Global Warming and Climate Change

I am a denier. I have wrestled with the whole Global Warming/Climate Change debate and find it confusing, full of innuendo and conclusions based on guesses and modeling and less on science. if all the doomsday scenarios are true, then why are we not seeing any effects. If all the glaciers in the world are melting and many say they are then where in the ocean rise. If the additional CO2 in the atmosphere is causing global warming, where is the warming?
Carbon is the basic building block for life on earth. How is more carbon bad? If CO2 is only 00.038%of the atmosphere, how is it that a small increase in ppm have any affect at all.
      The world is a complex place and we are only a small part of it. The climate is a mechanism to redistribute the accumulated solar energy around the globe. That is why we have tropical rainforests and polar ice caps. It is why we have plains and hardwood forests. It is why we have the Gulf Stream and hurricanes and typhoons. The weather is just the daily iteration of the longer term climate change and professional meteorologists have trouble predicting weather more than 7 days in advance and usually are only accurate 2-3 days out. Based on this record and the climate change predictions that keep changing as well as the explanation of why it is not changing I can't put a lot of faith in a 50-100 year projection based on a computer model.

Drought

Being from an area not particularly impacted by the drought of 2012 I am sympathetic to farmers and ranchers who are impacted. While it is part of farming, it is never fun to see crops you have worked so hard for wither in the field. Likewise ranchers with their animals struggling to find something to eat and drink when normally they would be on their own for the summer. As we go into the fall, unfortunately the damage is done. Cattle and pigs are headed for slaughter because at $8.00/ bushel it is just too costly to feed them corn to fatten them up. This will impact the food chain across the board and not for the good. The good part of this scenario is that with high prices in the Spring many farmers planted way more than a typical normal year. This additional acreage in production may somewhat offset the looses in the drought areas. We will have to seewhat happens at harvest. One thing is sure. This entire system gives us a lesson in Economics 101. As supply drops and demand remains the same the price will increase. Prices will continue to increase until one of two things happen. Either the price gets so high that people stop buying which reduces demand or the high price brings on additional supply from foreign sources which will mitigate further increases. Either way the market will act in a way that both rations supply and increases supply on the one hand or reduces demand as buyers find alternatives that are cheaper on the other.
This process works in virtually any market. In my area the gasoline price is approaching $4.00/gal. Up to that point, I have noticed that people continue to fill up and while they bitch, they don't change their behavior. At $4.00, something happens. People begin to change their habits. They no longer fill up, rather get $20 or $40 and hope the price goes down. If and when the price drops $.15 or $.20 they swarm to the station to fill up. I do it too. If I think the price will continue up I fill up. If I think it has peaked and likely will come down, I get $20. My own form of rationing. High prices cure high prices.

Garden Catalogs

The garden catalogs for bulbs are starting to arrive and my dreams are outrunning my pocketbook. It is so nice to see the Bluebells, Crocuses, Daffodills and Narcissus in the Spring, I want to plant 'em all. I have no room.  The room I have is taken up by clumps of Spring flowering bulbs that every year I say I am going to dig up and separate and every year I wait until the foliage dies back and then it is too hot or I didn't mark the ones I wanted to dig or something else is more important the day I had time to dig. And then when I do get time to dig and dry the bulbs I forget to plant them again and over the Winter they rot or the chipmunks eat them.
Keep sending me the catalogs though. It is fun to dream and one day I may just plant some.

Gardening 2012

As I sit here and contemplate what my amaryllis and daylily hybrids will look like, I am struck by the vast variety and complexity of the living world and my part in it. Not to get all philisophical but my little piece of the world is pretty complex and I am continually fascinated by God's hand in that. The pin oaks that are raining down little acorns, the cannas that are blooming in a variety of colors, the Crepe Myrtle continues to bloom with it's blood red flowers and the dancing lady that is blooming again. The natural world is complex. The rest of the world is complex. God has made it complex so we can appreciate the wonder of it all. Anytime you think you have all the answers, go out in the garden and turn over a rock and you find a whole new world in that small space going about their business without your participation at all.
Gardening is about growing things on purpose to add to your appreciation of the things around you. Whether it is roses or petunias or cannas or ferns you have the opportunity to add things, growing things, to your life that you can enjoy and appreciate. Go plant something.