It is a solar powered ratchet, warm nights make it fail
Why you can’t grow cool-climate plants in hot climates
111–120 of 158 posts
Re: Why you can’t grow cool-climate plants in hot climates
#112This is why it’s important for us to develop C4 alternatives to existing C3-using food staples. https://c4rice.com/the-science/engineering-photosynthesis-wh...
Not that you’re wrong, but I find it darkly amusing that rather than than cut back on all the crazy things we’re doing, it would make sense to instead bio engineer a bunch of plant life to deal instead.
The thing is actually stopping the warming involves:
1. Cutting emissions to zero. Not cutting back, zero
2. Extracting a chunk of co2 from the atmosphere and sequestering it
Cutting back just means things get worse less quickly. They still get worse.
To solve the issue we should be building nuclear among other things but for whatever reason the green movement has opposed the solution for decades. Even shutting down nuclear to use more coal. Renewables are great but nothing currently is replacing baseload co2 producing fuels, which are still growing globally. And which will still grow unless we make an economically feasible baseload alternative.
Re: Why you can’t grow cool-climate plants in hot climates
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not that you’re wrong, but I find it darkly amusing that rather than than cut back on all the crazy things we’re doing, it would make sense to instead bio engineer a bunch of plant life to deal instead.
The thing is actually stopping the warming involves: 1. Cutting emissions to zero. Not cutting back, zero 2. Extracting a chunk of co2 from the atmosphere and sequestering it Cutting back just means things get worse less quickly. They still get worse. To solve the issue we should be building nuclear among other things but for whatever reason the green movement has opposed the solution for decades. Even shutting down…
> but for whatever reason the green movement has opposed the solution for decades
Which green movement are you referring to? I understand there are some anti-nuke green parties in some European countries but as far as I can tell they don’t hold all that much political power.
> Renewables are great but nothing currently is replacing baseload co2 producing fuels, which are still growing globally.
It is not a green movement that is currently interfering with the production of renewable energy sources in the States, that much is evident.
Re: Why you can’t grow cool-climate plants in hot climates
#114Good thing we're not doing anything silly like heating the entire planet. That would be a very alarming finding if we were.
On the upside, since Trump's tariffs are going to make importing tomatoes/etc from Mexico in winter unaffordable, maybe winter here will become warm enough that we can grow them here! The Iowa corn crop may start failing, but we can start growing pineapples instead. Cows eat pineapples, right ?
Corn won’t fail, they’ll get 2 planting seasons like they do in Texas atm.
Re: Why you can’t grow cool-climate plants in hot climates
#115Good thing we're not doing anything silly like heating the entire planet. That would be a very alarming finding if we were.
Or powering the current AI bubble with a buildout of climate-wrecking energy infrastructure.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/21/gas-power-plants-approved-...
Re: Why you can’t grow cool-climate plants in hot climates
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, we should diversify our food sources. The stat is something like 20k+ edible plants, but 90% of calories come from 20 of them, and 50% come from wheat/rice/maize. (Note that maize, sugar cane, sorghum, and some millets are C4 crops already in use.) It takes a lot of selective breeding to develop varieties that are palatable, productive, climate adapted, (remain) disease resistant, amenable to automation, etc et…
Is there an agricultural analog of portfolio theory? Permaculture always seems to be pitched in terms of the ecological perspective, but I wonder if there's some way to firm up the idea that if your fields/portfolio are diversified across a range of crops/assets whose yields are not closely correlated, you'll have fewer bad years.
Well I'd say the ecology perspective is exactly that! It's not just about partitioning the resources efficiently or creating synergistic relationships... A diverse interconnected ecosystem is a damped system capable of absorbing shocks.
But I get your point. This was of course obvious to any subsistence farmer in history. Without long-distance trade and perfectly reliable preservation, you had better be harvesting food as close to year-round and possible, which means lots of different crops (in different microclimates if possible, to spread out their season.)
There were layers and layers of fallbacks, down to "famine foods" like wild roots or acorns. They also invested in social relationships by banqueting each other in productive times.
Re: Why you can’t grow cool-climate plants in hot climates
#117Good thing we're not doing anything silly like heating the entire planet. That would be a very alarming finding if we were.
On the upside, since Trump's tariffs are going to make importing tomatoes/etc from Mexico in winter unaffordable, maybe winter here will become warm enough that we can grow them here! The Iowa corn crop may start failing, but we can start growing pineapples instead. Cows eat pineapples, right ?
About 45% of the US corn crop is turned in ethanol for transport which is even worse for the climate than the gasoline it replaces.
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/us-corn-based-e...
Re: Why you can’t grow cool-climate plants in hot climates
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, ok. I read about half the article and it was just talking about growing tomatoes in Texas rather than their homeland of the northern Andes. Now I see in the last paragraph it says C4 photosynthesis is more efficient in hot climates and C3 more efficient in cooler climates. I don't see though what's the benefit of bioengineering C3 plants to operate with C4, rather than to utilise C4 plants where the climate is…
Some areas are already running short on arable land suitable for some C3 species. Check out the napa cabbage harvests from Japan and South Korea, for example. Japanese rice production is also struggling, though that’s a more complicated example with several causes.
In a similar vein, one of the most obvious and easy-to-show-people impacts of climate change on agro-economics is the shifting wine growing region, especially for champagne. You now have these prestigious French champagne houses planting vineyards in England!
Re: Why you can’t grow cool-climate plants in hot climates
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not that you’re wrong, but I find it darkly amusing that rather than than cut back on all the crazy things we’re doing, it would make sense to instead bio engineer a bunch of plant life to deal instead.
The thing is actually stopping the warming involves: 1. Cutting emissions to zero. Not cutting back, zero 2. Extracting a chunk of co2 from the atmosphere and sequestering it Cutting back just means things get worse less quickly. They still get worse. To solve the issue we should be building nuclear among other things but for whatever reason the green movement has opposed the solution for decades. Even shutting down…
> for whatever reason the green movement has opposed the solution for decades. Even shutting down nuclear to use more coal.
This is an amusing and antique take on things. Anti-nuclear protests were frequently in the news in the 70s and 80s. As a result, some people with views set in stone in their youth believe that environmentalists are still predominately anti-nuclear.
In a strange twist of fate, this mindset is actually helping things today. The US President, likely motivated by a desire to own the libs and punch environmentalists in the face, plans to pour $4T into nuclear, making him an unintended climate change warrior, some say the greatest ever.
Re: Why you can’t grow cool-climate plants in hot climates
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing is actually stopping the warming involves: 1. Cutting emissions to zero. Not cutting back, zero 2. Extracting a chunk of co2 from the atmosphere and sequestering it Cutting back just means things get worse less quickly. They still get worse. To solve the issue we should be building nuclear among other things but for whatever reason the green movement has opposed the solution for decades. Even shutting down…
> for whatever reason the green movement has opposed the solution for decades. Even shutting down nuclear to use more coal. This is an amusing and antique take on things. Anti-nuclear protests were frequently in the news in the 70s and 80s. As a result, some people with views set in stone in their youth believe that environmentalists are still predominately anti-nuclear. In a strange twist of fate, this mindset is ac…
If that actually happens (and isn’t a giant scam!), along with the crash in global trade cutting emissions there, it would be the most hilarious thing ever.
Nixon going to China level.