The Weather is changing…

Shannon Bohrer

(5/2019) On cold winter days the radiant warmth from a cast iron wood stove can be very comforting. Wood fires seem to make you feel warmer and there is something heartening about providing your own heat. It just feels good. Providing your own heat also has an economic benefit. The wood comes from our farm so it is just a matter of our labor. Our firewood is stacked for about a year before we use it.

Our process of gathering the wood over the years has evolved. When we began we just walked, carrying the chain saw, fuel, axe, and maul and splitting wedges. After the cutting and splitting we moved the wood back to the house by wheel barrow. If the wood was farther away, we sometimes used the tractor or truck. We were young. We now travel in a golf cart, hauling everything we need. Behind the golf cart we tow a four wheel wagon and attached to the wagon is a gas powdered log splitter. After cutting and splitting we haul the split wood back in the wagon. I like to think of our wood gathering process as an evolution - for consideration of our ageing.

For several years our progress has been hampered with the wet winters that we have experienced. This past year we actually set a record in Maryland for rainfall with 84 inches. Generally, we like to have our firewood split and stacked during the winter months and for several years we have not finished until early spring. The last several years we seem to have more wet and muddy days than usual and traversing our hay fields to gather wood is limited because of the weather.

The wet weather has not only affected the firewood gathering, but also the hay making. Last year our fields were so wet that our first cutting was in July, about a month late. For many farmers that depend on farming income last summer was disastrous. One neighbor told me his entire first hay cutting was lost. With milk and crop prices so low, the additional burdens created by the weather just seems unnatural. Then again, maybe this unnatural weather is just the beginning of our new normal weather patterns.

Southern California, west Texas, parts of Australia, central African and other parts of the world have been experiencing droughts that exceeded the history of normal weather patterns. Then after years of droughts when the rains did come, areas in Australia and Southern California experienced record flooding. Record flooding is also occurring more often in our Midwest and southern states and seems to be a worldwide issue.

There were times when extreme weather events were rare. Now extreme weather events seems to be the norm. In the U.S. we seem to have increases in severe weather including hurricanes and tornadoes. I recall that just a few years ago tornadoes were reported on Christmas day. If the strange weather becomes the norm, how will that affect agriculture? Will a new norm of changed weather patterns affect how and where we live?

In 2017 Houston Texas experienced widespread flooding when Hurricane Harvey landed in 2017. It was said that Hurricane Harvey was a once in 500 year event. The problem is that the once in 500 events are occurring more frequently. Houston experienced three such events in three years, 2015, 2016 and then Harvey. When areas flood that have never flooded before, and then the flooding is repeated, that could be an indicator of a problem. In my former career we would call that a clue.

In 2016 Maryland experienced a once in 1,000 year event, when Ellicott City flooded. Then in 2018, we had another similar event, and Ellicott City flooded - again. While two once in 1,000 year events, in just two years might seem unprecedented, from 2010 to 2015 the state of South Carolina experienced 6 such events. That would be a larger clue.

It is often said that we are experiencing global warming and that we should not confuse the weather with global warming. We are also told that with global warming we will experience more extreme weather. It does not matter if you believe it or not; our weather has changed and the changes will affect us, in many ways. Gathering my firewood is a minor issue. Not being able to farm and raise crops – is a much larger issue.

Worldwide, 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record. According to NOAA and NASA, it was also a near record year for "climate disasters." The five hottest years on record are the last five years. During the last twenty two years, "the twenty hottest years on record" occurred. The predictions have always been that we will experience more extremes in our weather, like droughts and floods. I can’t help but feel that the predictions are no longer predictions; that they have become the current reality.

This year’s flooding in Nebraska is the largest natural disaster in the state’s history. Nebraska (and the neighboring states) has widespread loss of stored crops and livestock. The initial estimates of loss for just Nebraska is one and a half billion dollars. After the initial loss estimates were made, the same areas experienced extreme snow storms, followed by more flooding. What happens when they can’t plant spring crops?

At the recent world economic forum In Davos Switzerland Ms. Ernman Thunberg, a 16-year old from Sweden, addressed the attendees. Part of her speech,

"Adults keep saying: we owe it to the young people to give them hope. But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire, because it is." "You say you love your children above all else, and yet you’re stealing their future in front of their very eyes," "Our House is on fire"

Her speech put my firewood issues in perspective. If our house is on fire, we won’t need any firewood, but we may need unflooded lands, and lands without droughts - to grow food.