tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post7416295476875445257..comments2023-12-23T05:14:34.273-05:00Comments on Wit's End: KentuckyGail Zawackihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800944469843206253noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-88224981451266686942009-06-17T08:56:51.662-04:002009-06-17T08:56:51.662-04:00Thank you for your comment Paul Kelly! I only wen...Thank you for your comment Paul Kelly! I only went to Kos because I followed a link about the globalchange.gov site from climateprogress.<br /><br />I shall try to label the trees from now on. The species that are in decline, almost all of which are pictured on this blog somewhere, are pin, red, and white oak, various maples, hickory, sycamore, locust, ash, black walnut, hemlock, willow, catalpa, beech, plum, crabapple, tulip poplar, osage orange, spruce, cedar, douglas fir, yews and junipers. Also noticeably suffering are shrubs both native and cultivated, evergreen and deciduous. In short, just about every species of tree and shrub that grows here is showing signs of drought, whether or not long-term drought is the immediate cause.<br /><br />Which is precisely why I cannot agree that this illustrates the difference between weather and climate, comforting as that notion may be. The problem is just too severe, and too widespread, to be attributable to one or two isolated severe weather events.<br /><br />The ice storms, which have wreaked destruction as far north as Maine as well, are in the first place attributable to climate change because if it were colder, they would be snow. Aside from that they cause more damage than otherwise because the trees are weakened.<br /><br />You just have to look at the way the power companies are frantically cutting branches away from the lines to know they realize they are coming down more frequently.<br /><br />If this were merely weather, the trees wouldn't look the way they do now or the Europeans wouldn't have found the vast mighty forests that they then plundered when they arrived 300 years ago, because Jack is right - they aren't going to be here in 10 years. It's simply a fact that once they exhibit the symptoms I photograph, they are already in the process of dying.<br /><br />This morning I was sent this link, perhaps that will be more authoritative a source:<br /><br />http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=42708<br /><br />The only difference is that I am seeing these effects here and now. But they are predicted by the experts to be a result of climate change, just coming faster than expected.<br /><br />And that is not a good thing.Gail Zawackihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01800944469843206253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-69951844592850218092009-06-17T00:38:50.717-04:002009-06-17T00:38:50.717-04:00The comment sections at Kos are often so vile and ...The comment sections at Kos are often so vile and troll filled, I've given up visiting there.<br /><br />Jack's forest and what you see in your trees illustrates the difference between weather and climate.<br /><br />Kudos for your photography. Do you know the species of the trees pictured?Paul Kellyhttp://replacefossil.comnoreply@blogger.com