We live amidst discontinuities — unprecedented situations for which our past expertise and experience offer us poor guidance — yet we cling despe

Unpatterning - by Alex Steffen - The Snap Forward

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2024-05-16 15:00:13

We live amidst discontinuities — unprecedented situations for which our past expertise and experience offer us poor guidance — yet we cling desperately to the mental habits of continuity. Even when we discuss vast transformations, we map them to our understanding of how the world used to work.

This tool helps farmers and gardeners understand the average temperature ranges in the places they live, thus helping them plant crops that are likely to thrive. Since the planet is heating, temperature ranges are shifting, and the USDA updated their map to reflect this fact.

We have set ourselves up to be fooled here, though. Many people will fall into the understandable trap of believing that this map is analogous to previous heartiness maps, that this map reflects our “new normal.”

We think things like: if some fields in the chilly Northwestern Palouse used to be 6a and they’re now 7a, that must mean that new crops are a better bet there. Let’s put in some vineyards!