Hide The Decline

I was reading a post at Greefyre's wonderful blog, about the fabulist denier Judith Curry, where I happened across a video linked to in comments, which is embedded below.  It's a lecture by Richard Muller, in which he attempts to use the famous divergence of tree-ring data as a proxy for temperature from real temperatures measured by actual thermometers to discredit climate scientists personally and their research in general.  (I disagree completely, but rather than get into why, I would direct you to Greenfyre's subsequent response to the video.)

I'm busy with a wedding, okay?  I went to the florist's yesterday with first daughter for a mock-up of the tall candelabra centerpieces, and her bouquet - oh, it's going to be gorgeous!

So, back to trees...Having read of the 'hide the decline" controversy, I have noted many times that the divergence is an obvious indication that tree growth is being stunted by ozone.  This, however, is the first time I have ever seen these graphs.  They represent quite stunning vindication, in my opinion.  Below is a screenshot of the familiar graph of rising temperature with the tree ring data removed - after it began to diverge decades ago.

And the screenshot below shows only the tree ring data.  Just, wow.  Something caused tree growth to drastically diverge from the known temperature rise, and why scientists are so indifferent to the cause is a complete mystery to me.

Here's the entire video, if you can stand to watch it.

Tsunami Youtube Fatigue

I know everyone has seen more than enough - but this one is special.  Even if you don't speak Japanese, the voices capture in exquisite calibration the disbelief and shock that something so horrible could happen so unexpectedly and swiftly...even though it has happened before and was predicted to certainly occur again.  Which of course is exactly the way that violent weather extremes from climate change, like tornados and floods and hurricanes...and famine from ecosystem collapse...are going to surprise - indeed, in many places already are - astonishing the victims who should'a, could'a, been prepared, because we've been WARNED, but have chosen to ignore the inescapable outcome of our heedless, reckless excesses.  Never mind... the main reason I have posted this video is in the screenshot below.

Because of course, I am preoccupied with trees, and as I neared the wild crescendo of panic in the movie, this lichen-loaded branch was prominent in the foreground.  It looks identical to the lichen that is flourishing half a world away, and likely loves nitrogen, and is a warning that trees are dying from pollution across the globe.  More on that later!

Humpback Whales

Did you know that humpback whales can swim through thousands of kilometers of open ocean in an almost perfectly straight line?  New high-tech tracking devices have enabled scientists to learn this, but they have no idea how the whales manage to navigate.  One whale also can sing a specific song that will then travel, literally, around the world's waters from whale to whale.  When I heard this reported on NPR, I was humbled, and guilt-ridden, because I had the overwhelming suspicion that whales are much smarter than we are.  Also, we know so very little of the complex inter-realtionships between trees, and microbes in the soil, and all the other factors that influence one another in an ecosystem.

So we just go ahead and smash it because we can.  I can't wait to see this film.  Maybe it will change the world.  If you go to the youtube, there are more clips, and you can contribute to the fund to finish the documentary if you want - a project 10 years in the making.

American Exceptionalism - The Myth

Last night I dreamed that I was on a wonderful carnival ride, one of those big swings that goes round and round, undulating up and down so you feel like you are flying.  It seemed like it was getting out of control but I managed to get off and when I did, I was so dizzy, the ride had disappeared and I ran frantically around to find my children and say goodbye before I hopped on a motorscooter (very unlike me, I'm terrified of them) and left, zooming down a barren dirt road, feeling oddly exhilarated.

But I woke very sad, wishing I could persuade my family to get out of this country before it becomes too late, which could happen very quickly - it's impossible to predict which of so many potential and inevitable disasters will hit when, and where.  I was thinking, if only I could get them to go to New Zealand.  Of course, no place will be safe when the methane clathrates blow, but relocating could buy some precious time of relative civility while the US devolves into social bankruptcy and chaos.

So by coincidence before my coffee was even finished perking this morning, I came across an excellent analysis published on Alternet, comparing the American public's perception of our hallowed position in the world with some actual statistics, which is well worth reading in full - "We're Number One - Ten Depressing Ways America is Exceptional."

For a graphic view, below are the charts from the end of the article - the only one I would have added is  a comparison of the number of privately owned guns per capita.  Now that number, as well as our attitude of entitlement and arrogance, is essential to understand what is going to happen when a critical mass of people find they cannot possibly afford food (even processed junk food), gas and housing.

Update:  A quote from comments at Alternet attributed to CIA "Economic Hit Man" John Perkins (to which I would include that we live our lifestyles ONLY because we commit crimes against future generations):

“What most Americans do not really understand or admit is: we are living our lifestyles ONLY because it is part of a very, very Vicious system of exploitation that dehumanizes and enslaves people everywhere….this is our Project of Empire..we are the world’s largest empire in history..and we have gotten away with building this empire through manipulation, torture, blackmail, assassinations, fomenting insurrections and instabilities against countries uncooperative to our WILL and the will of our Chamber of Commerce…

Note, the above chart stops at 2006, before the wave of foreclosures!

Sarah Palin's Never-Ending Wild Ride

Apparently Salon has a story claiming that Sarah Palin really is the birth mother of Trig.  It's impossible that this woman gave birth to a 6 lb baby less than two weeks after this video was filmed.  Look at these screen shots!

The Salon writer claims people had already suspected she was pregnant before she announced because her face was swollen.  Preposterous - look at her face in April, a month after she announced!

The story of the wild ride is entertaining but it's more than that:  the lack of critical thinking on the part of the media is indicative of the corruption of the third estate, which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporatocracy.  This wouldn't matter except vital information is being withheld from the American people about the existential threats posed to civilization by one, a refusal to prepare for peak oil and two, pollution from dirty energy sources leading to ecosystem collapse (rising levels of CO2 leading to climate change and ocean acidification, plus ozone destroying vegetation), either one of which is sufficient to destroy civilization, let alone both.  Add to that the pillaging by the top one percent which is going to lead to complete social disruption, and we have what I've been calling the Trifucta.

Update:  I was just listening to an interview with doomer Dmitry Orlov and transcribed a bit that seems apropos.  First, I love this quote:

"...humans are panicky animals, they tend to stampede when they're frightened..."

And then, when asked why the media doesn't warn people of financial collapse the way Orlov does on his blog, he replies:

"First of all you would make people unhappy, so unhappy people pan you...you would not be popular and here in this country it's a popularity contest...secondly a lot of people whose vested interests you'd be stepping on would come after you.  So that's just not done.  You have these voices on the fringes, and I consider myself one, saying things that are true, whereas the mainstream for very good reasons, very solid, business-like reasons, are lying and that is what you would expect."

Earth Day

Being short of time today I am reposting below an entry from last year, about Earth Day.  I also highly recommend this essay by killing Mother, which is titled Earth Day 2011 - Do One Green Thing - Saving the Earth One Plastic Bag at a Time...as well as this short video with its incredible pictures of clam shells....both of which elaborate on the same appalling fact, namely that there is so much we could do to at least slow this train wreck down...but stubbornly, selfishly, stupidly don't!

Sixth Grade Doomer Contest

I did not realize this before, but every year the upscale supermarket King's, in Bernardsville, sponsors a competition.

In honor of Earth Day, members of the local 6th grade class decorate brown paper grocery bags with pictures around a theme they select, about which they also write an essay, which is stapled to the back of the bag.

There were too many entries to look at each of them, they lined the produce and dairy sections.

I was shocked at the gloominess of the images and essays.

These kids seem to be even more pessimistic than me!

I think you can see what they say especially if you click on the photograph.

Sentiments like "We were Given One Chance: Our Earth, And Now We Are About to Ruin It" and "We started this mess, We have to fix it" seem like a terrible burden on a child,

and I suspect once these kids get old enough to understand that it was not them, but rather their parents and grandparents

who started this mess and, for the most part, are refusing to sacrifice in the least to fix it

they are going to be quite justifiably furious that it is their elders who have ruined it for them.

I wonder how much of this permeates discussion around the dinner table at home.

The children obviously understand how dire our predicament is.

But do their parents? Maybe they don't have dinner at the table; maybe they're all watching the teevee.

At any rate, I don't see anything like this level of engagement reflected in the adult community.

There are no seminars, book group discussions, library displays...no debate in town governments about the enormity of our collapsing ecosystem and what we should be doing about it. I wrote to every single elected official and department of my township that had anything remotely to do with parks, trees, public health etc., and received not a single reply.

Considering the urgent need to convert to clean, renewable energy, there are almost no articles or editorials or letters in the local papers about climate change from CO2 emissions, - let alone the toxic greenhouse gases that cause ozone and kill trees. In fact, I wrote a letter to the Editor of the Bernardsville News and they refused to print it. Even more astounding, local conservation groups - URWA, NJ Conservation Society, the Willowwood Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation - assiduously ignore and downplay the gravity of climate change impacts on the environment, even though enhancing and protecting the environment is the ostensible purpose of their existence.

Of course this last depiction of vanishing trees had my vote.

The essays were even more startling. They should be legible when enlarged and I highly recommend them.

I wish I had got more, but I could only read these few that I photographed and posted here.

They are too bleak and plaintive...heartbreaking.

Were any of the shoppers snapping up gourmet items imported across oceans cognizant of the irony?

Lotto Nation

Lapsed Time

I don't think I need to point out that the pine trees in Spain are unhealthily thin.  But the sky is pure magic.

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Another Silent Scourge

An article from the Sacramento Bee so infuriated me when I saw it at the Coming Crisis, I had to repost.  It's simply outrageous that researchers have been warning for a decade that a new generation of commonly sold rat poisons are making their way up the food chain, creating a massacre that has been ignored by the federal government regulators.  In hindsight it seems obvious that would occur, but still...people who have bought such products - people like me! - should have been clearly warned that these more potent poisons take days to kill rodents, time for them to be consumed by foxes, owls, and other predators.  Actually they should be banned, because too many people wouldn't care and would use them anyway - even though the number of animals affected is staggering.  "It is an emergency, an environmental disaster."  Following is the article, in full:

Outside Palm Desert, a young bobcat dies mysteriously at a nature preserve. South of Nevada City, a farmer finds an owl dead near his decoy shed. In San Rafael, a red-shouldered hawk bleeds heavily from its mouth and nose before succumbing at an animal care center.

Each of those incidents shares a link to a widely used toxin that is turning up at dangerous levels in wildlife across California:  rat poison.

Over the years, rat poison has spared state residents untold filth and disease. But a new generation of highly toxic, long-lasting poisons is killing not only rats, mice and ground squirrels, but whatever feeds on them, too.

As a result, toxins are rippling outward from warehouses to woodlands, from golf courses and housing complexes to marshes and nature sanctuaries. In California, the victims include bobcats, barn owls, red-tailed hawks, coyotes, kit foxes, kestrels and scores of other predators and scavengers.

"Rodenticides are the new DDT," said Maggie Sergio, director of advocacy at WildCare, a Bay Area wildlife rehabilitation center that has responded to dozens of poisoning cases. "It is an emergency, an environmental disaster. We are killing nature's own rodent control."

Researchers say the federal government has been slow to respond to the problem, which has been building for more than a decade. This June, after years of study, regulations take effect nationwide banning the most toxic, long-lasting rat poisons from hardware stores, big box home improvement centers and other consumer outlets.

But many feel the move does not go far enough, since the poisons can be purchased from other sources.

"We've been collecting data forever," said Stella McMillin, an environmental scientist with the pesticide investigations unit of the California Department of Fish and Game. "They took 10 years after we knew it was a problem. It was absolutely too long."

Research by McMillin and others shows that exposure to rat poison is widespread, especially in and near urban areas where pests, people and poison mix. Around Bakersfield, 79 percent of endangered San Joaquin kit foxes tested have turned up positive for rodenticide. Near Los Angeles, 90 percent of bobcats sampled had rat poison in their blood. "Basically, when we look for it, we find it," McMillin said.

The same is true all over. Seventy percent of owls sampled in western Canada had rat poison in their livers. In New York, half of 265 birds of prey tested were positive for poison. In Great Britain, one of every two barn owls tested was contaminated.

"The truth is, it's not just across the state but across the country and across the world," said Seth Riley, a wildlife ecologist with the National Park Service whose research has linked exposure to rat poison to a rare, often fatal form of mange in bobcats in Southern California.

The poison is turning up in wilder parts of California, too, alarming scientists. One such place is the central and southern Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite National Park, where it has been discovered in the livers of a rare weasel-like carnivore, the Pacific fisher.

"They are obviously getting this poison from somewhere," said Reg Barrett, professor of wildlife management at the University of California, Berkeley. "But we don't know where.

"Even if it doesn't kill animals outright, it could predispose them to predation, accidents and all kinds of things," Barrett said. "If you're running around half-gassed from poison like this, you're probably not functioning 100 percent."

Scientists worry that exposure might impair reproduction in some species – as it did with DDT – or trigger other kinds of harm. But such research is costly and often takes years to yield results.

"There is basically no budget to do any of this," said Barrett. "It's obviously a big enough problem that somebody has got to come up with the money."

Exams:  Massive bleeding

All pesticides are potentially dangerous, of course, but rat poison is especially so because rats that eat it take days to sicken and die, making them ideal targets for predators.

"They become basically little poison pills," said Robert Hosea, an environmental scientist with the Fish and Game Department.

And once they die, their remains are toxic until they decompose. "Whatever eats them, gets it," Hosea said.

There is nothing subtle about the poison. It kills with gruesome brush strokes, robbing animals of their ability to clot blood, causing massive internal hemorrhaging. "What it does is turn your guts into soup.It's nasty stuff," said Barrett.

At a recent meeting, McMillin flashed a necropsy photo of a blood-soaked coyote across a screen. "It's hard to miss," she said. "You open it up and you have no doubt in your mind what happened."

Two tongue-twisting toxins turn up most often in wildlife: brodifacoum and bromadio-lone. On store shelves, they go by such names as D-Con, Havoc, Talon, Tomcat Ultra and Just One Bite.

Companies make the compounds super-lethal because many rats and mice have grown resistant to older poisons, such as warfarin. The new products are so toxic their use is forbidden in farm fields and restricted in and around homes, warehouses and other confined locations.

But these safeguards haven't prevented them from turning up in exceedingly wild locations, including the Sierra National Forest and Yosemite National Park, where 19 of 21 fishers sampled showed traces of rat poison - and one died from it."When I first heard about this, I thought it was a mistake," said McMillin. "Fishers live in old-growth forests. Where in the world are they getting exposed to anti-coagulants?"

The prevailing theory is it's because of marijuana farms in remote areas," she added. "In marijuana farms that are busted, there are a lot of pesticides. And obviously they are not being careful to use them legally."

The newer-generation poisons will become scarcer in June, when sales of small packets and blocks are banned. But larger bait blocks will still be available at farm stores. And licensed commercial pesticide applicators will still be able to use the stuff.

"Our hope is this will shrink the amount that is available," McMillin said. "But there is a big loophole. The homeowner who knows that the new products work a lot better can still get the products that are a problem."

Death of a bobcat kitten

Poison, of course, is not the only solution. "The biggest thing you can do to control rats and mice is, a) eliminate harborage, and b) eliminate their food supply," said Hosea. "If there is nothing for them to eat and nowhere for them to hide, they are going to be a lot more scarce."

But poison is convenient – and that's what Craig Ferrari chose when rats moved into his decoy shed outside Nevada City. Not long afterward, though, he found a dead great horned owl nearby.

"I thought to myself, I sure hope it didn't get poisoned by one of the rats," said Ferrari, a Christmas tree farmer and waterfowl enthusiast. "I'm trying to get rid of a rat, not go through the food chain."

Earlier this month, a University of California, Davis, lab tested the owl and found that it did indeed have rat poison in its liver – but not the kind Ferrari was using. McMillin, who necropsied the bird, said it likely died of starvation, not poison.

But could the rat poison have weakened it and impaired its ability to hunt? "We just don't know," she said.

Outside Palm Desert, rat poison is believed to have contributed to the death of a young bobcat at the University of California Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center last year.

The facility's director, Allan Muth, awoke on June 28 to a startling sight outside his kitchen window: a half-grown bobcat kitten, lying on its side, breathing heavily near a water tray with an adult nearby.

"It was rather poignant," Muth said. "The adult would go over and occasionally paw the juvenile as if to get it to get up and move, and it wouldn't.

"Finally, the adult turned and walked away."

By early afternoon, the young bobcat was dead. Suspicious, Muth placed it in a freezer and later sent it to UC Davis.

Last week, it was examined byAndy Engilis Jr., curator of the school's Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology.

"When we do a necropsy, generally the organs are intact and there is little blood," he said. "When I opened this animal up, it was engorged with blood. The only time I've seen that is with rodents exposed to anti-coagulant (poison). It was compelling."

To Engilis, the kitten's discovery near water was also significant. "Normally, when animals are subjected to anti-coagulant poisoning, they get real thirsty. They drink and drink and drink."