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Americans see gardening changes as 'plant hardiness zones' shift across half the U.S.

Here's a quick tool to find out if your zone has changed due to warmer temperatures.

Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash, Map by USDA-ARS and Oregon State University (Public Domain)

The USDA has issued a new Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Millions of American households have a garden of some sort, whether they grow vegetables, fruits, flowers, or other plants. Gardening has always been a popular hobby, but more Americans turned to tending plants during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic for both stress relief and to grow their own food so they could make less trips to the store. For many people, it's a seasonal ritual that's therapeutic and rewarding.

But a shift is occurring in the gardening world. Now, due to rising temperature data, half the country find themselves in a different "plant hardiness zone"—the zones that indicate what plants work well in an area and when to plant them. Gardeners rely on knowing their hardiness zone to determine what to plant and when, but they haven't been updated since 2012.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture updated its Plant Hardiness Zone Map in late 2023, months before people in most of the country start planning their planting. We saw the 10 hottest summers ever recorded in 174 years of climate data between 2014 and 2023, but hardiness zones are actually determined by the coldest winter temperatures each year. Winters are warming at an even faster pace than summers, according to nonpartisan research and communications group Climate Central, but that may or may not be the entire reason behind the zone changes.

The USDA acknowledges that some of the zone shifts could be due to climate change but cautions against using them as hard evidence for it since factors such as improved data collection also contribute to changes in the map.

people planting flowers

Gardening can be a solo or community endeavor.

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

"Temperature updates to plant hardiness zones are not necessarily reflective of global climate change because of the highly variable nature of the extreme minimum temperature of the year, as well as the use of increasingly sophisticated mapping methods and the inclusion of data from more weather stations," the USDA wrote in November 2023. "Consequently, map developers involved in the project cautioned against attributing temperature updates made to some zones as reliable and accurate indicators of global climate change (which is usually based on trends in overall average temperatures recorded over long time periods)."

At the same time, Chris Daly, director of the PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University who developed the map with the USDA, told NPR, "Over the long run, we will expect to see a slow shifting northward of zones as climate change takes hold."

As an example of zone shifting, Dallas, Texas, was classified as Zone 8a in 2012, when data showed the coldest winter temperature in the city was between 10 and 15 degrees Fahrenheit on average. In 2023, with data showing the coldest winter temps falling between 15 and 20 degrees Fahrenheit, it's been shifted to Zone 8b.

Some zone shifts resulted in moving to an entirely new zone number, such as Seattle shifting from Zone 8b to Zone 9a. The overall trend was for zones to be pushed northward, but not all areas saw a shift. NPR has a helpful tool here in which you can enter your zip code, see what zone your city was previously in, what zone it's in now, and the temperature changes that caused the shift.

The bottom line is if you have a gardening book with a hardiness zones map printed before 2024, it's time for an updated map, or check online to see what zone you fall in now to give your garden the best chance of thriving this year.


This article originally appeared last year.

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Science

Kenyans got a 'special holiday' to plant trees that could significantly fight climate change

The government hopes that 100 million trees will be planted on the holiday.

via KindikiKithure/X

Kenyans plant trees on its new "special holiday."

Kenya celebrated its first “special holiday” dedicated to planting trees on Monday, November 13. The day was declared on November 6 by Kithure Kindiki, Kenya’s cabinet secretary for the Interior, who wrote, “The public across the Country shall be expected to plant trees as a patriotic contribution to the national efforts to save our Country from the devastating effects of Climate Change.”

To support the country’s efforts, the Kenyan government made 150 million seedlings available to its citizens via public nurseries and hopes that each of them will plant two trees to help reverse the effects of climate change.

The government hopes that 100 million trees will be planted on the holiday.

The holiday is part of Kenya’s Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Programme, which aims to grow and nurture 15 billion trees by 2032. From 1990 to 2010, Kenya’s forest cover was reduced from 12% to 6%, according to UN estimates. However, conservation efforts over the past 12 years have increased to 9%.

The UK’s King Charles, who has been a lifelong environmental advocate, praised the country's efforts at reforestation. “Having been planting trees for most of my life, I thought I was doing rather well, but your ambition for planting 15 billion trees makes me admire your efforts,” King Charles said at a state banquet.

Planting trees is one of our best tools for fighting climate change because they can absorb carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere. They also provide shade, reducing the need for air conditioning while releasing oxygen, which supports biodiversity.

A typical hardwood tree can absorb 48 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, which adds up to approximately a ton by the time it reaches 40. Unfortunately, humans dump about 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air yearly.

The holiday was celebrated by many in the rural parts of Kenya. Dozens of people came together to plant trees near the source of Kenya's second-longest river, Athi. "I have come to plant trees here because our water levels have been diminishing. Even here at the river source, the levels are very low, trees have been cleared," local resident Stephen Chelule told the BBC.

The Kenyan tree-planting holiday reminds people of the tremendous power they can have when they come together for a common cause. What if people in countries across the world made the same commitment?

The United States has 11 federal holidays, which are all dedicated to significant historical events and people. We also have Arbor Day, where people are encouraged to plant trees, and in 2022, the National Arbor Day Foundation says it helped plant more than 630,000 trees worldwide. Consider this: If we made Arbor Day a Federal Holiday where everyone gets the day off, and asked to plant two trees each, that would be over 660 million trees a year!






The Kenyan tree-planting holiday reminds people of the tremendous power they can have when they come together for a common cause. What if people in countries across the world made the same commitment?

In the United States, we have Arbor Day, where people are encouraged to plant trees, and in 2022, the National Arbor Day Foundation says it helped plant more than 630,000 trees worldwide. However, what if we made Arbor Day a Federal Holiday where everyone gets the day off, and is expected to plant two trees each? That’d be over 660 million trees a year!

The United States has 11 federal holidays, which are all dedicated to significant historical events and people. But given the incredible climate crisis we face, it would be beneficial to add one more where Americans come together to do something extraordinary for the planet that has given us so much.

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Artist creates stunning watercolor paintings that are scientific charts in disguise

Hard to unsee once you spot it.

Image from Jill Pelto, used with permission.

Artist Jill Pelto says more than you think in her paintings.

Jill Pelto's world is made up a rich blues, ochres, and a sky that looks like something out of an old mariner's chart.

But when you start to look closer, little details start to pop out. You notice a number here or there. Or a series of points marching down the top of a glacier. Or ... is that an x-axis?

Wait, are all of these charts?! This is data! Wooah!

The artwork, you see, isn't just beautiful. While each piece starts as a simple line graph of mass or temperature, Pelto — a graduate student at the University of Maine — transforms them into something more.

Pelto has spent the past years creating this astounding series of paintings, all based on scientific data.

She was first inspired by a research trip back in 2015.

science, nature, ice cores, artist

Painting depicts scientist coring ice to reveal climate history.

Image from Jill Pelto, used with permission.

Since she was 16, Pelto's been going on research trips with her father, glaciologist Mauri Pelto. In 2015, she joined her father in the field to study the glaciers in Washington state's North Cascade National Park.

On the trip, Pelto saw how the glaciers, while beautiful, had also lost much of their mass. Inspired, saddened, and packing her watercolors, Pelto decided to try to use her art to communicate what she was seeing.

The mass of glaciers in the North Cascades from 1980 to 2014. Data available here.

glaciers, arctic, study, science

A painting depicting a study in glacial mass.

Image from Jill Pelto, used with permission.

Since then, Pelto has continued the project, turning not just glacial mass but many other variables into brilliant works of art.

Within the deep purples and reds of a forest on fire hides a global temperatures trend.

forest fire, temperature change, global, studies

Image from Jill Pelto, used with permission.

Global temperature data, obtained from Climate Central, becomes the backdrop to an incredible forest fire. Rising temperatures and drought conditions could increase the future risk of forest fires.

Aquamarine-colored salmon intertwine with waves made from their population numbers.

salmon, ocean, rivers, art, climate

Coho salmon face declining rivers and climate change.

Image from Jill Pelto, used with permission.

Washington state has been hit by a number of droughts in the last few decades. Many rivers run low, affecting the coho salmon that spawn there.

Lifelike Arctic foxes hide amid a line graph that shows dwindling ice sheets.

arctic, foxes, science, nature, warming of poles

Arctic foxes face warming poles and climate change depicting in artist painting.

Image from Jill Pelto, used with permission.

The graph tracks the loss of Arctic sea ice from 1980 to the present. Arctic foxes are well-equipped to survive the chilly polar weather, but as the poles get warmer, larger species may invade and outcompete them.

This beautiful swaying reef exists in an increasingly acidic ocean.

coral reefs, warming seas, acidic ocean, science

Clown fish swim on a coral reef in a painting showing data of the oceans becoming more acidic.

Image from Jill Pelto, used with permission.

As more carbon dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere, the ocean is slowly becoming more acidic. Many species could be affected, including clownfish.

A tiger struggles against it's shrinking jungle habitat.

tiger, habitat, nature, environment

Painting showing the decline in tiger habitat area.

Image from Jill Pelto, used with permission.

This line graph is based on the decline in tiger habit area from 1970 to 2010.

Here, four different trends combine into a complex, ethereal landscape.

fossil fuel, sea levels, glacial decline, science

Artist Jill Pelto offers detailed information on climate change in artistic form.

Image from Jill Pelto, used with permission.

In this piece, called "Landscape of Change," Pelto combined data on sea levels, glacial decline, temperatures, and fossil fuel usage.

Pelto plans to continue painting once she completes her master's degree.

Science is an important tool for understanding our changing world, but even the most passionate scientist will admit it can be pretty dry at times. Getting people excited about trend lines or statistical analyses is no easy feat.

But art touches us on an emotional level. We get art. Seeing something that can combine the two disciplines, and hopefully inspire something inside us, is pretty dang cool.

You can see more of Pelto's artwork at her website.

This article originally appeared on 03.03.17

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Science

New study shows ozone layer has made 'significant milestone' in its recovery

Environmental progress is possible.

Photo by NOAA on Unsplash

Change is possible.

The negative effects of climate change are all around us—countless devastating heatwaves, droughts so severe in some areas that long lost ancient relics have reappeared, and in other areas, extreme storms destroy entire communities.

With all the visible decline on our planet, improvements might not be so obvious. But they do exist. All we need to do is look up.

Euro News announced on Sept. 19 that the Earth’s ozone layer, nature’s shield against UV radiation from the sun, has made significant progress against prior damage.

This is not only some much-needed relief against an onslaught of bad news for the environment, it also shows us that a better future is possible with concentrated effort.

It’s been 37 years since researcher Jonathan Shanklin first discovered a hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. His findings instigated arguably the biggest environmental movement of the 1980s, leading to the universally ratified Montreal Protocol, which phased out human-made, ozone-depleting chemicals (aka chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, remember those?) previously found in cleaning products, certain appliances and hairspray—just imagine how much hairspray was probably being used during that time to create the signature '80s coif … yikes.

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Think about the environment, dude!

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Increased UV radiation can lead to more cases of skin cancer, cataracts and impaired immune systems. It is also believed to be contributing to the increase in melanoma, the most fatal of all skin cancers. And it’s worth noting, since 1990, the risk of developing melanoma has more than doubled.

Though the potential danger of CFCs had been discovered as early as the mid-'70s, it would take a giant scare like a big gaping chasm in the sky for folks to really pay attention. But pretty soon it was a full-blown, mass hysteria sensation. One environmentalist even compared it to “AIDS from the sky” back in 1991.

Fast forward to 2022, and a new study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows that the overall concentration of those damaging chemicals has dropped just over 50%, back to levels not seen since before 1980.

global warming

That's visible progress.

research.noaa.gov

Of course, progress doesn’t mean perfection. Antarctica, which still experiences a large hole once a year, has seen a slower pace of reduction. But even still, chemicals have fallen 26%, the report revealed. And until it does close, the hole is being closely monitored using 3D imaging.

The Montreal Protocol has been a success in part because it forced corporations to come up with alternative solutions. Today we have plenty of brands that are environmentally conscious, but that wasn’t always the case. And lo and behold, a huge systemic shift caused a huge positive impact.

We still only have one planet to call our home and it will take a collective effort to protect it, just as it did to damage it. It can be easy to get nihilistic (or at the very least, anxious) when only the destruction is visible. That’s why it's important to acknowledge and celebrate the small victories—it helps us hold onto hope and leads to more inspired action. Because, as we can see, for good or for bad, every action counts.

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