Biodiversity

When I woke up this morning the temperature reading outside was 14 degrees F, and there were the most exquisite patterns of frost on my windshield. They are lost with my camera - in reality they were a rainbow of colors.

I am tempted to get a better quality camera but then again, I balk at the notion of spending money on a non-necessity, especially one that is of marginal additional value, and must have a gigantic polluting effect from just the extraction of materials. Sigh. I miss the days of unfettered and uninhibited consumption. Those are finished for me.

I well remember the thrill I had the first time I went on a ride in an airplane, when I was 18 years old. It was an epiphany, I felt such joy and miraculous amazement that I was able to do something so extraordinary as fly through the sky. I never thought about the poisonous gases spewing out of the plane, that kill animals and plants. And now, that I know, that is all I can think about.

Here's an article from the UK Guardian about the year of international biodiversity. What a mockery! Here is my comment, not yet out of moderation:

Most of the attention over climate change is given to the increase of CO2. However, the toxic effects of nitrous oxides and sulpher dioxides, emissions which morph into ozone and acid rain, are a much more immediate problem. These poisons cause damage that is lethal to vegetation. Decades of cumulative exposure are killing trees all over the world, at an increasingly rapid rate, and of course this ultimately means the extinction of all species - animals, and plants in the understory - that are dependent upon trees for food and shelter. This is an existential problem for humans too of course, because those same atmospheric contaminants are already causing widespread crop failure. And of course, there are other terrible consequences that will rapidly accrue - wildfires, trees falling causing power outages and property damage, and vast areas turning from CO2 sinks in CO2 emitters, thus contributing yet another tipping point to overall global heating. Why virtually everyone, from private citizen to scientist to government agency, is ignoring this accelerating trend when the evidence is readily observed in a cursory inventory is a mystery to me. Pictures and links to scientific research shared here: www.witsendnj.blogspot.com