I know that all people who are as fascinated as I am with the demise of vegetation have been waiting with abated breath for this report, so here it is - photographs from an actual nursery located in Bernardsville, NJ, where every plant, tree and shrub is living (barely) evidence of fuel emissions poisoning.
When I arrived I found row after row of saplings, their branches thin and the remaining leaves damaged.
And let us please keep in mind, these trees are watered, fertilized and treated for disease and pests.
They aren't supposed to be losing leaves yet. It is just the end of September and evening temperatures are too warm to cause leaf drop.
The leaves of this beech are an excellent example of the stippling that results from cell damage due to ozone.
Here's a link to Warnings of 4C rise in your lifetime - and that's only centigrade, folks.
Video if you'd like to see how scared the scientists are!
The best analysis is of course from Climate Progress.
I was very suprised to see pictures of my nursery posted on your blog and the misinformation you posted along with those pictures. The plants pictured have been in the nursery since early spring 09 and many pictured have been above ground for several years. Plants that have been above ground in a wholesale nursery often exhabit signs of stress, such as premature leaf drop, early fall coloration and other symptoms you have attributed to fuel emissions poisoning. You should have discussed the condition of the nusery stock with one of our employees who would have informed you about the problems we encounter in the yard such as to much water, deer problems, compaction from vehicle traffic, etc. Again the plants pictured were the worst of the worst from a long disease prone growing season. I am really quite annoyed that you chose to single out our nusery in Bernardsville, (there are only two in town), for your misinformed and unscientific opinion. Next time do some better research. Nice SUV you drove in with!
ReplyDeleteWell Anonymous, I did ask for and was granted permission to take pictures. I'm sorry to have annoyed you - I didn't "single out" your nursery, it just happened to be the one I was passing when I had time to stop (and I try very hard to consolidate trips in my old, pre-enlightenment SUV).
ReplyDeleteAs far as the reasons you cite that predispose nursery stock to premature leaf drop, I guess I don't see how that explains the pre-existing mature trees that surround your plants. It's hard for me to believe that given the horrifying state of trees up and down Route 202, and all over Bernardsville, you don't at least consider that there is some agent at work to cause it.
And as far as discussing any of this with you or an employee prior to publishing this post, I have already learned that the old adage, "It's hard to make a man understand something when his livelihood depends on his not understanding" or words to that effect, is almost universally valid.
The last time I checked, there were four or more nurseries in and around the Bernardsville area - but this is hardly a case of singling one out since I've noticed the same phenomenon in plant stock in nurseries and garden centers in far flung geographies around the state (and elsewhere). There also seems to be a plausible scientific basis for the correlation between fossil fuel emissions and the phenomenon that the photographs on the blog document. See: http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/430/430-022/430-022.html for example. There's also some research being done at Stanford that suggests the addition of so-called "renewable" additives to gasoline (specifically, ethanol) amplify the toxic consequences for plants (and humans!). This is all just another iteration of the debate over smoking and cancer. Fossil fuels are inherently toxic, herbicidal, and carcinogenic. Their emissions are no less harmful. Those who have vested interests in their continued use as energy sources will argue otherwise - and the many "useful idiots" in the media and general public who don't have the ability or desire to connect the uncomfortable dots will continue to stand in the way of any kind of rational outcome. At least until they have no other choice - or until somebody creates a profitable vector that puts the issues before a trier of fact in a forum that has rules and time limits. Fortunately, the Founders designed a form of government that balances political impotence with judicial probity. Eventually, Mr. Anonymous (and the rest of us) will be the beneficiaries of a storm of litigation that will re-balance the equities of environmental health by holding the polluters (and that's all we're talking about here - it's atmospheric pollution), and their enablers, accountable.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea who that nursery is, but I am very concerned about what you are saying. It seems to me that these are very serious indications of a great problem
ReplyDeleteI don't want to think that any nursery would actively campaign to suppress this message.
Thank you for all that you do.
I should point out here, since I'm revising this page, that Anonymous turned out to be an impostor from Chicago and not the nursery owner, at all, who posted that comment because he is a troll who has long since, thank goodness, returned to his bridge.
ReplyDelete