Twenty years ago I read a book called Strange Weather: Culture, Science and Technology in the Age of Limits, by Andrew Ross, which explored the prospect of a ‘future’ of environmental depletion. Oddly enough, just the other day I read a suggestion that the introduction to a blog should imagine itself 20 years into the future. Given we now occupy the future that Ross described – and arguably it is even more limited than he projected – what might the future look like a further 20 years down the track? Knowing what I know, that the world is already too hot and getting hotter, I find it difficult to imagine.

The Buzz is a blog about living with and adapting to ‘strange weather’ – that experience of significant climactic change that is uniting people across the globe. Gardeners, after all, are amateur meteorologists, and gardening successfully demands keen observation of the weather, of light and shade, the change of seasons. Over 25 or more years of watching the weather, I can say, with some authority, it has changed and continues to change in deeply unpredictable ways. How do we cope, on a daily basis, with the extremes of climate change? How do we create a picture for ourselves of a future that isn’t all doom and gloom?

Here at The Buzz you’ll find posts about my gardening exploits and recipes for cooking and preserving your produce; there are tours of community and urban gardens, and of gardens that I’ve visited on my travels. You can read articles on fracking, on bioenergy, on the dire need for a sustainable approach to urban development, on farming, on Fukushima, and on the fight against the corporate control of food production –  agrochemical companies such as Monsanto and Dow. Oh, and there are a few musings on people I admire, like Charmian Clift and Frida Kahlo. No doubt, as time goes on, topics covered will grow and change as swiftly as the seasons.

The Buzz welcomes contributions from other bloggers, gardeners, or anyone with something to say about the state of the world we live in. Just fill in the form below with your proposal and send it in. You can also find The Buzz on Facebook and Twitter.