Heat

Ice Cream

/ bigdiff / 1 Comment

July is National Ice Cream Month, so let’s talk about cattle, cost, drought, and methane.

Carbon pollution raises temperatures and increases drought. Excess heat makes it much more difficult to produce ice cream. Dairy cattle require copious water to drink and for their feed. Heat stress makes them drink more and hurts their health and fertility. Dairy farmers need to invest in barns with cooling equipment to make cows more comfortable. All this makes ice cream more expensive.

Cows also produce methane. Some dairy farmers are trying to reduce this greenhouse gas, but the process also makes dairy products more expensive.

Some folks are concerned about the cost of stopping carbon pollution, but doing nothing will cost far more. Here are some other ice cream ingredients at risk.

  • Banana crops lost due to fungi thriving in warmer weather.
  • Blueberry drought in Maine.
  • Chocolate hurt by longer dry seasons.
  • Peach crops lost in unseasonal freezes due to increasingly volatile weather.
  • Peanut yields decreasing with heat.

Here are some basic foods at risk.

  • Chickens & turkeys have been dying in heat waves.
  • Coffee, especially premium Arabica, has been hit by heat and resulting fungus.
  • Corn & wheat affected by floods & heatwaves and become less nutritious.
  • Orange crops in Florida hurt by hurricanes & insect-borne diseases exacerbated by climate change.
  • Potatoes hurt by less reliable water.
  • Rice yields fall with heat.
  • Tea grows in a narrow climate band, and moving plantations is difficult.
  • Tomato yields dropping due to heat.

Here are some fancier foods at risk.

  • Avocados need water and growers are encroaching on butterfly habitats.
  • Chilies more expensive due to drought.
  • French cheese production is down due to shorter cattle grazing shorter seasons.
  • Grapes ripen too quickly under heat to make good wine.
  • Italian olive oil prices are up sharply due to climate change.
  • Lime prices up sharply due to drought & flooding.
  • Lobster pushed out of their natural habitats by warming waters.
  • Shellfish threatened by acidification, rising toxicity.
  • Snow crabs decimated by billions in marine heatwaves off Alaska.

I could go on, as the foods affected increase every year. Extreme weather events, wildfires and pests more frequently wipe out crops globally. Our quality of life decreases as the abundance of life is reduced by climate change.

National Parks to Visit in July

/ bigdiff / Leave a comment

To avoid heat, July is all about high latitude and altitude, and I recommend visiting these northern mountain parks: Glacier, Lassen Volcanic, Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Rocky Mountain . While many other parks are hot and crowded, these are at their peak with plenty of space to explore.

The key to visiting Glacier is to understand that there is only one road through the park, and it doesn’t open until late June. The park is full of activities by June, but the accumulated snow takes a long time to melt at Logan Pass. And it’s a long way around. So if you want to see the sights and do the activities on both sides of the park, then you need to wait until July. August is even busier. The high mountain waterfalls are glorious along the Going to the Sun Road in July.

Lassen Volcanic similarly has its main road blocked late by snow, but by July almost everything is open including some wildflowers. For Bumpass Hell, the full trail usually opens later in July, but there are boiling mud pits and other fascinating volcanic features around the park. Fire damaged parts of the park have mostly reopened this year.

Mount Rainier too is better if you wait until July, when leftover snow recedes to open up roads and trails. I hiked the Paradise Trails in mid July and only crossed one patch of snow. Wildflowers were out, temps were pleasant and the mountain is big enough to handle many happy hikers. Plan your arrival, as the parking lots fill up.

North Cascades is also glorious in July, with wildflowers and waterfalls. Depending on where you want to hike, you may need to go later in the month for all roads to be fully open. But there are many great hiking options all month.

Rocky is another high elevation park, and July is a good time to see wildlife up there. I realize it’s crowded, but if you reserve campgrounds in advance you can reach the best areas early. Visiting in July means that you can move around early, like the elk, and it’s a good time to find bighorn sheep or pikas. I’ve visited in September and felt limited by wind and storms.

Arizona National Scenic Trail

/ bigdiff / 1 Comment

This forest service trail runs between the borders of Mexico and Utah. The southern Sky Islands section includes Coronado National Monument and Saguaro National Park near Tucson, and the terrain ranges from low desert to 10,000’ mountains. The next Sonoran Uplands section crosses seasonal desert rivers and passes by the Tonto National Monument (see photo). The Volcanic Field & Ponderosa Pine Plateau includes Walnut Canyon near Flagstaff. And the northern Plateaus & Canyons section crosses through the southern part of the new Grand Canyon National Monument and both south and north rims of the Grand Canyon before reaching Utah.

While I’ve visited the park units along the way, hiking long sections of the trail is too challenging for me, with risks from heat stroke to flash floods. But it would be an adventure! Driving to the parks along the trails is an easy way to see a few of the highlights, and I will be posting about several more trails this fall.

Here are my visits to all parks in Arizona.