Weather Worrying?

[Westi]

Been watching a fair bit of TV while tucked away inside from the wind & rain. (84mph recorded at the Needles).

Anyway transgressing; it was interesting listening to the global warming experts that popped up on every channel switch, more or less, & was surprised at what I actually noted but didn't join the dots. Last lawn mow later, trees blooming late, the summer crops keep growing, the winter ones trying to bolt & the like. I just put it down to a 'bad year' as we have variations year on year.

What specifically have you noted in your grow space? Do you think we will adapt quick enough remembering all the old sayings from times past; planting garlic on the shortest day & harvesting on the longest comes to mind? Do you think this is just a hiccough year, be honest lot's of you have lived & worked through challenges like this professionally so would like to know your thoughts! I will start with the honesty bit. I do believe if the big, rich & greedy don't stop taking things out of the planet there will be consequences as nothing is going back into the ground to plug the gaps but being burnt off as car emissions& the like - you don't make a crack in your home bigger but fill it like for like to secure it.

[Primrose]

Westi, I think it takes most of us a while to "join up the dots" on unusual weather years. It probably needs the scientists who keep annual records to point out the stark facts that "unusual years" are now happening on a regular basis. For us it,s the small observations that the lawn gets mowed later every year (and still needs another cut!j and the leaves still remain on the trees around the war memorial on Remembrance Sunday whereas the trees were all leafless for the ceremony when we moved to the village 40 years ago so changes are definitely happening in our lifetime.

It's hard though to consider some of the demands made of us to reduce our carbon footprint. In our eighties now we have a relatively new gas heating boiler we,re not going to exchange for an inefficient noisy inconvenient heat pump. Wehave no plans for an eye watering expensive electric car, hoping our current petrol model will see my husband,s driving days out.

Are people willing to give up flying abroad for their overseas sun drenched holiday for example? I somehow don't think so. Certainly the "rich" are contributing to global warming but the average man in the street who religiously recycles his plastic and turns down his boiler by one degree may rebel at foregoing his annual sun drenched overseas summer holiday for example.

Basically I think the human race is too selfish to go beyond a certain point when it comes to self sacrifice on an individual basis, and when it comes to nations acting collectively, self interest will always sadly prevail.

I would like to be optimistic about the future but given human nature, I think the tipping point has already happened and whatever is done now is too little and too late. I believe the world is over populated and as a result we,re all consuming natural resources and polluting the planet at a rate which hasalready overbalanced tipping point.

I stand prepared to be shot down over this viewpoint but believe over the centuries human beings have never failed to be their own worst enemy. .perhaps part of the problem is that today,a "decision makers" on these issues don't have a vested interest as they will no longer be around when the increasingly harsh ci sequences start to bite.

And will the parent who denies their child a summer holiday on a sunny Greek island, opting for wet Bournemouth instead get praised by their child when all their schoolmates are still holidaying in the sunshine somewhere?

[oldherbaceous]

I think the only predictable thing about the weather over the last few years is, it’s very unpredictable!
It’s all extremes of weather, in any month….so it makes it impossible to make a plan for getting crops in the ground and just as awkward to get them harvested!
If we knew it was just going to be hotter, drier Summers, or wetter and colder Winters, we could make a plan for that…..but each Month seems to be breaking a record in one way or another.
All we can do is our best, as each month comes!

[Primrose]

Not a good time to be a farmer or large scale grower of agricultural crops where don't think you can insure against potential weather damage to your harvest. That alone is going to make the cost of food, and potential food shortages a major issue in the years to come.

[Westi]

Hmm, my post was lost again! Not to worry, the long & short of it was an interesting conversation with the chap a couple of doors down when I dropped some veg off. Completely amazed me with his knowledge, especially space travel & the pollution being left in space likely already impacting on any planet that could support life & who would be chosen to be the new population. Way over my head but I think I appropriately nodded at the right time.

My plan is to wing it & prepare for the extremes with extra water butts in case of a heatwave & notching up my plan for raised beds for flooding. No prep for wild fires or tidal waves but hopefully not necessary in my lifetime!

[Primrose]

Interesting comment about debris in outer space Westi, of which I think there is already rather too much but we dont yet seem to have got to the point where anybody is policing it or trying to regulate it. As here on earth, I guess every nation will be looking after their own interests.

But once again the depressing thought hit me that wherever mankind go they pollute the environment they inhabit. Nobody yet seems to have included the "what if?" element on their new inventions and that is how it can be safely and responsibly disposed of once its use has come to an end.

[oldherbaceous]

The word is “Greed”.

[Primrose]

OH. I think back to my childhood years and never recall a home so loaded with superfluous "stuff" as most people have now. Nobody seems to ponder how its all going to be disposed of once its useful life has come to an end.
i,m amazed how many people, for example, upgrade their kitchens and bathrooms every few years just because they no longer look " designer fashionable", yet they're still eminently usable. Keeping up with the Jones has a lot to answer for!

[Myrkk]

I completely agree with your posts Westi.

I find it frustrating that everyone is shouting about green / eco lives but the reality is very different. Most people buy because they want rather than because they need.

We tried to get our bathrooms upgraded in the last house so we could put it up for sale but only wanted the sinks (broken) replaced and the bath fixed, some tiling done and a shower replaced, everything else was in working condition. We couldn’t get anyone to do it, one guy told us that there’s no money in replacing stuff, but he would replace both bathrooms in their entirety for us at the cost of £13000. ?!?!?!?! Where is the eco thought behind that? We bought the bits we needed and eventually after 2years found someone (who is sadly semi-retired) to do the work, 2mths before we moved!

Our friends call our home “eclectic” because we have lots of furniture / crockery etc from family i.e. our cutlery is 50yrs old, the Xmas decs we just used were between 50 and 60 years old depending upon if they came from my Gran or my Hubbies Mum, our daily crockery is Tenby that we inherited from my late MIL, the pattern is very of its time, 60’s / 70’s, but it’s functional, reminds hubby of his childhood and we have no need to replace it. When I compare our life with that of our friends who change sofas every couple of years, I get very annoyed when people tell me I need to use my car less as it’s not environmentally friendly.

Reducing plastic by using soap bars, not buying stuff in plastic, cooking from scratch, repairing things when they break, all of these seem to have gone by the wayside and people cite lack of time. Put your phone down and stop filling up your days with lovely things to do, we’d all like to do that but the reality of doing your chores will help you burn some calories and keep fitter so you don’t need to go to all those exercise classes.

[Primrose]

Myrkk. I so empathise with your bathroom replacement dilemma. During Covid lockdown our ensuite avocado coloured bath in our ensuite bathroom (dating from the 1970s) got damaged and had to be replaced.

We were faced with the dilemma of having the matching wash basin & toilet replaced if we wanted everything to match although they were still in a perfectly reasonable condition and several plumbers were happy to quote eye watering sums for ripping everything out and installing a completely new bathroom.

I researched around and found a delightful company called Broken Bog who specialise in supplying 1970's coloured bathroom fittings. They supplied us with an identical avocado coloured bath which we,re very pleased with and the rest of our bathroom remains working and intact.

I suppose fitting new kitchens or bathrooms every few years may help employment and the economy but I suspect many replacements are unnecessary and certainly don't help the environment.