Adjusting to global warming

[Ludi]

Are you making any changes or additions to your preparations to accommodate global warming? What changes are you making?

I'm trying to make significant changes. My focus is much more on rainwater harvesting because I expect it to become significantly hotter and drier here. I wish I had done this from the beginning, but oh well, better late than never. I'm trying to apply as much as possible the suggestions in "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond" by Brad Lancaster.

http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iQ-FBAmvBw

I'm also trying to improve passive cooling in my house by adding porches and enlarging and adding windows. In some cases I hope to reduce windows (on the west face of the house). Eventually I hope to put some kind of cupola or cooling tower on the house.

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Co ... ooling.htm

[dolanbaker]

I'm building a biomass boiler and growing willow to burn in it, we're expecting colder winters here in Ireland. Anyway, it's always cold and damp here.

[Lore]

I moved from the South to the North.

[Sixstrings]

I moved from the South to the North.

Are you in a blizzard right now? How's that working out for you?

I'll stay down south, at least I won't freeze.

[peripato]

Are you making any changes or additions to your preparations to accommodate global warming?

Not to belittle the tremendous consequences for life inherent in Global Warming sometime in the future, but compared to the financial crisis and peak oil, worrying about or preparing for it is akin to a three pack a day jaywalker concerned more about contracting lung cancer 20 years from now, than being immediately run over.

[dolanbaker]

Are you making any changes or additions to your preparations to accommodate global warming?

Not to belittle the tremendous consequences for life inherent in Global Warming sometime in the future, but compared to the financial crisis and peak oil, worrying about or preparing for it is akin to a three pack a day jaywalker concerned more about contracting lung cancer 20 years from now, than being immediately run over.

I think that sums it up quite well!
Peak oil with the unstable price & diminishing supply of fuel will bit hard first, followed by the next phase of the economic meltdown.

Edit: I should add that I'm preparing for the immediate affects of the "mini ice age" as well as for the oil shortages (either too esxpensive or scarce)

[SeaGypsy]

Yes; I moved to the tropics 18 years ago and got used to living in them without a/c.

I figure contrary to the main of AGW folks:

Weather extremes will be most noticeable in polar and continental regions.

I believe nothing fundamental dictates the end of the tropical monsoon cycle; the most certain source of rainwater on the planet.

There are still coastal monsoonal mountainous regions with low population density, particularly in Central America and SE Asia/ Oceania.

I expect growing cycles to fail in many parts of the world, probably including in the tropics. But there are year round growing cycles here, so if a season fails, it's not another year before you can try again. The further away from the equator you are, the less ocean moderated temperature, the more extreme weather changes are likely to be.

[PrestonSturges]

Propagating figs and peaches, looking for a pomegranite, especially the varieties that really like the heat and won't drop fruit when temps are way over 100 degrees.

Also propagating jujube, including rootstocks that would make fine thorny fence. Surprisingly, I grew several of the contorted type from seed that seem to be growing true to type, did not know they are self fertile.

The hollies have also really thrived being hammered by heat out at the curb. I have not considered more of them, but they make a dense hedge and can take any abuse.

[SpringCreekFarm]

I'm not sure I know how to read the climate changes in my area. The last number of years it has been getting warmer here but for the most part they are positive changes. This year we've been hit in areas nearby with an incredible amount of snow, but in my area, not that much.

The one thing I have been doing is cutting a lot of firewood. Crazy changes in weather can keep me from getting to my woodlot because if deep snow and the Spring Creek flooding but other that that, I'm in pretty good shape for dry weather with lots of reserve capacity of water stored in 2 wells and a cistern.

Other than that I wouldn't know what else to do that I could readily afford outside of normal homesteader preps. I feel like I'm as well positioned as anyone to take the climate changes as they come.

<<<<NOT blindly optimistic, however.....

[Lore]

I moved from the South to the North.

Are you in a blizzard right now? How's that working out for you?

I'll stay down south, at least I won't freeze.

It's working out fantastic, plenty of water with no high water bills anymore. The weather overall has been great. The trade off in the South was weather so damn hot you had to walk not run from one air conditioned place to another. While here in the North, only a couple of months of real snow. You can always bundle up to stay warmer but you can only get so naked in the heat.

And nope we missed the brunt of the storm.

[Homesteader]

Perhaps we should ask the Eurozone how they like living with the new climate, seeing as they are passed a tipping point.

We "moved" to a temperate coastal area with a lot of rainfall, and a highly resilient sparse population. Our house, when done, will run fossil fuel free. Energy used will be wood, gravity, temperature, and a little solar electricity and hydro if we get around to it. The majority of communities in our area run on small stand-alone hydro projects.

We are preparing in a way that allows us to adapt sustainably to our location, not throwing resources at an attempt to maintain our current unsustainable lifestyle while the rest of the world goes to sh@t.

[dolanbaker]

Perhaps we should ask the Eurozone how they like living with the new climate, seeing as they are passed a tipping point.

.

We are expecting some very severe cold next week! Looks like a repeat of 1947 according to some.

http://www.netweather.tv/gfsimages2/gfs.20101213/00/129/ukmintemp.png

[Serial_Worrier]

Perhaps we should ask the Eurozone how they like living with the new climate, seeing as they are passed a tipping point.

.

We are expecting some very severe cold next week! Looks like a repeat of 1947 according to some.

http://www.netweather.tv/gfsimages2/gfs.20101213/00/129/ukmintemp.png

It's useless arguing with the warmist-pyschos.

[mos6507]

It's useless arguing with the warmist-pyschos.

You should change your handle, since you don't seem to worry about much.

[Ludi]

Please don't use this thread for debate, that should go in the Environment forum.

Don't make me call your Pops.

[Ibon]

Adjusting is psychological. The locals down here in Panama told me the dry wet seasons were as predictable as a clock but now there are many extremes of wet and dry and the seasonality although still present is no longer fixed. An example is the last two years where the local indigenuous folks here (Guayme) planted beans (pinto or black) in the dry season only to watch their harvest destroyed by too much rain.

Just last week 12 inches of rain fell in a period of less than 18 hours. We should be well into the dry season by now. I needed to go down to the valley and couldn't drive my pickup across the creek as it had become a brown raging torrent that would have swept me away had I tried crossing it. That was the 2nd heaviest rain in 40 years. The heaviest was 18 months ago! The next day we had to remove boulders blocking the creek crossing before being able to cross the river.

These anecdotal stories demonstrate the need for psychological preparation. Expect the unexpected and adapt your plans accordingly. Don't rely on set strategies that worked in the past. Be prepared to think out of the box. At the same time as you should grow your food for example based on the deep ecological experience you may have accumulated for decades in your bio region you should at the same experiment with a psychological attitude that reliable patterns of the past have been set adrift.

[Lore]

Adjusting is psychological. The locals down here in Panama told me the dry wet seasons were as predictable as a clock but now there are many extremes of wet and dry and the seasonality although still present is no longer fixed. An example is the last two years where the local indigenuous folks here (Guayme) planted beans (pinto or black) in the dry season only to watch their harvest destroyed by too much rain.

This is why the myth that somehow climate change exists, but is down the road and nothing to worry about right now is nonsense. Food security will be threatened even more in the coming years from a disrupted climate and we need every bit we can plant with a growing world population.

[PrestonSturges]

It got my attention a couple years ago when our local drought killed back many of the largest trees and there was very little produce in the market for 2 years.

The oaks died back, but big pines, hollies and those g**d*** ornamental pears did fine. But I see every crap pear tree as having broken up the soil a little bit for something better, like a fig.

Next year I'll start ramping up propagating the figs, try to give them away. A 2 ft plant (18 months old) sells for $35.

I need some mulberry, they are nearly that fast.