What will happen to the trees with the effects of global warming?

[RICBITAR]

Places que were once cold are getting hot, que places were once dry, are getting drier, que places previously had regular rainfall, suffer major periods of drought and after major flooding, hurricanes and storms get stronger, the sun burns stronger
As the plants will understand all these changes? Does flowering will be the same and regulars
The planet's temperature will rise about 5 degrees Celsius (º C) by 2100, says the most pessimistic forecast of the new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
* Sorry for my english

[Saltcayman]

Yeah great topic and big concern.  The dry periods seem to be getting longer in the Turks & Caicos each year.  Fortunately , the government is finally installing an adequate reverse osmosis plant as we speak:). Looks like I will install drip irrigation and time my own wet/dry periods to induce flowering...  Of course sea levels are rising as well. Another concern for low lying areas.  Dave

[gunnar429]

start your blueprints now for the super-mega-sump pump....don't forget about the salt water invading fresh water table.

[ClayMango]

High up advanced, Wealthy Societies wil start living in a controlled Bubble Dome that is able to mimic any Eco system/climate you could imagine...ultimately laying out out the Paradise needed to grow whatever you want....I'm sure 500 or so years from now..

[shaneatwell]

I'm sorry but hasn't the IPCC been exposed as a fraud?

[Saltcayman]

I'm sorry but hasn't the IPCC been exposed as a fraud?

No

[gunnar429]

yeah...it's all a grand scheme to make us think we (USA) are not perfect, which of course we are.  If we could just get govt to spend zero and eliminate all taxes, then we'd be on our way to paradise as a nation, and the world would certainly follow suit.

Forget global warming for a second...can anyone honestly say that seeing smokestacks billowing out into our air, which is invaded by more and more toxins each day is a good thing for the ecosystem?  Now, how about 100 years of it....either way, it seems prudent at least to develop new ways to meet our energy needs and whatnot without relying on what worked 100 years ago.  Think about what else they did 100 years ago that we find ridiculous today. 

Of course I could be wrong, maybe the $ to be lost isn't with fossil fuel companies that would lose everything if they don't innovate.  Maybe the $ is on the side of Sierra Club and other tree huggers, who must be secretly shorting XOM stock, in order to become so powerful they could take over the world and make more habitats for wolves and trails for hiking.

I couldn't care less about studies, one way or another....As a kid I knew that polluting the Earth wasn't a good thing.  It does seem like the weather has been crazy intense the past 10 years or so.  That may be due to "natural warming" but I for one, am not ready for an ice age, and that was natural as well.

[gunnar429]

having said all that, I think the free market capitalists may hold the key....I just get frustrated with corporations that have insulated themselves so well that they don't EVER want to innovate.  When they were discussing the Target scandal where everyone lost faith in Target and they had to purchase protection programs for victims on NPR, they asked, how could this be prevented in the future?  A:  Switch to chip and pin system like they have in Europe.  Q:  Then why don't we do that?  A:  It costs money.  I think Target lost a lot more than bottom line dollars in this crisis.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure if I got the saying right.  It frustrates me that these large companies are never forward-looking, only doing the right thing after it's too late. 

On another note, there are young people who believe in capitalism AND innovation.  Elon Musk (and I am sure there are others) is doing it with like 3 or 4 companies at the moment.  Who would've thought 20 years ago, that we would sub out our space program, and pay for a ride to space, rather than doing it as a country?  Capitalism can be great, when new ideas aren't trampled by the powerful corporate lobbyists who seek short-term gains in stock market at the expense of long-term health and vitality.  The problem, imho, is that most US students are steered toward being workers rather than owners!  Risk is a bad thing in the US educational system. 

[SWRancher]

I'm sorry but hasn't the IPCC been exposed as a fraud?

Thats my understanding. The main thing is that the science is certainly not settled. That being said...Planting trees is one of the best things an individual can do for the enviroment, so keep planting them. 

[jcaldeira]

I'm sorry but hasn't the IPCC been exposed as a fraud?

Quite to the contrary.  Whackos such as the writers at infowars.com, grand conspiracy theorists, and those with moneyed interests in the petroleum industry are the primary people who dismiss IPCC. 

In fact, more than 2,000 scientists from 154 countries typically participate in the IPCC process.  Scientists are nominated for participation in IPCC by their own governments.   Many are the top scientists from many disciplines.

[gunnar429]

but what do scientists know! 

[jcaldeira]

What will happen to the trees with the effects of global warming?

Significant and rapid climate change will be devastating to many tree species.  Species tend to live in their ideal niche.   They simply tend not to thrive as well when rainfall, temperature, and seasonal changes are contrary to what they are adapted for. 

Many plant species need chilling hours to reproduce, some need droughts, others year-round rainfall.  Change these aspects of their environment and many will die off or need be grown in other areas.

John

[gunnar429]

I agree.  That's why small changes in temperature, etc. have such an effect on butterfly species in the tropics....and why small raises in ocean temperature are devastating to reefs and many aquatic species.  I am sensing chaos theory was forward thinking in this idea, yet it always seemed overly dramatic to me in school.

[ClayMango]

Bubble Domes lol

[Future]

The trees won't read the reports so they will be just fine.

[treefrog]

maybe raising tropical fruit here in zone 8b will become common rather than the exception.

[luc]

I keep track of when my trees flower and fruit on an Excel sheet and I notice that they are flowering and fruiting earlier than before.

[zands]

I'm sorry but hasn't the IPCC been exposed as a fraud?

Thats my understanding. The main thing is that the science is certainly not settled. That being said...Planting trees is one of the best things an individual can do for the enviroment, so keep planting them.

Not settled at all. But our fruit trees are doing the talking by sequestering CO2 and pumping out oxygen. Global warming is highly dubious but our trees are doing more to work against it than 10,000 bloviators.

One great thing about Florida is the greenery everywhere all year around. Trees, shrubs, bushes, weeds, hedges, palm trees, lawns....all converting CO2 into oxygen. We have more tree trimming crews than any other state. All year long they they are chopping away at the greenery otherwise the jungle will take over in 50 years. Florida is way over in the plus category when it comes to stopping (non-existent) global warming

[GrassFlats]

The weather crazy and intense the past few years? Jeez Laweez!  The weather and intense events have been happening since weather has been documented.  The great hurricanes of Galveston, the Keys, Camille in Mississippi....it goes on and on.....and the fact that the number of tornadoes has been low compared to decades past, the weather and climate is constantly changing and is generally on a roller coaster ride, i live in Florida and we haven't had a hurricane effect me since 2004!  So hurricanes are not on the upswing, they are not more intense than in decades past so the fear mongers cannot explain this...follow the money trail and you will see why the alarmists are at work

[Tropicdude]

Getting back to the topic of what to do with trees, because of the warming trend, whether its man made, natural or just a temporary 300 year hicup on the Earths climate graph.

Some trees can do ok with a few degrees more heat,  Mangoes I think would do ok,  I have seen pictures of them growing in deserts that are way hotter than Florida,  drip irrigation is key,

world wide, the climate change is wreaking havoc on crops.  and I am not talking just about warm temps here.  rains when it should be dry,  and dry when it should be raining.

I believe that people should adjust what they grow for the climate they have. 

The biggest problem facing agriculture will be Water, its getting real bad in California, and will get worse, and spread,  you can expect wars because of water ( Keep an eye on India, Pakistan, China,  and Egypt,  Ethiopia.   and believe it or not, even Potassium, may be seeing a shortage.  and as water becomes more scarce, and the energy needed to pump and transport it is getting more expensive everyday.

[Saltcayman]

Global warming is a fact. Not a debate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/01/science/earth/climate.html

[jcaldeira]

The weather crazy and intense the past few years? Jeez Laweez!  The weather and intense events have been happening since weather has been documented.  The great hurricanes of Galveston, the Keys, Camille in Mississippi....it goes on and on.....and the fact that the number of tornadoes has been low compared to decades past, the weather and climate is constantly changing and is generally on a roller coaster ride, i live in Florida and we haven't had a hurricane effect me since 2004!  So hurricanes are not on the upswing, they are not more intense than in decades past so the fear mongers cannot explain this...follow the money trail and you will see why the alarmists are at work

Wow, that's some science you're applying here.  The world is a lot bigger than Florida, and there simply aren't enough data points to conclude the rise .
See a trend here?


Here's what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric authority (NOAA) has to say on the subject:

"•It is premature to conclude that human activities--and particularly greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming--have already had a detectable impact on Atlantic hurricane activity. That said, human activities may have already caused changes that are not yet detectable due to the small magnitude of the changes or observational limitations, or are not yet properly modeled (e.g., aerosol effects).

"•Anthropogenic warming by the end of the 21st century will likely cause hurricanes globally to be more intense on average (by 2 to 11% according to model projections for an IPCC A1B scenario). This change would imply an even larger percentage increase in the destructive potential per storm, assuming no reduction in storm size.

"•There are better than even odds that anthropogenic warming over the next century will lead to an increase in the numbers of very intense hurricanes in some basins—an increase that would be substantially larger in percentage terms than the 2-11% increase in the average storm intensity. This increase in intense storm numbers is projected despite a likely decrease (or little change) in the global numbers of all tropical storms.

"•Anthropogenic warming by the end of the 21st century will likely cause hurricanes to have substantially higher rainfall rates than present-day hurricanes, with a model-projected increase of about 20% for rainfall rates averaged within about 100 km of the storm center."

[Tropicdude]

Global warming is a fact. Not a debate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/01/science/earth/climate.html

What gets me is conspiracy groups,  believe in all kinds of conspiracies, I have heard them all, that the moon landing was a hoax, that the Earth is hollow, that Obama is from Kenya, that Nasa is hiding Nibiru.  and dozens more.   usually they believe in one or more of these conspiracies which is not surprising because you have the ability to weed out BS from real science.

Ironically the conspiracies they should believe, are the ones they do not,  take global warming,    a recent survey of climate scientist has 9,135 out of 9,136 agreeing that climate change is real.   now here come common sense,  what do you think is most likely?   that over 9000 scientist from every religion, political background, race, all got together to agree on this hoax,  OR   a few CEOs in a hand full of  corporations that are mainly the cause of global warming pay big money to some non credible news networks like Fox News to spread lies.

I remember not long ago, Fox News put up a chart showing how temps were actually dropping,  the deniers ate it up,  if they looked at the chart closer they would have noticed, that for some reason the chart started in around 1940, and ended in 1978   the whole chart  started in 1880 and ended into the 2005 or so at that time.   the reason of course was, that they cherry picked the data and blocked out some of the data that did not fit their agenda.

Global warming is not linear, you can have a few years of cooler weather in a given location,  its NOT about local weather, but GLOBAL averages over decades, I have seen morons state that its snowing outside, so global warming must be over now.

Many deniers think this is all new, and is something that Gore made up,  take a look at this video from 1958,  even then they knew.

http://youtu.be/m-AXBbuDxRY

Corporations responsible spend millions to dis-inform the public, and create doubt,  so that nothing is done on the matter. and they can continue doing things the same old way.   they make good money doing what they do.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

climate changes over the ages, but politicians remain shit heads.

[gunnar429]

humor me and tell me where the money trail is leading us....not those oil companies that can buy networks and congresspeople....nope, it must be the scientists who want to stand out from the crowd and join in consensus with 2000 others.

do tell....