cookiesinheaven

Maple syrup, maple syrup, maple syrup, a photo by akassabov on Flickr.

because it might not be around much anymore. Thanks, Climate Change.

In order for their sap to run, maple trees need temperatures to fluctuate between warm days and freezing nights. This year, Minnesota barely saw any runs like that. And then, a couple weeks ago, buds appeared on the trees. 

"Once that starts happening, the sap production's over," Edelen explained. "It was a rough season. It just got so warm so fast, and stayed warm ,that you got what you could get." - MN Public Radio

February and March are typically peak months for tapping trees and collecting sap to be boiled down to make maple syrup. But the ideal season usually has cool days and nights below freezing — the kind of weather that’s been hard to come by lately. - Wicked Local

While we were all frolicking, naked, in our kiddie pools during last week's crazy heat wave, the nation's maple farmers were shedding tears of sweet sadness: This year's tropical temperatures are devastating maple production. For the love of all things breakfast: start stockpiling maple syrup. - Gawker

Labels: Climate Change, Maple Syrup, Minnesota, New England, New Hampshire, Vermont, weather

Santa Barbara is so "pooched."

...Scientists long believed that the collapse of the gigantic ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica would take thousands of years, with sea level possibly rising as little as seven inches in this century, about the same amount as in the 20th century.

But researchers have recently been startled to see big changes unfold in both Greenland and Antarctica.

As a result of recent calculations that take the changes into account, many scientists now say that sea level is likely to rise perhaps three feet by 2100 — an increase that, should it come to pass, would pose a threat to coastal regions the world over. And the calculations suggest that the rise could conceivably exceed six feet, which would put thousands of square miles of the American coastline under water and would probably displace tens of millions of people in Asia.

The scientists say that a rise of even three feet would inundate low-lying lands in many countries, rendering some areas uninhabitable. It would cause coastal flooding of the sort that now happens once or twice a century to occur every few years. It would cause much faster erosion of beaches, barrier islands and marshes. It would contaminate fresh water supplies with salt. - NYTimes

Labels: Climate Change, Global Warming, Santa Barbara

...Here are some not-so-fun facts: California's agricultural sector grows approximately one-third of the nation's food supply and is nourished by diverted rivers and streams filled yearly by runoff from its prodigious sierra nevada snowpack, as well as groundwater pumping and other less-reliable methods. that snowpack -- which once sparked the first, but not the last, water war that helped transform a semi-arid Los Angeles into an unsustainable oasis less populous than only new york city -- is disappearing fast....

To make matters worse, a crushing drought, now well into its third year, has made simply everything problematic. In California's Central Valley, home to a majority of the State's agricultural output, farmers are leaving hundreds of thousands of acres fallow, and the resultant economic depression is having a domino effect that could cost California $1 billion to start and is causing residents of a one-time food powerhouse to go hungry. - Alternet

Labels: California, California Agriculture, Climate Change, drought, Global Warming, Los Angeles

Labels: Climate Change, Maple Syrup

...Dr. Slotte, a 29-year-old physician, is one of a growing number of people in Finland and some neighboring countries who, as global temperatures climb, are turning to winemaking. The grapes he plants are hardy, weather-resistant varieties, including a cross between a Latvian and a Siberian strain.

...To protect his vines from the cold, Dr. Slotte employs other tricks besides spraying them with water, as orange growers do in Florida to beat the occasional freeze. He lays insulation boards over the plants in winter and prunes the vines so that in summer the grapes lie close to the ground, where they can absorb warmth from the soil. One of his varieties, a Latvian vine, can survive temperatures as low as 22 below.

Labels: Climate Change, Finland, Grapes, Wine