If the worthless politicos were out “stumping” to save earth, instead of self servicing, things would not be as devastating as they are endlessly getting.
Climate change has been ongoing for billions of years. For most of that time, Earth has been warmer than it is now. Life adapts. We must adapt to the new reality and stop fighting. The odds that humans are mostly to blame are low. Deforestation is a problem, everywhere but the USA and Canada. Canada is still entirely infested with trees. The wind turbines China is building are made with massive pollution in extracting and refining the rare earth minerals needed for the magnets for the towers. There are lakes of toxic sludge in China because of it, yet econutz will kumbayah over wind turbines, not caring about the environmental cost of making them.
Over 90% of America’s original forests have been harvested. Trees that take 600-3,000 years to mature are gone, and now cutting cycles are down to 50 years of less. A lot of second growth timber is simply junk, no strength, no quality.
World wide, problems are worse, things like palm oil, and livestock grazing are part of the problem, a large part.
Trees ARE in trouble, around the world, like most “renewable resources”, that have been beaten to death, and are NOT renewing due to modern practices and tools.
It’s a great read (and SO TRUE!); but Fred’s a johnny-come-lately when compared with the likes of Fouad Ajami, who was telling us the same things as far back as 2000 just after the attack on the USS Cole. ISTR him warning us that Osama Bin Ladin was mad at us for “meddling” in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and that he was perfectly capable of doing far nastier things with his zealot’s rage and his daddy’s money. That wasn’t prophesy, that was simple analysis.
The Forbes article doesn’t seem to match with the data for sea ice extent from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. They use as base line the average from 1981 to 2010, and they then list year-by-year anomalies per month, first for the Northern Hemisphere, then from the Southern Hemisphere, and then combined to give a global figure. The reduction in the Northern Hemisphere July figures is pretty significant: +8.05 in 1979 to –9.49 in 2015, with a general trend towards negative anomalies over the period. The Southern Hemisphere July figures show a slight increase, from +2.37 in 1979 to +3.77 in 2015. The global figures for July are +4.48 in 1979 to -1.15 in 2015 (-1.894% per decade). Each month has different figures, however, and the January global figures are rather closer, though the trend is still downwards (at -1.02% per decade). Overall the figures don’t support the Forbes article. (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/snow-and-ice/extent/).
NeedaChuckle Premium Member over 8 years ago
There are 3 trillion trees.
Theodore E. Lind Premium Member over 8 years ago
How many are there supposed to be? How many were there 100 years ago?
SHAKENDOWN over 8 years ago
If the worthless politicos were out “stumping” to save earth, instead of self servicing, things would not be as devastating as they are endlessly getting.
hawgowar over 8 years ago
Climate change has been ongoing for billions of years. For most of that time, Earth has been warmer than it is now. Life adapts. We must adapt to the new reality and stop fighting. The odds that humans are mostly to blame are low. Deforestation is a problem, everywhere but the USA and Canada. Canada is still entirely infested with trees. The wind turbines China is building are made with massive pollution in extracting and refining the rare earth minerals needed for the magnets for the towers. There are lakes of toxic sludge in China because of it, yet econutz will kumbayah over wind turbines, not caring about the environmental cost of making them.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_temperature_record
Dtroutma over 8 years ago
Over 90% of America’s original forests have been harvested. Trees that take 600-3,000 years to mature are gone, and now cutting cycles are down to 50 years of less. A lot of second growth timber is simply junk, no strength, no quality.
World wide, problems are worse, things like palm oil, and livestock grazing are part of the problem, a large part.
Trees ARE in trouble, around the world, like most “renewable resources”, that have been beaten to death, and are NOT renewing due to modern practices and tools.
reynard61 over 8 years ago
It’s a great read (and SO TRUE!); but Fred’s a johnny-come-lately when compared with the likes of Fouad Ajami, who was telling us the same things as far back as 2000 just after the attack on the USS Cole. ISTR him warning us that Osama Bin Ladin was mad at us for “meddling” in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and that he was perfectly capable of doing far nastier things with his zealot’s rage and his daddy’s money. That wasn’t prophesy, that was simple analysis.
lonecat over 8 years ago
The Forbes article doesn’t seem to match with the data for sea ice extent from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. They use as base line the average from 1981 to 2010, and they then list year-by-year anomalies per month, first for the Northern Hemisphere, then from the Southern Hemisphere, and then combined to give a global figure. The reduction in the Northern Hemisphere July figures is pretty significant: +8.05 in 1979 to –9.49 in 2015, with a general trend towards negative anomalies over the period. The Southern Hemisphere July figures show a slight increase, from +2.37 in 1979 to +3.77 in 2015. The global figures for July are +4.48 in 1979 to -1.15 in 2015 (-1.894% per decade). Each month has different figures, however, and the January global figures are rather closer, though the trend is still downwards (at -1.02% per decade). Overall the figures don’t support the Forbes article. (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/snow-and-ice/extent/).