Changes for the Worst
By Lori Byron
As an avid gardener, I love dirt under my fingernails, sifting earthworms through my fingers, and turning the compost in the bin. In addition to having a bountiful harvest, the pinnacle of success is being able to add a new vegetable to the garden! Mouth-watering vegetarian recipes underly many of our meals. Truckloads of discarded grass from the cemetery mulch my garden every year. I can and dry and freeze and give away vegetables. I love to do demonstrations at our Farmers’ Market and turn others onto new recipes. The crazier the name, the more I love them…rutabagas, kohlrabi, rhubarb, bok choy. I learn more every year.
However, even just tending the soil for the 30-plus years I have lived in Montana, I have seen significant change. Our region of Montana has warmed from zone “3”in 1988 to zone “4” in just that short time. That is a huge difference as any gardener will know. Until the past few decades there were only small changes in the zones since the system was created in 1927.
Having the first spinach in town, tomatoes lasting until Christmas, and being able to grow okra in Montana aren’t bad, but these “firsts” come at a price that is too high in the big picture; climate that is warming at unprecedented rates with overall catastrophic results for human health. It shows that humans have already altered the climate. While a longer and milder growing season is good for the garden, it is not for my soul. Some of us are fortunate enough to have irrigable land and live near an irrigation canal, but most people do not have that fallback.
Seeing the changes right around me, and in my lifetime, helps me realize the importance of working to protect our children and future generations from the harms of climate change. No one of us can do it alone, but we all have a part in combatting climate change!
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Lori Byron is a pediatrician and co-chairs the Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate with her husband. She is semi-retired from Indian Health Service and volunteers full-time on climate action. Lori loves bicycling, gardening, reading, and cooking.
As Montana health professionals and health organizations, we work together because the climate crisis threatens the health and future of Montanans, including our communities, our resources, and animals. We declare our commitment to addressing climate change as a public health issue.