The U.S. presidential election is one long week away. If there is not enough anxiety to go around here on earth, I need to mention the planetary concern that has not been in heavy rotation during this autumn’s news cycle. James Carville, in 1992, famously told his campaign staffers: “It’s the economy, stupid! Carville was the strategist for Bill Clinton who was pitted against the incumbent George H.W. Bush. The country was recovering from a recession. Unemployment was high, and economic growth was slow. Clinton won easily.
Would it make any difference this go around to yell, “It’s climate change, stupid!?”
59% of U.S. adults, according to a 2024 opinion poll, say global warming is caused principally by human activities. 29% aren’t buying it—attributing the warming to natural environmental changes.
There’s a demographic that hasn’t been polled
Growing Greener podcaster and Garden Ranter Emeritus Tom Christopher recently interviewed paleobotanist Dana Royer in an interesting podcast episode called “Will Nature Heal Itself?” They discussed fossil evidence of plants, the loss of native plant habitats, and the millions of years that is has taken the earth to recover from previous mass extinctions.
What caught my attention was Tom’s assessment: “I don’t know any gardener who is really serious about it and pays attention to it who doesn’t notice that there are systems within nature, all sorts of dynamics, many of them pretty obvious,” he said.
“For instance: I rarely run into a gardener, and I don’t care if it is red state or a blue state, who doesn’t accept climate change. They’ve seen it in their own yards.”
Though there is no polling to give this credence, I have had the same observation from a demographic whose passions are intertwined every working hour with the science outdoors.
Carolina Native Nursery, in Burnsville, NC, lost an estimated 95% of their shrubs and 85% of their perennials to Hurricane Helene.
Four feet of flood water.
Potted plants washed down Price’s Creek as far as Erwin, Tennessee, 27 miles downstream.
Shelby Jackson, Horticulturist and Head of Sales, and Founder and President Bill Jones have talked and cried a lot.
“It feels like the car was totaled but the hood is fine.”
I asked Shelby whether she thought this was a 100, 500 or a 1000-year flood. “All bets are off,” she said.
“We’ve had tons of help, and everyone shows up with a smile on their face and this makes every day of cleanup a little easier.”
“We’ve put 20 years into this and we’re not giving up.”
The wise people know: it’s climate change, stupid!
Photos courtesy of Carolina Native Nursery
If I refuse to admit it is real maybe it will go away. A bit like a toddler covering their eyes so they can hide. Don’t confuse me with the facts, just keep telling me what I want to hear so I don’t have to worry so much or change what I am doing and deal with it. Similar to the impending Social Security shortfall or the ballooning US budget deficit, both of which are political suicide if you try to deal with them.
Oh gosh. You are so right. I know so many people like this. They refuse to see. It isn’t there. I’ve even heard my neighbor scoff about science being real. I don’t try to change anyone’s mind. I can only change myself.
Climate change is real and most gardeners “get it”. When we moved to western PA in 1980 my neighborhood was listed as hardiness zone 5b. Over the past 40+ years our hardiness zone has evolved from 5b to 6a to 6b and in some micro climates 7a.
We no longer dig up Canna Lilies and Dahlias from the sheltered areas of the garden. Some of our “annual” Dianthus and Lantana plants survived the winter to return in spring in recent years. Crape Myrtle trees are now hardy in western PA despite being planted outside of their “normal” hardiness zone. It’s October 29th and we’ve yet to have had a killing frost in the Pittsburgh area.
I heard a sad and shocking story on the radio today about meteorologists being threatened by members of the public for discussing the effects of climate change. Instead of educating the public about the crises, they are being told to avoid discussing it by their stations, which fear loss of ratings. I guess they rather have a loss of lives, instead.
Would the ratings go up if news/weather meteorologists were talking about climate change and facts? Wouldn’t that be enlightening to hear what’s REALLY going on.
Howdy Neighbor.
And we are heading straight into an ice age in another tens-of-thousands of years.
Is it wrong to throw my hands up
In the air and twirl them around like a helicopter? (hilarious song)
Perhaps I’m being cynical when I say I just don’t care. I can’t change anyone but myself.
You’re right on, Allen.
How much should we tax the people to reverse it?
Thank you for this Allen! We are within a rolling disaster, sadly some of us far more than others. My heart goes out to everyone, especially Shelby and crew. It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of global conditions but gardens are a powerful climate-wrangling tool. As gardeners we’re used to paying attention. We can put our hands in the dirt and start to heal our tiny plots. Individually we may not be much, but if I do it, and you do it, and your neighbors are inspired to do it… You get my drift.
Gardeners KNOW. Here in Ohio, we had a devastating drought this summer, and even my hand watering couldn’t stave it off. My plants struggled, and still do. It was highly disappointing.