This is so true. So many think if it is a podcast, it’s fact.
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I said YOU HEAR THAT, that’s exactly my point. They’re still pushing the points that it’s not worth it etc.
It does depend on if you are dryland or not and how much water you have in a given year if you can afford it. Some places simply don’t have the water or climate to grow much in the way of cover crops successfully some years. Arguably that means those lands are too marginable to be cropped sustainably in any way and in the long run that’s usually how it ends up working out.
Regular people who noticed the changes that Kemosabe mentioned would have been unlikely to formally document their observations, which makes it impossible to know when these observations may have happened. However, those observations certainly could have been the driver for the formal research by trained scientists that you mention. Scientists don’t just pick research topics willy nilly out of a hat; there has to be some kind of observation that justifies further inquiry that then gives rise to formal studies. In other words, you and Kemosabe can both be right.
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Kemosabe said and I quote “Those that started with the early warning about climate change weren’t scientists, and they didn’t do research for the government”. That is simply not true. It is verifiably not true, it is recorded history that is commonly known. There is a Wikipedia page that I linked to that lists all the climate change warnings and who gave them that shows it’s not true for people who don’t like to read long things.
Noticing something and talking about it to your friends and theorizing is not “doing your own research”.
The amount of science denialism and the replacement of facts with populist theories in the US and in the US horse community is staggering considering how much both have benefitted from scientific advances in most COTH posters lifetimes. I guess you are all about to find out how much when the scarcity and brain drain kick in. Chiropractors can’t inject hocks or fix colic and people theorizing online can’t drain your fields or solve the problem of needing to irrigate hay. And yes two of my equine vets have recently taken jobs overseas.
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Well this thread went off on a tangent.
But I just wanted to say, that although yes, climate shifts are increasing, a 40-60°F temperature shift in a 24-hour period was pretty standard a lot of winters when I lived in Ohio. We’d wake up to solidly-frozen-through water buckets that would thaw on their own by lunch. Or have to change blankets three times in a day because of the extreme weather changes. I don’t see this as a reason to think they need stalled more. It sure is a reason they require more manual labor, which is certainly inconvenient. But that’s basically the entire point of stalling, anyway. Human convenience.
(flamesuit on) If the weather is so extreme that you think 24/7 turnout is unethical, I would instead question if that is an ethical location to have horses, period, versus moving to stalling.
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I and many others have started to question this in the SW. Then again in a good rain year when the grass lasts 5-8 months and the ground does not start to develop bottomless cracks in May? it feels like there is nowhere better to have horses.
I do think that people investing in Florida equine real estate are nuts. Heat + humidity + high night temps are just unbearable and horses do far worse in it than in the desert.
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I think people investing in Florida real estate are nuts, but for other reasons lol.
Personally, my eight years in Florida were heavenly. I only left because of real estate prices. Five were on my own farm, three were boarding, all had my horses out 24/7. I know that biologically speaking, horses are supposed to fare better in cooler climates, but mine thrived in Florida, as did most other horses I knew.
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WHAT?! That’s horrible. What happened to the VP?
I’m a microbiologist and use to study phytoplankton in the Gulf of America. Would monitor alpha blooms and nothing changed much during the seasons. We look for alpha blooms (even got to go to the beach during one, it burns when you breathe) and tested oysters before harvesting. I’m mostly clinical now but I did environmental work and Pharmaceutical (I know which IV products from a certain company not to use now).
Alpha blooms? Are those dominant algal blooms? Dinoflagellates?
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OK, I am in the northeast and I just curry the hell out of my horses and don’t clip. Yes we have crazy up and down temps but clipping in the spring is just not something I have ever done. I work hard on the grooming and all are fine.
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Nothing happened to the VP because it probably never happened.
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I actually clipped (apron clip) my senior (with heaves) on Thursday because his breath rate has been too high, without lung congestion, over the last few days. I think he’s just hot. Hopefully the clip will help.
I used an 1/8" length guard because the blackflies will be coming soon. The colour of the clipped area is winter pale so I didn’t catch the summer coat with the clippers.
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I’ll admit that we moved partly because of the changes we were seeing. Where we moved to is lamenting the noticeable loss of winter wonderland days for snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and sledding due to erratic patterns.
I have an advanced degree in ecology. I could tell you some really scary things about why El Niño and La Niña patterns are changing (hint: the ocean currents are not cooling properly). We are on the edge of a precipice before sh@t gets real and populations will starve.
I don’t believe for one second that those in power think climate change isn’t real. The billionaires know it’s real. That’s why they have their bunkers. That’s why they are buying up places in northern climates. That’s why they’re manipulating the masses into thinking it isn’t real. If everyone knew it was real, they would demand aggressive changes that would cost the billionaires money. Keep the masses uneducated and compliant as long as possible. When it’s too late, the billionaires will have control of the natural resources. The rest of us will starve. We’ve got one, maybe two generations left for the vast majority of people on earth. Scared yet? You should be.
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When the AMOC unwinds, this nibbling around the edges of Climate Change Observers v. Deniers will seem like a fart in a mitten.
Because horses and humans have shared environments since many of us were Neanderthals, I don’t worry too much about the equids. If even a semblance of the predictions come true, I agree w/ @moonlitoaksranch it’s going to be toughest on us regular ol’ humans. The billionaires will be fine though.
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…until the billionaires start running low on staples because there aren’t enough peons left to keep the supply lines going.
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Correct except they are buying up New Zealand mostly.
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I would not be surprised to learn that they are developing their own supply lines at the end of their security forces’ guns as we speak. A few thousand of these families have resources enough that they can make the laws of nature and man all but disappear.
At one time basic morality held them in check. That ship has sailed.
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I’ve read that. New Zealand seems like a poor choice unless the plan is to take over the Southern Alps, which might buy them some time once sea levels start rising. Anywhere else and they’ll be waking up to the discovery that they’re festooned with seaweed.
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Plus New Zealand has volcanoes, most of them on the North Island but the South Island has a few.
I have this unproven hypothesis that when the Antarctic Ice Caps melt it will “liberate” magma fields that they weigh down. When these volcanoes start to blow the whole bottom part of the Southern Hemisphere is going to be affected by the volcanic ash and gases.
As far as the survival dreams of the billionaires go they may find that they have not taken all the variables into account that will affect whichever part of this planet they flee to for supposed safety.
The human species has survived horrible geologic turmoil before. I doubt that our civilization and its infrastructure will survive though.
The various species of Equidae also survived these disasters, so horses have a chance of surviving too (and all of our pets and domesticated animals,) but they will change to adapt and survive the coming disasters.
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