tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post5890279549437660697..comments2023-12-23T05:14:34.273-05:00Comments on Wit's End: Death's PrisonerGail Zawackihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800944469843206253noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-54358842902121562612015-10-17T10:05:03.578-04:002015-10-17T10:05:03.578-04:00Nice to hear from you, TVT! I guess the way I see...Nice to hear from you, TVT! I guess the way I see it, people have in general always exploited nature for their own purposes. There just used to be so much more of it, so it has only become a global threat since population exploded to present day levels. Actually, it is only in modern times that people have demanded wild areas be protected from human exploitation (for all the good it is doing).Gail Zawackihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01800944469843206253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-73078312455256229312015-10-16T20:21:31.232-04:002015-10-16T20:21:31.232-04:00i wonder if the moths that thrive in my little bat...i wonder if the moths that thrive in my little bathroom especially in winter like the cold and dark? it's windowless and the darkest room in my house, which i keep around a very chilly 5 C in winter. cold, dark, and humid is apparently these moths favored environment.<br /><br />i allow a few wildflowers to grow along my house to give the local bees some business. with all the pavement, buildings, and lawns, and the paucity of flowerbeds in my neighborhood, the local bees need all the business they can get. perhaps an overlooked part of the bee disappearance problem is how artificial (sub)urban environments deprive bees of much of their food sources.<br /><br />i don't think i'm very observant or tuned in to nature, which may account for why my perceptions differ. perhaps i'm in a sufficiently rural region to have lower ground ozone and less effect on vegetation, or perhaps i'm just not observant/caring enough to perceive the degree of vegetative disease u describe on this blog.<br /><br />part of the reason i may seem/be a bit nature averse is that i'm often quite sheeple averse, partly because i'm a bit ashamed of myself and generally socially uncomfortable. it certainly doesn't help having a generally low opinion of sheeple, civilized humanity. if i wasn't this way, i would get out more. <br /><br />at any rate, my (hopefully well) informed scientific opinion is similarly doomy, of course. it's a crying shame, what our species has done and continue to do, clueless, heedless of consequences. derek curly haired guy jensen wrote something about turning a living planet into a dead pile of money. derek has a way with words and understanding. that about sums it up. putting economic concerns ahead of environmental ones, creating artificial environments that shut nature out, and religions that denigrate nature, making it subservient to some imaginary god who just so happened to create us in his own image and created nature for us to exploit, all point to an 'intelligent' species that has gone completely insane.<br /><br />glad to see you're still active, gail. imo nbl comments section is poorer without your contributions. take care.the virgin terryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07587383433144638291noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-11747805493419241312015-10-15T17:52:35.472-04:002015-10-15T17:52:35.472-04:00My best guess is that we have passed a tipping poi...My best guess is that we have passed a tipping point where the sixth mass extinction is no longer being driven by the direct human activities that started it - such as over-hunting and fishing, destroying habitat, polluting, introducing invasive species, and changing the climate - but has now become a full-fledged ecological collapse that is a result of cascading effects from myriad failures. I cannot think of any other reason for wasps and moths, for instance, to disappear almost completely. If that is the case, there is nothing we can do to restore a viable biosphere at anything like the level of biodiversity it has achieved since the last mass extinction, even assuming that climate isn't poised to run away towards uninhabitability (which it is, of course).Gail Zawackihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01800944469843206253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-55624300312181057952015-10-15T17:37:25.826-04:002015-10-15T17:37:25.826-04:00Hey! I remarked on the very same eery lack of wasp...Hey! I remarked on the very same eery lack of wasps as we were pressing apple juice a few weeks ago in zone 4b. They've always been a "scourge" when pressing juice, and nary a ONE this year! <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-26607093087128507632015-10-15T13:28:22.464-04:002015-10-15T13:28:22.464-04:00Thanks Lidia, I saw that on facebook - One of thes...Thanks Lidia, I saw that on facebook - One of these days, these silly foresters will acknowledge it's a global trend and ask, what is a global influence? This one is about the UK - where is has been wet - https://theconversation.com/despite-the-lush-summer-leaves-our-trees-are-under-attack-28237<br />Gail Zawackihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01800944469843206253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-49211018134437377402015-10-15T13:22:11.395-04:002015-10-15T13:22:11.395-04:00Someone posted this over at NBL:
https://theconver...Someone posted this over at NBL:<br />https://theconversation.com/death-of-a-landscape-why-have-thousands-of-trees-dropped-dead-in-new-south-wales-48657<br /><br />Lidianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-12045249255291264092015-10-14T13:43:54.007-04:002015-10-14T13:43:54.007-04:00Hey Anon - I don't see it here either, but I c...Hey Anon - I don't see it here either, but I certainly didn't delete it! Sorry, stupid blogger platform. I got a notice in my email though, so here it is, copied -<br /><br />Michele, I know what you mean about the desire to disappear. Gail likely does as well, since she's reading Cioran (hahaha, he's the darkest philosopher I know of). <br /><br />While Gail seems atheist, I personally hold out this irrational hope that my "soul" will be cast into the form of some organism that earth is in dire need of (like phytoplankton). Of course I would be doomed, since the phytoplankton are dying off, but it would be nice to be of use, to be part of the solution. <br /><br />My parents would be heart-broken if I killed myself on their watch, so I can't, because they've already endured the heart-break of multiple miscarriages before having me. I have another reason for sticking around: making sure my parents' dogs (my best friends) die in a painless way. When the time comes that there's no more food for them, I'll put crushed sleeping pills in some peanut butter for them. Then I think I'll place their sleeping bodies in a confined space containing charcoal grills emitting lethal levels of carbon monoxide. Not looking forward to it, but I know I can do it. <br />Gail Zawackihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01800944469843206253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-17070576942276440942015-10-14T13:38:49.696-04:002015-10-14T13:38:49.696-04:00Was my reply to Michele's comment deleted?Was my reply to Michele's comment deleted? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-4168478095078195582015-10-14T13:20:42.962-04:002015-10-14T13:20:42.962-04:00Whoa that slide show is grim. From pre-peak to po...Whoa that slide show is grim. From pre-peak to post-peak with no peak in between!<br /><br />Yes, Michele for me personally it is a HUGE consolation to spend time with people in real life who understand what is happening. Come visit! - or join a doomer facebook group and maybe find people who are living or traveling nearby - there are many who are anxious to meet up. I would go bonkers if I weren't able to communicate directly with other doomer-types.Gail Zawackihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01800944469843206253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-69022262350436122812015-10-14T12:34:41.183-04:002015-10-14T12:34:41.183-04:00Sometimes, I sit very quietly and try to disappear...Sometimes, I sit very quietly and try to disappear. It did not work yet. I am mostly tired.<br /><br />Wonder if it would be any consolation to be physically instead of sporadically and virtually close to like minded folks. Don't know. Don't think so<br /><br />"All photo since this daily record was begun on September 12th, have been saved. You can get a clearer idea of the color's progression by watching a full page slide show here http://www.foliage-vermont.com/slideshow2015.html."<br /><br />and they add:<br />"Seeing is believing!"<br />indeed. but one has to see... michele/montrealnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-80808527612216008622015-10-12T12:59:42.234-04:002015-10-12T12:59:42.234-04:00It seems astonishingly fast and agonizingly slow a...It seems astonishingly fast and agonizingly slow at the same time. Thanks for adding your observations. On an older post somebody just left this link: http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2015/06/mass-die-off-of-forests-happening.htmlGail Zawackihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01800944469843206253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-12643437793536704352015-10-12T12:57:12.317-04:002015-10-12T12:57:12.317-04:00I know Tom. Oldwick is famous for wonderful apple...I know Tom. Oldwick is famous for wonderful apple cider from the orchards here, and it used to be that in the fall there would be annoying wasps swarming around the farmstand, and even if you sat outside at my house with a glass, it would attract them. I was routine to have to swat them away. This year I haven't seen ONE.Gail Zawackihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01800944469843206253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-48078567849716993652015-10-12T12:22:28.722-04:002015-10-12T12:22:28.722-04:00I spent some time where I grew up in southwestern ...I spent some time where I grew up in southwestern Pa this summer, and the decline is glaring. What I thought of in my childhood as a forest is nothing but a thin and pathetic looking remnant of what was there just thirty years prior, let alone just two hundred years ago. A see-through canopy, no sub-canopy, and certainly no understory. Even the shrub form of St. John’s wort, introduced in the 1700’s, has disappeared. Gone since my childhood are the dogwoods, black locusts, ash, large sassafras, and cherries. The walnuts and butternuts were dropping their fruit in July, and the chestnuts’ leaves were burned and diseased. The oaks and maples which dominate the area are thinning and are quickly being covered with lichen. Lots of brambles and day-biting mosquitos. Most healthy leaves are covered with fungal leaf spot. The pines that had been planted are covered with brown needles. And of course the people are oblivious; complacent; delusional. My dad goes around the yard every day picking up dead branches which have fallen. He loves to cut up trees, so I asked why he left a stone-dead maple standing in the yard. Turned out he didn’t notice it was dead, so surely he doesn’t notice the others, which he sees every day, being about ready for the tip as well. All around you hear more gunshots than birdsong. What becomes of the trees, reefs, sky rivers, animals, and insects becomes of us. I’m not afraid to go, but how it goes so slowly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-81750630840981062362015-10-12T09:35:51.308-04:002015-10-12T09:35:51.308-04:00How is that people just "tune out" the v...How is that people just "tune out" the very scenery before their eyes? This fall around here is as you described - withered, muted, brown and speckled - leaves falling too soon, burnt and scarred by holes and black spots, crowns of trees bare in too many trees to count and branches down all over the place. It's only a matter of time now (I give it 3 to 4 years tops) before the Silent Spring event (where trees and bushes no longer even leaf out, let alone bloom) happens for good. I've noticed a serious decline in squirrels around here, and the birds aren't around as much as last spring. My heart too is hollowing out, becoming desiccated in the same way as the environment. It's beyond sad and horrible now - just a numb, silent witnessing to my own demise along with the vegetation and animal life.<br /><br />Thanks again Gail - good work!<br /><br />TomAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com