My comment on the story:
It's really quite sad that very few people see the forest for the trees, as it were (forgive me!)
The real culprit is ozone. Scientific research has documented that ozone increases the susceptibility of vegetation to natural infestations of pests, disease, and fungus, by damaging the stomata of foliage, inhibiting the ability to photosynthesize and produce chlorophyll. Trees particularly which are subjected to long-term, cumulative exposure are dying everywhere at a rapidly accelerating rate. This year even annuals in pots and crops are visibly impacted and all exhibit the symptoms of ozone poisoning - stippling, singeing, wilting, turning brown and falling off.
If you really don't want to bequeath a world without trees to future generations (and other plants, aka food), educate yourself about ozone and climate change and then take to the streets to demand a per-capita rationing of fossil and biofuels, and an emergency switch to clean energy.
A related story - trees removed in Worcester
And my blog about another Boston.com story, blaming natural gas leaks for killing trees
Note to Boston.com reporters: Stop being stenographers and investigate!!
are you aware of guang zeng's work? (I'm pretty sure you are) anyway got me thinking about mixing troposphere and stratosphere ozone pretty scary...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.livescience.com/environment/ozone-hole-recovery-could-cause-smog-100701.html
I did see that. But it seems to be a model for an effect that is further in the future than I expect we will get. I expect industrial society to collapse, thus lowering emissions, before that mixing occurs.
ReplyDeleteI wonder more about the thinning of stratospheric ozone now, and whether there is extra UV radiation getting through. You'd think this would be measurable - but I don't trust the measurers anymore.