warming or no ...here in England it rains and rains..if you want our rain you're welcome "because we don't want it"
     

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