Still More Freaky Weather

[KevsFarm]

This discssion has come up recently.Some have dismissed the weird weather patterns lately, as just normal cycles. IMO, i don't think so, i think it's related to global warming.After the worst floods and super tornados in anyones recent memory, now it's August heat waves, in early June...Severe drought and fire is raising havoc in the southwest, with huge wheat crop losses.What if anything different, are SS folks here doing to adjust to these extreme weather patterns.Grain prices are still rising, at the chicken farm i work at, feed is rising almost every week.The ecomony is bad enough, we don't need grain and livestock prices to keep rising.I'm still growing my stash of long term stuff as i can afford it.I do believe freaky weather is here to stay and will grow worse, and i don't expect grains and feed prices will go down.What will folks do..?

 

[Wannabefree]

I don't believe in global warming at all. I am growing my own grains this year though. Prices are going to keep rising, so I should grow most everything I will need, and i am trying.

 

[KevsFarm]

I know alot do believe in global warming and its effects.I wonder way the polar ice caps that have been on earth for hundreds of yrs are melting so fast.Thats not a cycle thing for sure, we'll never get them back,unless the planet plunge into some kind of ice age.I agree though wannabefree, i'm trying to grow as much as i can too...!

 

[pinkfox]

i do belive in "global warming" (though its not nessicarily "warming" lol) more in space of the global climate is shifting, changing in many ways, i do belive its beyond "normal" weather shifts and something on amuch larger scale than weve seen in any reacent lifetimes...
do i belive freeking out about it is going to help...nope...

i do my part to keep my footprint small, and generally try to produce as muhc of what i need as i can, recycle reduse reuse ect, and once i get my own place im planning on keeping the animals as "self sufficient" as possible by free ranging/foraging, growing as much feed as i can to supliment during the winter and working on a trade/barter system for the rest by supporting other local "farmers"

you know what they say about how it takes a village...

but i plan on doing that more because i belive that in the ecnomic climate the best way to survive will be to produce as much of your own as possible...

i try to prep for wacky weather with rain barrels, planting very adaptiv plants and dieses resistant strains, and making my house as secure as possible to survive disaster...(eventually i want to build an underground monolithic (concrete) dome home) which are virtually destruction proof...but untill then its just a case of taking precautions where posible and hoping for the best lol.

while i agree the weather is changing...we cant change it ourselves or tell the twisters where to go or when the waters should rise so theres no realy point (beyond doing what we can as individuals to treat our planet right) in panicing about it.

 

[KevsFarm]

I agree Pinkfox, freaking out or panicing does no good at all.Although i don't see anyone saying anything like that in this thread, you make a good point. I just think its amazing so many don't believe its happening, but, hey..everyone sees things through their own eyes, right...?
What i've seen and learned from the crazy weather lately, is that there are certain places where i would not consider living..I have alway been keen on underground housing, earth bermed, etc..Not only do they protect from many elements of nature, they cool and heat very easily.It's almost like living in a very comfortable storm shelter..! They have some really cool designs these days.Plus, if you do them right, you can hide them from roaming zombies, most won't have a clue your even there.....lol

 

[FarmerJamie]

Gotta keep things in perspective.....a lot of corn that is typically stockpiled is going towards ethanol because of federal government policies. China, India's growing economies have created additional demands on commodities, driving the prices up further.

A lot of people believe in a lot of things, that doesn't make those things real.

I don't have the numbers handy, but volcanoes like the one that just erupted in Chile crank out more more greenhouse gases in eruption events than us pitiful humans do over the course of a year.

It's not vogue to even call it "global warming" any more, it's "global climate change".

 

[KevsFarm]

You may or may not believe in global warming, however the recent freaky weather is very real.Try telling the people of Alabama and Missouri those super tornado's weren't real.You can blame shortages of grains on growing economies and ethanol, however, because of bizzare weather, there are growing shortages of what faemers are producing.The once massive polar caps are melting quickly, making the sea rise,thats not from global chilling... I don't need to see facts and numbers,in my minds eye, its very clear.SS'ers need to grow more than ever,because of more intense impending shortages and big price increases, and i don't just mean corn.Globally wheat has really taken a beaten, it's all weather related,by drought in some places, by flooding in others.IMO,we have entered a period of continuing freaky weather, permently affecting modern mankinds food supply.You can present facts and figures about...."past"... cycles, however...this is here and now, and the world is more polluted, stressed and abused...

 

[patandchickens]

You may or may not believe in global warming, however the recent freaky weather is very real.

There has always been freaky weather. That is one of the distinguishing things of weather in fact as opposed to say plate tectonics or watching paint dry Sucks when the weather is freaky in your location in ways inconvenient for you, but worrying about it is like worrying about gravity.

It might be true that the effects of weather on human civilization are magnified now as compared to the past, b/c there are so many more people and other social and environmental issues. Honestly tho I'm not even sure that's necessarily true... we have more people but also in many ways much better capacity to cope than people did hundreds or thousands of years ago. Vastly better capacity for people to move (to or away from places), to anticipate weather events, to build storm-and-earthquake-resistant structures, to ship food around so that a local famine needn't kill all the locals, to deal medically with many of the consequences of weather-related events, etc etc.

Thousands of years ago, changes in weather patterns would wipe out ENTIRE CIVILIZATIONS, like the largest cities then in existance petered out and disappeared. Hundreds of years ago, changes in weather patterns could wipe out large numbers of people (including, arguably, setting off the outbreaks of the Black Death that killed millions in medieval europe) and eliminate regional settlements in some places. Even just DECADES ago, and even just in NORTH AMERICA (let alone everywhere else in the world, and have people really forgotten about famines in sub-Saharan Africa in and their political/social effects, or how many graves are dug when monsoon patterns change?), I do not think that the victims or refugees of the Dust Bowl years would particularly think that today's "freaky" weather is so much worse, or has so much greater ramifications, than they experienced.

And weather is pretty much the *poster child* for "things that there's no use obsessing over b/c you have no control of 'em and just have to deal with whatever comes your way"

What will folks do..?

What folks always do. Carry on with life as best possible and hope that the suckiest parts happen to someone else As with everything else in life, some people will die unexpectedly, some will live til the next day. Some will turn out to have prepared usefully, some will turn out to have prepared but things take a twist and their preparations don't help, some will not have prepared but do ok; some will not have prepared and suffer the consequences. Some people will even do *well* out of events. It's just the way human life is.

Not sure what else you think anyone can possibly say about the weather???

Pat

 

[calendula]

Temperatures have been rising for about 18,000 years, since we came out of the last ice age. So, I don't think anyone can definitively say that these rising temps and weather extremes are human-caused. I think greater concerns are the chemicals/pollutants we are poisoning the earth with, extinction of plants/animals and destruction of habitat, genetic engineering of crops and animals, and the water crisis.

 

[moolie]

Temperatures have been rising for about 18,000 years, since we came out of the last ice age. So, I don't think anyone can definitively say that these rising temps and weather extremes are human-caused. I think greater concerns are the chemicals/pollutants we are poisoning the earth with, extinction of plants/animals and destruction of habitat, genetic engineering of crops and animals, and the water crisis.

Totally ditto this.

Humans are a natural part of this world, and as we and our societies evolve--of course we impact the planet (though I doubt that our actions have made much of a difference in the rate of climate change--when I was a kid in the 70s they told us the earth was cooling down and we were headed into a new ice age, so it's not like scientists have always got the right line on what's actually happening in a global sense).

But we humans have much more choice in our actions than the other species with whom we share the earth, and therefore more responsibility to take care of our home planet.