Spiraling Out Of Control

The purpose of this blog is to inform people that our way of functioning must change, radically, and soon. The way we are living, exploiting cheap energy, polluting, depleting our resources, and heedlessly driving species of all sorts to extinction, must stop - or there will certainly be catastrophic consequences that may never be reversible.

There are so many aspects of the denouement of our darling status in the grand scheme of paleoclimatology to address - but mine is, the trees and by extension, other vegetative life. I don't live next to a glacier, or a coral reef. But I am surrounded by dying trees, and my intent is to communicate their desperation.

I have already listed so many symptoms of exposure to toxic atmospheric gases upon foliage in earlier posts, but today I have come across a new one that is rather fascinating. Leaves are not merely missing pigmentation due to loss of chlorophyll, or stippling of stomata or browning and loss of tissue. Some are actually emerging deformed! Here is an assortment of hydrangea leaves, laid out on a tablecloth. The largest, at the lower edge is closest to normal, albeit half the expected size. But the rest are completely misshapen! I have no idea what this means, other than that it's exceedingly peculiar.

The next batch is from redbud trees. The largest is closest to normal - a heart-shaped leaf, that should be dark purple. Even it is damaged but the rest are not merely damaged, they initially emerged in odd conformations. I just don't know what to liken this to. Malignant tumor? A baby with two heads?

From the Jefferson Airplane, posted by SecularAnimest at a climateprogress.org post in response to a question about to just what degree we should despair...

You don't know just when to stop and when to go
City streets in the dead of winter stop your mind with dirty snow
Walk at night and touch your hand to the golden lights and let them show
You the shadows disappearing I'll smile and say I told you so
Baby, tell me why if you think you know why

People love when there's no tomorrow
And still not cry when it's time to go
And still not cry when it's time to go
And still not cry when it's time to go
The wall of your memory will echo your sorrow
The pictures of sadness are not what they seem
So hold out your smile take my hand and be happy
These pictures of sadness are not all they seem
Are you so old that you've no childhood - is your time line so unreal
That all your sunsets come in the morning - baby tell me how you feel
Shelves of books in your mirror reflecting the sidewalks and alleys
That you've seen
Show colors change as the images fade in my magical vanishing memory machine

Baby
Tell me how if you think you know how people love if there's no tomorrow
Do people love if there's no tomorrow
And still not cry when they have to go
And still not cry when they have to go
And still not cry when they have to go

Along these lines I recommend this article about the loss of biodiversity, and how it is spiraling out of control.