The Minneapolis Star Tribune published this report from the AP on revised USDA hardiness zones, highlighting the fact that you can now apparently grow figs in Boston. Interestingly, the report I heard on my local NPR station this morning claimed that there wasn't enough data to attribute the changes to global warming, which is, apparently, the line the USDA is taking as well. This article clearly attributes the change to global warming:
I suppose the USDA is trying to stay out of politics, but it seems a bit disingenuous to me. Here's the new, interactive map. It looks like I'm still 5a, so no figs for me--at least, not yet. Ten, twenty years from now--who knows?
"The 1990 map was based on temperatures from 1974 to 1986, the new map from 1976 to 2005. The nation's average temperature from 1976 to 2005 was two-thirds of a degree higher than it was during the old time period, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
USDA spokeswoman Kim Kaplan, who was part of the map team, repeatedly tried to distance the new zones on the map from global warming. She said that while much of the country is in warmer zones, the map "is simply not a good instrument" to demonstrate climate change because it is based on just the coldest days of the year.
David W. Wolfe, a professor of plant and soil ecology at Cornell University, said that the USDA is being too cautious and that the map plainly reflects warming."
I suppose the USDA is trying to stay out of politics, but it seems a bit disingenuous to me. Here's the new, interactive map. It looks like I'm still 5a, so no figs for me--at least, not yet. Ten, twenty years from now--who knows?
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