Visiting the weekend plant market in Taipei, Taiwan I came across a company helping schools, businesses and individuals install roof top raised pre-fab grow beds so these buildings can become food producers in what is now wasted space. Think 1950's family garden on a city high rise rooftop.
Called "Framing Nature" its an appraoch we should consider as the world shifts into the Grand Solar Minimum and we as individuals produce more food on our own.
Solutions for food production during the new Eddy Minimum "City Rooftop Raised Bed Gardening"
The sun exhibits great variability in the strength of each solar cycle. This variability ranges from extremely quiet “Grand Minima” such as the Maunder Minimum (1645-1715 A.D.) to a very active “Grand Maxima” such as the enhanced activity observed during most of the 20th century (1940-2000 A.D.). A solar Grand Minima is defined as a period when the (smoothed) sunspot number is less than 15 during at least two consecutive decades.
The sun spends about 17 percent of the time in a Grand Minima state. In the past, these periods caused great hardship to humanity and significant loss of life. Solar Grand Minima events correspond to periods of dramatic natural global cooling. The Maunder Minimum (about 1645-1715 A.D.) and Spörer Minimum (about 1420 to 1570 A.D.) are two examples of recent “Grand Minima” events and each period has been referred to as a Little Ice Age.
This threat is not a short-term problem but extends over several decades. Of the 27 “Grand Minima’s” that have occurred over the past 12,000 years: 30% lasted less than 50 years, 52% lasted between 50 and 100 years, and 18% lasted over 100 years. Of these, the longest was Spörer Minimum which lasted approximately 150 years.
This is the reason our society is about to move to a more self-sufficient way of life and the primary reason you will need to begin growing your own food. These are some examples of what can be done.
There are several lessons learned from studying very early global cooling events in Europe. These include:
- The onset of these conditions can be very abrupt and very severe.
- A decline in food production due to: – Dramatic increase in days with overcast skies. – Decline in the intensity of sunlight. – Decline by several degrees in global temperature – Regions of massive rainfall and flooding – Limited regions experienced droughts – Shortened growing season
- A string of major and minor famines * Malnutrition lead to weakened immune system.
- Produced influenza epidemics. * Reoccurrence of plagues such as the Black Plague.
- Lack of feed for livestock
- Parasites (i.e. fusarium nivale), which thrived under snow cover, devastated crops.
- Grain storage in cool damp conditions produced fungus (Ergot Blight). Contaminated grains when consumed caused an illness (St. Anthony’s Fire) producing convulsions, hallucinations, gangrenous rotting of extremities.
- Flooding created swamplands that became mosquito breeding grounds and introduced tropical diseases such as malaria throughout Europe. Impact, 2009 James A. Marusek 1
- During hot summers, cold air aloft produced killer hailstorms (massive hailstones that could kill a cow).
- Higher frequency of powerful storms produced major devastations. (For example during the Spörer Minimum, approximately 400,000 people perished in the A.D. 1570 “All Saints Day storm” in northwestern Europe. And two catastrophic storms hit England and the Netherlands in A.D. 1421 and A.D. 1446, each storm killing 100,000.)
- Glacier advance swallowed up entire alpine villages. * Ruptured glacial ice dams produced deadly floods.
One word of advice! Something breaks every year. The trick is to be prepared so when it does break, you have the resources to deal with it.
During a Grand Minima the Earth begins to slowly cool. The start of the planting season is delayed and in the fall early frost limits the harvest. Earthʼs abundant bounty is put on hold and starvation takes its ghastly grip. Great famines sweep across the globe and many perish. A global cooling event will put great stress on the farming industry.
More information on Grand Solar Minimum Prepardness at BreadandButterScience
Images of Rooftop Raised Bed Farming