more on global warming

[SapSuckers]

the press-republican in plattsburgh had a story today about global warming and the DEC's response. In the artice there is mention of the lack of color in the fall and possible loss of all maple trees due to the increasing temps.

also. it states there was no grade fancy syrup made in new hampshire at all this year. do you guys from NH know this to be true?

here is a link to the artice

http://www.pressrepublican.com/homepage/local_story_142234518.html?start:int=15

any thoughts on this continuing topic?

[Dave Y]

Yup the climate may be changing. But iIdont think the maples will be all dead in your life tme. They are more heat tolerent they you may think. If they werent They wouldn't be making sugar in Va or W.VA. And if you think they like cold look at the pics of Lappieres sugar bush. Those skinny maples ,I would bet are 100 years old.

[markcasper]

This topic is really teeing me off! Its the same old same old, over and over again.

There was not much light amber made where I live either. How can one blame one year of dark syrup on "climate change."? They are talking through their @#$^&*%. Anyone that has made syrup for any length of time will tell you that the quality depends on MANY factors! Weather during that 3-4 week season and tempuratures being a big one.

[ennismaple]

And it's called "Global" warming for a reason. You can't look at a single geographic location and attribute one season's weather to it. The long term effects are worldwide and measured in decades and centuries, not months.

Sounds like some reporter was looking for an angle that would catch people's attention. The producers near us all had good seasons. 25 miles south they had a terrible year. Obviously the reporter who wrote the article isn't educated enough to speak about the variables in sugar making so they blamed one season's bad crop in a specific area on global warming. I hear global warming's to blame for the Yankees being so bad this year too!

[Russell Lampron]

There is nothing wrong with the Yankees being bad this year. I hope they stay bad!

Russ

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

It's all about money, just like the y2k garbage. The news media is nothing more than the worlds biggest bunch of liberals and they just eat up this kind of stuff. It is a part of what the liberal agenda is all about and it makes them and the rest of the liberals like Al Whore look better.

The $ 3.30 for gas, you can thank the liberals and enviromentalist for that. No refineries built in 20 to 30 years and the current demand is way too much for what the demand was when the last one was built. Don't blame the oil companies, they have a right to make a profit just like Walmart or Home Depot, blame the liberals but the new media can't, it would be cutting their own throat.

[Homestead Maple]

I know of a few people that made light amber syrup in NH this year, I admit not much was made. I agree that sugar maples have lived for years in warmer climates than the Northeast but I don't believe that all the sugar maples will die off in the next 50 years, even 100 years.

[maple flats]

WVM hit that one right on. He is 100% right.
Dave

[802maple]

Brandon is 99.999999 percent right, because we are partly to blame for this too. We should have run them out of Dodge along time ago and for that it is our fault.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

post edited

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

One thing for everyone to remember as it has been mentioned many times, the temps and climate down here is way warmer than in NE. The frost here probably went 12" deep last winter which is as deep as it has been in years. The ground was so saturated with water, it actually turned into a big ice block.

The maples thrive here without any problem, but sugar content is much lower. I know some of you will disagree with me, but in my opinion, the colder the winter and temps, the higher the sugar content. I have awesome maples that are huge, many 30+ inches and some close to 4' in diameter with enormous crowns and great spacing and I am lucky if I average 1.7 to 1.8 percent in a good year. People even further south of me with warmer climates are close to 60 to 1 ratio.

[RileySugarbush]

I wonder if it's not how cold it gets, but how long it's cold? You have pretty short winters and maybe that is why the sugar content is lower.

[802maple]

I certainly am not saying that the earth is cooling, It most likely is warming to the extent that it has several times in the past as history has taught us. What I have for a question is what makes this warming cycle( Oh yes i said that terrible word cycle didn't I) any different than what has happened in the past? Even twice or more times in the last century.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Our winters start here around 1st of Nov and end usually in March. Really hard to define winter. A lot depends on how you define it. Sometimes we may get a little snow in October and some years several times in April and sometimes nothing more than flurries until Dec, but not normally. You may be right as far as the cold starts a little earlier and lasts longer in NE, but it is also normally colder temps nearly all of the winter period.

Who knows, but the sugar content seemed lower as a whole in NE this year and I would attribute a lot of that to the mild winter in Dec and Jan. I know that is has a lot to do with the growing season, amount of sunlight, soil conditions and etc, but in my case, seems the milder the winter, the lower the sugar content.

[TapME]

I just have a few questions to ask.

1. Has the sun got stronger or in a more eruptive state?
2. Is the axis of our plant changing from 23 degrees?
3. Have there been any significant eruptions of late to put gases and dirt into the air and keep out or in the suns rays?
4. Has the magnetic poles shifted? (60 miles in the last centry)
5. Will the methaine gas in the air cause a change?
6. Has the orbit of the earth changed do to
a, inpacts of objects in the last century (Siberia)
b, changes in the gravity of the sun? or other objects

And i'm sure that I left out some questions. Don't get me wrong, has man made an inpact on the planet, Yes. Just building a home has that inpact. Are we changing thing, yes. this is why we have the gray matter. Are we changing the climate, highly unlikely to the point that raising the temps to what they say. Remember Washington and 1776 and the and the summer that wasn't (my great grandmother told me the story) and how cold it was. Most of the people back then would complain about the cold (just as we do today) and not about the warm winters, just because it was a welcomed change to be warm or not burn a lot of wood(which was cut by hand split etc.). Do we have the knowledge to make less of an impact, yes. Will my solar heaters make a differance, yes. Will others doing the same make a diff., yes. Will changing fuels to hydrogen work, who knows. Thanks for leting me talk on just a few questions.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

On thing to remember that God is still in control and man can't do anything to change that regardless of how hard he tries.

[SapSuckers]

lets hope good likes maple syrup!!!!!!

[maple flats]

My big question is are any global changes caused by man or is it a continuation of the cycles the earth has had over millions of years. Which men caused the 5 ice ages? Have any changes they Al Gores are talking about had timew to mean anything at all. Remember that the ice ages each took thousands of years to cycle in and out, are we just at the warm end of a cycle or can we even tell with only 50 or 100 or even 200 years records to go by? I think not. Does man polute, absolutely but is is changing the avg temp of the entire earth, I think that is a question that will not be answered in our great great grand childrens time let alone ours. Does this mean we should do nothing different, absolutely not but we should not panic nor should we listen to the scare tactics of liberal politics.

[dgp219]

I think the whole global warming/climate change thing can be looked at like smoking. Are we doing something that is bad for the earth as it is? Is smoking bad for me? Will what happens to the earth be bad for the health of the plants and animals? Will smoking be bad for my health? Oh well, I'll just keep on smoking and hope for the best! NO! I want to be around for a long time and see my daughter grow up, and make my grandson tie my fly on for me cause I can't see the darn leader any more. And if smoking could take that from me I'm not going to do it. IF putting gazillion pounds of CO, H2SO4, NO2 in the air could screw up life on earth why wait to find out if its going to happen, Its a little late then for the planet as WE know it.

But what makes me really crazy is last week I heard a mockingbird immitating a cell phone. Knew it wasn't for me cause it wasn't the William Tell Overture.

[Jim Brown]

I agree with the WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER, God is still in control just enjoy the ride and keep praising him for what he does!

Jim

[TapME]

Brandon, Amen brother, I have faith in God and us.

[hookhill]

Not sure if we should drag politics into sugaring. The comment "Al Whore" is a bit of a cheap shot. Lets say these liberals are wrong and global warming is a natural cycle, it would not harm us humans a bit to reduce our oil consumption and carbon emissions. Up here in Vermont the green movement is strong and its about time. You know why it is strong? Because its starting to effect peoples pocketbooks. Biodiesel, solar and wind power, carpooling......all have one thing in common, it saves money.

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

hookhill-

The 4 things on your list are great things to do to save on things.....BUT I have yet to find where I can buy bio-diesel cheaper.??? solar and wind (plentyful in our area!) have their up-front costs, but will save A LOT in the future. I also think that more of the larger farms should do the cow power thing!

More vehicles should be diesel too...by what I've heard diesels don't give off the emissions that plug up the ozone like gas engines do. or at least as bad anyway.

I don't pay a whole lot to politics, but we'll see after the elections if anything gets straightened out? at the rate the cost of living is going now, the economy is going to go to hell in a hurry.(I've been able to figure that much out anyway!)

[hookhill]

Ryan,
You are right. The upfront costs keep many people from investing is alternative energy. It irks me to see these shows where people are bragging that they dont have a electric bill. Meanwhile they spent 50k on a solar system. There are things that you can do that dont cost much. One thing we are going to try is building flat solar collectors to heat our hot water during the warmer months. Another thing is building a windmill generator. Just like sugaring equipment, this alternative energy stuff is expensive. The only way we can figure out how to make it happen is bottom feed on the stuff or build it ourselves. Right now I am going to assume that the scientists are correct, global warming is real. Now what to do. Try to do our part to cut down on fuel cosumption, foreign oil dependency, and most important and selfish...save some $.

Best,
Jim

[Fred Henderson]

Ryan,
You are right. The upfront costs keep many people from investing is alternative energy. It irks me to see these shows where people are bragging that they dont have a electric bill. Meanwhile they spent 50k on a solar system. There are things that you can do that dont cost much. One thing we are going to try is building flat solar collectors to heat our hot water during the warmer months. Another thing is building a windmill generator. Just like sugaring equipment, this alternative energy stuff is expensive. The only way we can figure out how to make it happen is bottom feed on the stuff or build it ourselves. Right now I am going to assume that the scientists are correct, global warming is real. Now what to do. Try to do our part to cut down on fuel cosumption, foreign oil dependency, and most important and selfish...save some $.

Best,
Jim


Hook, I couldn't agree with you more about the up front cost. I have enough water flowing thru here to gen sufficent power for my home. The up front cost keeps me from doing it. For example a 100 watt dc gen set is 1500 bucks and I would need 2. So I will use a car alt rewire it for low rpm's and build my own under shot water wheel.

[802maple]

Hookhill, I agree that we should be doing what we can do to cut back on fuel consumption and pollution, that is only good common sense. The thing I am little confused about is where you say you are going to assume the scientists' are right. My question is which scientists' are right the ones that the media are in love with or the other half or more that they refuse to report about?

[Father & Son]

I don't know if it made the news other than around here but there is a guy in Erie, PA. that has invented a new type of cancer treatment that uses sound waves or radio waves, I don't remember which. He has received approval to continue with research and developement and just last week it was announced that he has discovered a way by passing these sound waves or radio waves through salt water it makes the water burn. What an alternative energy source this would be if it would come about.

Jim

[royalmaple]

I just got emailed a funny video clip from a buddy. It is all about global warming, at least from one person's perspective. If anyone wants to see it, shoot me an email and I'll forward it along to you. Language puts it a bit over PG-13, but that is it.

I don't think this guy agrees with the scientists.

send me an email at:
sales@diecastwarehouse.com

[TapME]

You should check out the solar grabbers that you make from a sheet of Termax. check it out on the web at do it youself solar heat collectors.

I don't know about you people, I started 2 years ago to save money that we spend on fuel and heat and electric, some work better than others.

[220 maple]

Hey Traders
This thread is to good to past up with out some humor.
Recently in our local newspaper (The Daily News Record) someone dropped a short letter to the editor about global warming and the ice caps melting. It was so good I cut it out and put it on our refrigerator. Here it is verbatim.
WHY WORRY ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING?
I can't figure out why anyone would worry about global warming and the melting of the ice caps. If you believe in God, you'll drown and go to heaven. If you believe in evolution, all you have to do is tread water until you grow gills and fins. George VanOrden of Fulks Run Va.

Mark 220 Maple

[TapME]

It's been two mornings in a row now that I get up at 5 and the temp is hovering around the freezing mark. Friends just a few miles away had a frost that took all the tomatoes and cukes from there garden. 34 is a little cool for me at this time of the year. If this is global warming then I want it to cool off.

[maplekid]

yaeh its getting chilly up here. ive had to start the wood stove in the mornings when i go out there. i would never have thought that i would use the wood stove in the middle of summer

[maple maniac65]

OSLO (AFP) - A grown moose belches out methane gas equivalent to 2,100 kilograms (4,630 pounds) of carbon dioxide a year, contributing to global warming, Norwegian researchers said Wednesday.

ADVERTISEMENT


That is more than twice the amount of CO2 emitted on a round-trip flight across the Atlantic Ocean from Oslo to the Chilean capital Santiago, according to Scandinavian Airlines.

"An adult moose emits about 100 kilograms of methane gas a year. But methane gas is much stronger than carbon dioxide, so to get the equivalent you have to multiply by 21," professor Odd Harstad at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences told AFP.

With an estimated 140,000 moose roaming Norway's forests, that is a total of of 294,000,000 kilograms of CO2 per year.

But Harstad said that was no reason to begin killing off the entire moose population.

"Moose have very important functions in nature. They are ruminants that eat the grass. If we don't have ruminants, we have too much grass and that changes the landscape and has consequences for the flora and fauna," he said.

Harstad said the figure of 100 kilograms of methane gas was a rough estimate based on earlier calculations for beef cows in Norway.

As is the case with cows and other ruminants, methane is produced from the microbes in the moose's stomach which help break down the roughage they eat.

Because methane gas is stronger than carbon dioxide, it is considered even more harmful to the environment. Both methane and carbon dioxide are so-called greenhouses gases, one of the main causes of global warming.


Do you guys in Maine agree with this theory?

[TapME]

Moose steaks-yum...............................

[royalmaple]

Couple more weeks and I am going to tip over a bull up in "the county" just trying to do all I can to help save the world. Can't wait its gonna be a blast.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

God is still in charge of this universe and world and nothing that happens is going to take him by suprise or anything that he doesn't allow. It is a big kick in the stomach to the US is what it amounts to and it is a very good possibility that the world will be teaming up against the US as there are other countries starting to rumble already that the US is the biggest culprit in global warming and it is snowballing fast. Most of the other countries in the world hate these capitalist societies and especially the US. Freedom is a bad word in most parts of the world and even in here in the US if the liberals had their way.

If it keeps going the way it is, we won't even be making syrup 25 to 50 years from now, too much effect on global warming in boiling the sap at all.

[andyp]

I have to wonder how many people and cows and automobiles,factories and power plants were here to cause the great glaciers to melt many years ago?

andyp

[Russell Lampron]

Beware of the "sleeping giant". China is the one that is stealing all of the manufacturing jobs and emitting the most pollutants. We will create all of the technologies that will clean up the air and they will steal that too. Or more accurately the liberals will give it to them.

Russ

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Russ,

You are right on, isn't it funny how no one ever picks on China???

[cncaboose]

Guys, I have been quiet on this one, but feel I have to say something. I am one of your so called "liberals". I also happen to be a God fearing, church going, maple sugar maker who doesn't like Chinese economics. I think that comments on a site like this should stick to the maple sugaring, and not make disparaging remarks about one's political or religious leanings. Nuff said.
Ian

[Revi]

I'm another church going "liberal" who believes in global warming. This could benefit us. We are locking up carbon in our woodlands and producing a carbon neutral product that is very tasty. We are doing exactly what we need to do to help get our carbon footprint down to sustainable levels. Most of us heat and boil with wood, and wood is carbon-neutral. We are producing a product that comes from trees, which sequester over a ton of carbon per acre per year. That's at a growth rate of 1/2 cord per acre per year. We are part of the solution to global warming, deforestation and the energy crisis all in one.

We figured out how much carbon we were putting out, and since we cut our fossil fuel use in our household by half our woodlot easily sequesters more carbon than our family puts out. Thanks to our woodlot, we are carbon neutral, and then some.

The solution is sweet! Keep making maple syrup!