Joshua Ruoss, class M6a, reports from the climate garden of the cantonal school Limmattal.
There are two mysterious greenhouses in front of the cantonal school Limmattal. One is transparent, the walls of the other are not. In both green-houses there is a special machine. Furthermore, there are two beds in each greenhouse, from which plants protrude. In addition to these two structures, two other beds are located outside the houses in a natural environment, one of which is covered. Sounds complicated, but actually it’s quite simple.
All this is part of the project “Climate Garden 2085”. These mysterious machines are heaters with which the temperature in the green house is artificially increased +6.5 degrees Celsius above the Swiss temperature and the other by +3 degrees Celsius. The aim of the project is to find out what the flora in Switzerland will be composed of in the year 2085. The greenhouse, which has an average higher temperature of +6.5 degrees Celsius, simulates the situation in 2085, if we do nothing about the warming of the earth. The second greenhouse also simulates the situation in 2085, but if we immediately halve greenhouse gas emissions. These scenarios come from Meteo-Switzerland and researchers at ETH Zurich. Furthermore, there are still plants under current climatic conditions. These should serve as a comparison with the current situation. Additionally, the watering is dosed in two different amounts in each scenario, with the assumption that there will be drier summers in the future.
Meanwhile, something is growing in all beds. But as a layman, I cannot determine exactly what comes out of the ground, unless I take the cultivation plan. Differences between the individual beds are still very marginal. I do not see any trend yet. But let’s keep aware of how the plants will develop.
Romina Persano, class M4c, writes in addition:
The already long-announced climate garden is finally being built in front of our schoolhouse. With its two greenhouses, it quickly draws the desired attention to itself. While some plants are outside at our everyday temperatures, the air in the greenhouses is heated. This is immediately noticeable when you enter one of the transparent houses. Although we humans would sometimes prefer these temperatures on cold spring days, this project is intended to create an opposing attitude. The seeds were planted and the young plants of the first potatoes planted can already be seen. Already after this short time you can see how one of our staple foods develops. Large differences can’t be seen in the plants in the heated greenhouses yet. How these seedlings continue to deal with the new environmental conditions will soon be possible to be determined.
