FaceGlobalWarming.com

Looking out across the dark Caribbean night from Punta Allen one sees three equally sized glowing areas on the distant horizon to the north. The furthest out is Cancun, the next Playa del Carmen and the last Tulum.

Cancun has a bit less than a million people; Playa has 300,000 and Tulum now over 30,000. Playa Del Carmen is the fastest growing municipality in Mexico.

But from Punta Allen each lighted area appears to be the same size since Cancun is farther away than Playa and Playa is farther away than Tulum. The three groups of lights are a reminder of the environmental impact of civilization, including light pollution.

Cork is a wondrous material that provides mankind with numerous benefits. Cork is made from the bark of the evergreen species of oak genus called the Quercus. The wood is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa. It has also been introduced into warmer areas of the United States, but by far the number one producer of cork oak is Portugal, which accounts for half of the world’s cork.

Climate change is taking its grip on our lives and that includes our gardens. So it makes sense to confront the issue and plan your garden accordingly. While some traditional plants may find the changing conditions tough to cope with others will thrive.

The first thing to understand is how climate change will manifest itself. How is the weather going to change? Immediately we have a problem as nobody can be certain. But broadly, winters will probably get wetter and summers drier and hotter. The number and intensity of frosts will reduce and Spring will come earlier.