<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for NBC news ignores climate change, blows the bark beetle story]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by Wolverine http://www.grist.org/article/listen-to-the-beetles/ Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:53:55 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/listen-to-the-beetles/1 Total Conflict Of Interests

Corporate media, which is funded in large part by advertising by the auto and oil industries, has no interest in running stories that are contrary to the interests of those advertisers.  People who get their misinformation from propaganda machines like TV will never know what's really going on.

This is a great example of how the right to free speech needs to be curtailed; lies and half truths should not be allowed to be propagated through media that reaches large numbers of people.  Other countries have much better control over this, but the U.S., with its worship of free speech, allows lying under the pretext that it's free speech.

]]> Total Conflict Of Interests

Corporate media, which is funded in large part by advertising by the auto and oil industries, has no interest in running stories that are contrary to the interests of those advertisers.  People who get their misinformation from propaganda machines like TV will never know what's really going on.

This is a great example of how the right to free speech needs to be curtailed; lies and half truths should not be allowed to be propagated through media that reaches large numbers of people.  Other countries have much better control over this, but the U.S., with its worship of free speech, allows lying under the pretext that it's free speech.

]]> Comment #2 by Backcut http://www.grist.org/article/listen-to-the-beetles/ Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:24:24 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/listen-to-the-beetles/2 Ignore the story

Just like there's no mention of overstocking and preservation of "perfect bark beetle habitat".

HANDS-OFF our overstocked, unmanaged, unhealthy and unnataural forestlands! Instead, lets just burn them up and start over again. We must burn them to save them! FREE THE NATURAL CARBON!!

Scenic pics at http://Lhfotoware.blogspot.com

]]> Ignore the story

Just like there's no mention of overstocking and preservation of "perfect bark beetle habitat".

HANDS-OFF our overstocked, unmanaged, unhealthy and unnataural forestlands! Instead, lets just burn them up and start over again. We must burn them to save them! FREE THE NATURAL CARBON!!

Scenic pics at http://Lhfotoware.blogspot.com

]]> Comment #3 by Biodiversivist http://www.grist.org/article/listen-to-the-beetles/ Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:42:00 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/listen-to-the-beetles/3 Good points people

The for-profit media is not in the education business.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

]]> Good points people

The for-profit media is not in the education business.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

]]> Comment #4 by Zephaniah http://www.grist.org/article/listen-to-the-beetles/ Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:34:56 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/listen-to-the-beetles/4 (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ' ') output += "&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"; else output += unescape(l[i]); } document.getElementById('eeEncEmail_yBgKJ89Xd8').innerHTML = output; //]]>

Want to tell them what you think?  E-mail for the Nightly News with Brian Williams is (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ' ') output += "&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"; else output += unescape(l[i]); } document.getElementById('eeEncEmail_xKFdjb3mRV').innerHTML = output; //]]>

]]> (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ' ') output += "&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"; else output += unescape(l[i]); } document.getElementById('eeEncEmail_yBgKJ89Xd8').innerHTML = output; //]]>

Want to tell them what you think?  E-mail for the Nightly News with Brian Williams is (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ' ') output += "&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"; else output += unescape(l[i]); } document.getElementById('eeEncEmail_xKFdjb3mRV').innerHTML = output; //]]>

]]> Comment #5 by Backcut http://www.grist.org/article/listen-to-the-beetles/ Sat, 25 Oct 2008 23:59:58 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/listen-to-the-beetles/5 Forest complexity 101

After watching the video, I can see that they are, of course, going for the sensationlism of so many dead trees. With all the hoopla about global warming and climate change, it's pretty much a no-brainer that warmer and drier is not good for the forests. Regardless of whether man's activities are increasing temperatures or if it's a natural solar cycle (probably both!), many forests have and will be in serious decline.

Much of what you see in the video are lodgepole pines dying in vast numbers. Lodgepoles are much more drought sensitive than their distant cousins, the ponderosa pines. Lodgepoles will aggressively attempt to dominate a site by seeding in after a fire in tremendous numbers, due to their serotinous cones. Their strategy is to outgrow and shade out all other species. At their peak, they rapidly decline from competition and lack of water. Soon, bark beetles and fire come back and wipe out the old forest so that a new one can continue. Lodgepole pine has never been in much demand, as loggers and mills prefer the ponderosa pines.

On the other hand, the fire-adapted and drought-adapted ponderosa pines can thrive where lodgepole cannot maintain their stranglehold on the land. Ponderosa pines have thicker barks and well-protected buds to resist higher intensity fires better than lodgepoles, eventually shading and burning them out of their "turf".

Where the biggest danger occurs is when forests are overstocked, especially when fire has been suppressed for so long. In those overstocked forests, spindly lodgepoles have invaded into a pondersa pine overstory, putting the entire forest at risk to catastrophic wildfire.

Thinning these kinds of forests, retaining the old growth ponderosa pines, restores the forest to how the American Indians tended it. We need to tend to our forests or we will lose them, as seen in the video.

Scenic pics at http://Lhfotoware.blogspot.com

]]> Forest complexity 101

After watching the video, I can see that they are, of course, going for the sensationlism of so many dead trees. With all the hoopla about global warming and climate change, it's pretty much a no-brainer that warmer and drier is not good for the forests. Regardless of whether man's activities are increasing temperatures or if it's a natural solar cycle (probably both!), many forests have and will be in serious decline.

Much of what you see in the video are lodgepole pines dying in vast numbers. Lodgepoles are much more drought sensitive than their distant cousins, the ponderosa pines. Lodgepoles will aggressively attempt to dominate a site by seeding in after a fire in tremendous numbers, due to their serotinous cones. Their strategy is to outgrow and shade out all other species. At their peak, they rapidly decline from competition and lack of water. Soon, bark beetles and fire come back and wipe out the old forest so that a new one can continue. Lodgepole pine has never been in much demand, as loggers and mills prefer the ponderosa pines.

On the other hand, the fire-adapted and drought-adapted ponderosa pines can thrive where lodgepole cannot maintain their stranglehold on the land. Ponderosa pines have thicker barks and well-protected buds to resist higher intensity fires better than lodgepoles, eventually shading and burning them out of their "turf".

Where the biggest danger occurs is when forests are overstocked, especially when fire has been suppressed for so long. In those overstocked forests, spindly lodgepoles have invaded into a pondersa pine overstory, putting the entire forest at risk to catastrophic wildfire.

Thinning these kinds of forests, retaining the old growth ponderosa pines, restores the forest to how the American Indians tended it. We need to tend to our forests or we will lose them, as seen in the video.

Scenic pics at http://Lhfotoware.blogspot.com

]]> Comment #6 by Robco1 http://www.grist.org/article/listen-to-the-beetles/ Sun, 30 Nov 2008 01:09:06 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/listen-to-the-beetles/6 Journalistic Integrity

NBC is owned by General Electric Corp., the world's largest maker of fossil fuel turbines.

]]> Journalistic Integrity

NBC is owned by General Electric Corp., the world's largest maker of fossil fuel turbines.

]]>