In about an an hour (7:22 PM EST), the Earth will pass the solstice moment on its yearly trek around the sun. Winter will begin.
But the winter is changing. With all due respects to all of you who are digging out in Colorado and Nebraska, we hear news reports these days about:
We all try to absorb these reports without falling into mere despair or outrage or helplessness. Better to be aware than dwelling in ignorant bliss.
If you have friends, family, and neighbors who are still unconvinced that we are now in a period of unprecedented, human-caused global warming, here's a sobering new graphic that anyone who gardens or eats fresh fruit can understand. It's at the website of the National Arbor Day Foundation:
The National Arbor Day Foundation has recently completed an extensive updating of U.S. Hardiness Zones based upon data from 5,000 National Climatic Data Center cooperative stations across the continental United States.
You can go to the map and see how the hardiness zones have changed across the U.S. since 1990. Most impressive, and sobering, is the animated map animated map of the shifts in the zones. In the accompanying press release, the NADF explains:
The new map reflects that many areas have become warmer since 1990 when the last USDA hardiness zone map was published. Significant portions of many states have shifted at least one full hardiness zone. Much of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, for example, have shifted from Zone 5 to a warmer Zone 6. Some areas around the country have even warmed two full zones.
It's a hell of a way to mark the solstice. But its a responsible way to honor the earth and understand the changes we are causing, as we all cross the border into winter.