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Found this story.....

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Tea-off-I ... et=&ccode=

Best,
R

Its climate change, not global warming. Also, Assam has always been one of the most humid regions of India –the other is the SE costal region. Assam is the most humid tea growing area in India –and perhaps the world ––I am not sure how it compares to the more humid areas of Yunnan.

Personally I think the whole global warming thing is way overdone. I understand minor temperature changes they have been happening for millions of years, but after experiencing the consecutive three coldest florida winters of my life (including this one) I have my doubts.

I don't know whats going on in India, but what can I say? a few unlucky years? again farmers have been going through that forever.

It's all a bit complicated but I'm not really sure a few hot summers or cold winters in a particular area has much bearing on the overall picture, outwith the old butterfly effect.

If there are significant climate changes then it seems likely the tea plant will find some new homes and lose some old ones.

Proinsias wrote:It's all a bit complicated but I'm not really sure a few hot summers or cold winters in a particular area has much bearing on the overall picture, outwith the old butterfly effect.
If there are significant climate changes then it seems likely the tea plant will find some new homes and lose some old ones.

you presented it well Proinsias - there is a big difference between weather and climate. the weather has been erratic in many parts of the world but the climate over the years has shown a steady trend, which is what the (call it what you will) debate is all about.

Quite a bit of fuss over a hockey stick from what I gather

Eh...

hockeystick?

Okay, look, I'm interested in policy and politics so this might seem harsh and offtopic in a tea forum, but...

Global climate change is real. It's also a major threat to our lives and livelyhoods, not to mention our tea. I can read scientific papers, and I can understand what they say. I also have a firm enough grounding in social and economic flows to know that really bad stuff is coming as a result. Hell, I *make* tea decisions based on global warming, ultimately. Global climate change isn't going to just not happen [moderator edited]

As it is, people are dying and going hungry from the *first* effects of this sort of thing, which is really high high pressure domes, like the one that baked Russia last summer, or the one shown by models to give horrific cold to many areas of the US in the some days (not saying this could happen, but a chance). Other effects include mini monsoons that all of a sudden dumps huge amounts of water, like what happened in the SE US, in Nashville, Atlanta, and eastern North Carolina, not to mention the large scale disasters in Pakistan or Australia. That's just the *first* real effects!

This stuff is really freakin' FAR beyond pressing the panic button at this late date, and I'm just not amused at "hockeystick".

Peace out my TeaBrothers and TeaSisters.

My point was that the article was about the climate in Assam changing, not global warming.

Apologies for any offense caused, it was not my intention. The hockey stick was a reference to the hockey stick model first proposed by Mann et al around twenty years ago showing a steep increase in temp over the last half of the 20th century, compared to the last thousand years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockey_stick_controversy

fracol wrote:Personally I think the whole global warming thing is way overdone. I understand minor temperature changes they have been happening for millions of years, but after experiencing the consecutive three coldest florida winters of my life (including this one) I have my doubts.

I don't know whats going on in India, but what can I say? a few unlucky years? again farmers have been going through that forever.

Cold winters don't conflict with the current models of global warming. As someone else stated it is difficult to see trends in short-term, local weather. Climate change looks at well, climate--long-term, global trends.

There are too many mechanisms at work to think that cold winters = no climate change. When you take atmospheric and oceanic circulation into account, ice melt and other variables associated with warming lead to colder winters in some areas.

Sorry this is a bit off topic but I'm a bit surprised to see that people are still questioning climate change.

If you worry about things like this you will have nothing left to be happy about.....Unless you have a great idea on alternate energy that you could fund for billions of dollars and completely revamp the economy do it please I beg of you. Otherwise come on their is nothing you can do about it. What is going to happen will happen you can't control it.

Also I feel I should point out that about a year or two ago I was reading articles on how the long cold winter in china was devastating tea production that year. I don't know whats going on anymore.

I'm not worried, the way I see it is it is just a fact and as a scientist I don't understand why people are so set on denying it.

Saying there is nothing you can do about it is a bit absurd, IMHO. There i plenty we can do. What situation is worse, doing nothing and sometime down the road kick ourselves for not doing anything (to slow the process, not stop it). Or actually doing something and having no regrets in the future. Sorry, maybe I just don't understand your line of reasoning. But it is very real, and there is plenty we can do.

Also, NOAA shows that 2010 has been the hottest year on record: http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHN ... in+history

I keep getting burned on this post so i'm done commenting

fracol wrote:I keep getting burned on this post so i'm done commenting

Sorry, my point is, no matter how many energy efficient inventions scientists create; they are useless if our society refuses to use them. Whether their reasons are that it is too expensive, or they won't make a difference, etc. Scientists can come up with millions of great ideas to slow climate change, but the majority of people need to use them somehow... otherwise they are useless.