witsendnj’s Recent Comments

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Steve Wineman, That was a beautifully written treatise. I have arrived at enlightenment more recently than you - until just over a year ago, I expected climate change to be a gradual, steady warming, that would confine any particularly nasty aspects to exotic locales, in the distant future. I guess, partially I was to blame for my blissful ignorance - but also, the experts were and still are pulling the punches. Only recently did they start linking Hurricane Katrina directly to climate change, before that, they pussyfooted around the connection - "oh, no particular weather event can be blamed blah blah blah" and also, the scientists by way of consensus say things like, sea levels MIGHT rise and droughts COULD occur. All of which is nonsense, they should be saying, sea levels WILL rise and droughts ARE occurring! Anyway... as an avid gardener, I began to notice that the trees were looking very sick, and I started reading up on their symptoms, and realized that for whatever reason - drought, or acid rain, or lack of snow - by the times the symptoms or wilted, singed leaves appear, they are already in irreversible decline. Irreversible. Trees are the foundation of our terrestrial ecosystem, just as coral reefs are the foundation of life in the sea - without them, all the other species that are dependent upon them will perish. I attribute the damage to vegetation to the "other" greenhouse gases - ozone and nitrous oxide pollution - although in the longer term CO2 induced warming will guarantee the collapse of many species. My observations of trees led me to read every book I could find about climate change, and I had a similar awakening as you describe. By its very definition, evolution ensures that climate change is always followed by mass extinctions, it cannot be otherwise. Species can't just migrate to cooler latitudes or altitudes and survive - if the even can migrate from their niche, they leave its shelter and food sources behind them. This is just obvious and logical, and indelibly recorded in the paleoclimatic record. "With Speed and Violence" by Fred Pearce is an excellent introduction.On Dispassion as the world ends: The absent heart of the great climate affair posted 2 days, 7 hours ago 102 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Thanks to Richard Pauli for emailing me the link to this post! It is refreshing to see that somebody is saying what needs to be said, the unvarnished truth. The comment made by Adam Sacks about how much to say to his pregnant daughter resonates with me. I have three grown daughters, and work with young parents every day. It is an intimidating task, to enlighten and prepare them without delivering the soul-crushing news that everything the expect and hope for isn't going to be. There is much ugliness ahead. For my own part I started a blog where I record my observations and document with photographs and links to scientific research, partly in an attempt to raise general awareness but also as a message to my beloved children. Someday I hope they will understand that I'm not crazy! Yesterday I came across a concept that is one I never pondered before, that of "shifting baselines". It was written about in the context of Jacques Cousteau, who began as a spear fishing enthusiast and wound up an impassioned conservationist. One of his movies was in the Mediterranean Sea, where he returned 30 years later only to find that the thriving sea life was completely gone. The idea behind shifting baselines is that people either never saw, or forgot, what the ecosystems really looked like before we humans degraded them. It is a useful notion for me because it helps explain why I seem to be just about the only person who is aware that toxic greenhouse gas emissions are poisoning the vegetation on the East Coast - and quite likely elsewhere. The leaves fell off the trees at least a month earlier than normal this fall, and nobody but me seems to have noticed. When I mention this to anyone they invariably change the subject, as though I had said nothing at all. It's quite astonishing that even scientists who acknowledge the poisonous effects of ozone and other pollutants do not recognize the damage that is being done. www.witsendnj.blogspot.comOn Dispassion as the world ends: The absent heart of the great climate affair posted 2 days, 18 hours ago 102 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  In my lifetime I have planted hundreds of trees, of many species. I stopped this year. Young seedlings and saplings are dying at the same velocity as the ancient tree. We need to clean up the air if trees and other forms of life that need to photosynthesize and produce chlorophyll are to thrive. As it is, the biomass is shrinking.On Is Freeman Dyson really "brave"? posted 6 days, 10 hours ago 20 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  There is no point in planting trees if emissions are not drastically reduced. Fossil and biofuels emit other greenhouse gases besides CO2. It's well documented that ozone is toxic to humans (cancer, emphysema and asthma) as well as vegetation. In parts of the world - certainly, where I live on the East Coast of the US - the level of invisible poisonous emissions is already lethal for trees - old and young, of every species, are dying in vast numbers. Trees are the foundation of our terrestrial ecosystem, just as coral reefs as the foundation for life in the oceans. Without them all species dependent upon their shade, lumber, fruits and nuts, and shelter, will perish in mass extinctions. The degree of denial about this is astonishing to me. I've been tracking with photographs and linking to scientific research at www.witsendnj.blogspot.comOn Is Freeman Dyson really "brave"? posted 1 week, 1 day ago 20 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  I am very concerned that ozone is killing trees and other vegetation at a rapid rate on the Eastern Seaboard of the US and perhaps other places around the globe as well. witsendnj.blogspot.com I wish somebody with more qualifications than I have would take a serious gander at the condition of trees, all of which appear to be exhibiting damage, and bring this to public attention. Trees are the foundation of our ecosystem and without them all dependent species are in peril. Not to mention, if the atmosphere is so polluted trees cannot thrive, what does that say about annual crops?

  On Climate change fueling forest fires in Europe, says Greenpeace posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago 2 Responses