Author Topic: Forests: An Endangered Resource (Read 125437 times)

morganism · « **Reply #50 on:** April 06, 2019, 12:06:03 AM »

American Trees Are Moving West, and No One Knows Why

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/go-west-my-sap/526899/

“Different species are responding to climate change differently. Most of the broad-leaf species—deciduous trees—are following moisture moving westward. The evergreen trees—the needle species—are primarily moving northward,”

Susan Anderson · « **Reply #51 on:** April 06, 2019, 10:01:16 AM »

The secret deal to destroy paradise: The story behind the single biggest threat to the rainforests of Indonesia.
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/the-secret-deal-to-destroy-paradise/

This is only a small extract, please go to the link:

Quote

The threat to the rainforests of Indonesia was very real. Since the turn of the century, only Brazil has lost more rainforest than Indonesia. One of the leading causes of this deforestation was a boom in industrial-scale plantations that began in the early 2000s. Those plantations enabled Indonesia to become the leading producer of palm oil, an edible oil used in an endless array of consumer products. But it also sparked an environmental crisis, as the carbon locked up in rainforests was released into the atmosphere.

The volume of greenhouse gas emissions from Indonesian rainforests has made it a matter of international concern. Norway has pledged $1 billion in an attempt to incentivize reforms to curb them. Since 2015, the administration of President Joko Widodo has sought to rein in the plantation industry, most recently by enacting a temporary ban on any new permits for palm plantations. Though just a small proportion of the Tanah Merah project has been developed, the permits were issued before the ban came into force, and the forest remains slated for destruction.

Today, an area larger than Manhattan has been cleared within the Tanah Merah project. This is only a fraction of the total project area. If the rest is bulldozed as planned, it will release as much emissions as Virginia produces by burning fossil fuels each year. If the giant sawmill that is today being constructed on the land is completed, it will suck in timber for years to come, settling the fate of swathes of rainforest in southern Papua.

kassy · « **Reply #52 on:** April 07, 2019, 04:45:17 PM »

Logging Is the Leading Driver of Carbon Emissions From US Forests

...

Many people are aware of the importance of protecting rainforests in Brazil to help mitigate climate change, but few realize that more logging occurs in the US, and more wood is consumed here, than in any other nation globally. The rate and scale of logging in the Southeastern US alone is four times that in South American rainforests.

...

Carbon emissions from logging in the US are ten times higher than the combined emissions from wildland fire and tree mortality from native bark beetles. Fire only consumes a minor percentage of forest carbon, while improving availability of key nutrients and stimulating rapid forest regeneration. Within a decade after fire, more carbon has been pulled out of the atmosphere than was emitted. When trees die from drought and native bark beetles, no carbon is consumed or emitted initially, and carbon emissions from decay are extremely small, and slow, while decaying wood helps keeps soils productive, which enhances carbon sequestration capacity over time.

On the other hand, industrial logging — even when conducted under the euphemism of “thinning” — results in a large net loss of forest carbon storage, and a substantial overall increase in carbon emissions that can take decades, if not a century, to recapture with regrowth. Logging also tends to make fires burn faster and more intensely while degrading a forest ecosystem’s ability to provide natural protections against extreme weather events.

Consider this: About 28 percent of tree carbon is contained in branches, and this is emitted when they are burned after logging operations. An additional 53 percent of the carbon in trees removed from forests is emitted as waste in the manufacturing and milling process. Overall, about two-thirds of the carbon in trees that are logged for lumber quickly become greenhouse gas emissions.

When trees are cut down and burned to generate “biomass” electricity under the guise of “renewable energy,” 100 percent of the carbon is emitted. Incinerating wood for energy emits evenmore CO2 than burning coal, for equal energy produced. Yet, the expansion of US production of wood pellets to fuel power stations in Europe has been spreading like wildfire across the Southeast, accelerating the destruction of some of our nation’s most ecologically-important forests and putting the health of some of the nation’s most vulnerable communities at increased risk.

...

https://truthout.org/articles/logging-is-the-leading-driver-of-carbon-emissions-from-us-forests/

gerontocrat · « **Reply #53 on:** April 25, 2019, 11:21:48 AM »

And so it goes on

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/25/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-vast-expanse-rainforest-lost-in-2018

‘Death by a thousand cuts’: vast expanse of rainforest lost in 2018

Quote

“We are nowhere near winning this battle,” said Frances Seymour from the World Resources Institute, part of the Global Forest Watch (GFW) network, which produced the analysis. “It is really tempting to celebrate a second year of decline since peak tree cover loss in 2016 but, if you look back over the last 18 years, it is clear that the overall trend is still upwards.”

I worked occasionally at creating regulations - e.g.s environmental, financial. On bad days it felt like I was simply expanding the Corruption & Bribery Opportunity Programme for politicians and Government officials.

Forestry protection is one of the worst and most dangerous. I can say that from personal experience. My guess is that in recent years Brazil has had a continuous bad day.

kassy · « **Reply #54 on:** May 16, 2019, 01:28:23 PM »

Wood wide web: Trees' social networks are mapped

Research has shown that beneath every forest and wood there is a complex underground web of roots, fungi and bacteria helping to connect trees and plants to one another.

This subterranean social network, nearly 500 million years old, has become known as the "wood wide web".

Now, an international study has produced the first global map of the "mycorrhizal fungi networks" dominating this secretive world.

Details appear in Nature journal.

...
Using millions of direct observations of trees and their symbiotic associations on the ground, the researchers could build models from the bottom up to visualise these fungal networks for the first time.

...

The research reveals how important mycorrhizal networks are to limiting climate change - and how vulnerable they are to the effects of it.

...

Mycorrhizal fungi are those that form a symbiotic relationship with plants.

There are two main groups of mycorrhizal fungi: arbuscular fungi (AM) that penetrate the hosts's roots, and ectomycorrhizal fungi (EM) which surround the tree's roots without penetrating them.

EM fungi, mostly present in temperate and boreal systems, help lock up more carbon from the atmosphere. They are more vulnerable to climate change.

AM fungi, more dominant in the tropics, promote fast carbon cycling.

According to the research, 60% of trees are connected to EM fungi, but, as temperatures rise, these fungi - and their associated tree species - will decline and be replaced by AM fungi.

"The types of fungi that support huge carbon stores in the soil are being lost and are being replaced by the ones that spew out carbon in to the atmosphere."

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48257315

vox_mundi · « **Reply #55 on:** May 16, 2019, 03:34:05 PM »

Interesting! Reminds me of the movie 'Avatar'.

Do Trees Talk to Each Other?
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-whispering-trees-180968084/

Paul Stamets: Mycillium Running
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycelium_Running

kassy · « **Reply #56 on:** June 10, 2019, 03:55:27 PM »

Argentine fossils take oak and beech family history far into Southern Hemisphere

Summary:
One of the world's most important plant families has a history extending much farther south than any live or fossil specimen previously recorded, as shown by chinquapin fruit and leaf fossils unearthed in Patagonia, Argentina, according to researchers.

....

Today, Castanopsis plays an important role in intercepting year-round mountain precipitation that delivers clean water for drinking, fishing and agriculture to more than half a billion people and sustains diverse freshwater and coastal ecosystems. However, humans are clearing these rainforests for timber, development and crop cultivation, and modern climate change is increasing droughts and fire frequency.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190606150310.htm

The science story is pretty cool but i left it out since it is not really topical.

Tom_Mazanec · « **Reply #57 on:** June 11, 2019, 07:52:57 PM »

UK sized forest area destroyed in decade:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jun/11/forest-destroyed-big-consumer-brands-greenpeace-report

nanning · « **Reply #58 on:** June 12, 2019, 08:03:23 AM »

Forests are not a resource. They are habitat and alive.

kassy · « **Reply #59 on:** June 19, 2019, 04:49:52 PM »

A New Study Finds That Cutting Down One Forest Can Make Neighboring Forests Hotter

…

Areas cleared of forests bleed heat to neighboring forests, and this fuels increases in temperatures there, new research has found. Average temperatures in forests around the world are already rising because of climate change; this leaked heat exacerbates the problem and accelerates local extinctions of forest-dwelling species.

…

What struck Sinervo was the unusually high rate of extinction in Madagascar, one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. "I was intrigued why Madagascar had a much higher observed extinction rate (of lizards) than any other [country] and I saw that Madagascar had warmed faster than mainland Africa," Sinervo says.
In Madagascar, two forest reserves analyzed in the 2010 paper reported an increase in maximum temperatures of two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and also a 75 percent rate of deforestation in adjacent areas. However, there was insufficient data at the time to investigate whether the rising forest temperatures were related to the nearby deforestation.

…

In tropical forests, the study found, loss of half of the forest cover leads to an increase of about 1.08 degrees Celsius (1.94 degrees Fahrenheit) in the land surface temperature of the adjacent forest. Based on the model, the team predicted that, in Brazil, current rates of deforestation could lead to as much as 1.45 degrees Celsius (2.61 degrees Fahrenheit) of additional warming by 2050

https://psmag.com/environment/deforestations-impacts-is-wider-than-it-appears

kassy · « **Reply #60 on:** June 25, 2019, 04:46:43 PM »

Disrupting Tropical Soil Could Be Releasing Previously Unaccounted Ancient Carbon Dioxide

Researchers investigated 19 sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo for dissolved organic carbon that had been drained into streams and rivers. As thousand-year-old soil is upturned and disrupted, they found that older dissolved organics from areas that had seen higher rates of deforestation were richer in energy and more chemically diverse.

“We estimate that while deforestation reduces the overall flux of dissolved organic carbon by approximately 56%, it does not significantly change the yield of biolabile dissolved organic carbon,” wrote the authors. “Ultimately, the exposure of deeper soil horizons through deforestation and agricultural expansion releases old, previously stable, and biolabile soil organic carbon into the modern carbon cycle via the aquatic pathway.”

Areas that have been heavily deforested were more likely to have leached organic carbon older and more biodegradable than organic carbon put off. Older, more unstable organic carbon released when the soil is upturned or disrupted. Microscopic organisms that consume released CO2 then pump it back into the atmosphere, potentially worsening impacts of the greenhouse effect.

"In many ways, this is similar to what happened in the Mississippi River Basin 100 years ago, and in the Amazon more recently," said study author Rob Spencer in a statement. "The Congo is now facing conversion of pristine lands for agriculture. We want to know what that could mean for the carbon cycle."

https://www.iflscience.com/environment/disrupting-tropical-soil-could-be-releasing-previously-unaccounted-ancient-carbon-dioxide/

gerontocrat · « **Reply #61 on:** July 03, 2019, 08:52:20 PM »

There are days when it all seems rather pointless. Bolsonaro delivering the death knell to the Amazon?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48827490
'Football pitch' of Amazon forest lost every minute

Quote

An area of Amazon rainforest roughly the size of a football pitch is now being cleared every single minute, according to satellite data. The rate of losses has accelerated as Brazil's new right-wing president favours development over conservation.

Satellite images show a sharp increase in clearances of trees over the first half of this year, since Jair Bolsonaro became president of Brazil, the country that owns most of the Amazon region. The most recent analysis suggests a staggering scale of losses over the past two months in particular, with about a hectare being cleared every minute on average.

The single biggest reason to fell trees, according to official figures, is to create new pastures for cattle, and during our visit we saw countless herds grazing on land that used to be rainforest.

What does Brazil's new policy mean?
According to a senior Brazilian environment official, the impact is so "huge" that he took the risk of giving us an unauthorised interview to bring it to the attention of the world.

We had to meet in secret and disguise his face and voice because Mr Bolsonaro has banned his environment staff from talking to the media. Over the course of three hours, a startling inside picture emerged of small, under-resourced teams of government experts passionate about saving the forest but seriously undermined by their own political masters.

bligh8 · « **Reply #62 on:** July 04, 2019, 05:34:30 PM »

Multi-year drought caused massive forest die-off in Sierra Nevada
https://phys.org/news/2019-07-multi-year-drought-massive-forest-die-off.html

The researchers warn that matters are expected to get worse as global mean temperatures increase.

“Parts of the Sierra Nevada reached a ‘tipping point’ in 2015, where annual precipitation plus stored subsurface water were not enough to meet the water demand of the forest,” Bales said.
The trees in California’s mixed-conifer mountain forests have roots that can draw water from as deep as 5 to 15 meters down, which has historically protected the trees against even the worst multiyear droughts.
But the severity of California’s 2012-2015 dry-spell “exceeded this safety margin,” the researchers said. When forest stands exhausted the subsurface moisture, they became vulnerable to attack by pests, leading to widespread tree death.

more within the article

b_lumenkraft · « **Reply #63 on:** July 04, 2019, 06:53:03 PM »

Dying forests, another positive feedback the IPCC isn't considering...

kassy · « **Reply #64 on:** July 05, 2019, 02:58:31 PM »

We have to replant billions of trees...but what tree would you replant there that stands a chance?

vox_mundi · « **Reply #65 on:** July 05, 2019, 06:49:10 PM »

Quote from: kassy on July 05, 2019, 02:58:31 PM

We have to replant billions of trees...but what tree would you replant there that stands a chance?

Sigmetnow · « **Reply #66 on:** July 20, 2019, 11:56:22 PM »

Germany′s forests on the verge of collapse, experts report | 20.07.2019
Germany’s parched forests are nearing ecological collapse, foresters and researchers warn. More than 1 million established trees have died since 2018 as a result of drought, winter storms and bark beetle plagues.

Quote

Germany's forests are undoubtedly suffering as a result of climate change, with millions of seedlings planted in the hope of diversifying and restoring forests dying, warns Ulrich Dohle, chairman of the 10,000-member Bunds Deutscher Forstleute (BDF) forestry trade union.

"It's a catastrophe. German forests are close to collapsing," Dohle added in an interview with t-online, a online news portal of Germany's Ströer media group.

Low rainfall last summer saw Germany's rivers reach extreme lows, with some waterways still struggling and forests prone to fire.

"These are no longer single unusual weather events. That is climate change," said Dohle.
...

https://www.dw.comhttp//www.dw.com/en/germanys-forests-on-the-verge-of-collapse-experts-report/a-49659810

Tom_Mazanec · « **Reply #67 on:** July 22, 2019, 05:42:17 PM »

Fighting deforestation:
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/new-initiative-aims-to-jump-start-stalled-drive-toward-zero-deforestation/ and
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/cocoa-and-gunshots-the-struggle-to-save-a-threatened-forest-in-nigeria/

Tom_Mazanec · « **Reply #68 on:** July 26, 2019, 12:45:20 AM »

New roads in Papau New Guinea endanger forests:
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/new-roads-in-papua-new-guinea-may-cause-quantum-leap-in-forest-loss/

vox_mundi · « **Reply #69 on:** July 26, 2019, 12:54:57 AM »

Amazon Deforestation Accelerating Towards Unrecoverable 'Tipping Point'
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/25/amazonian-rainforest-near-unrecoverable-tipping-point

Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has surged above three football fields a minute, according to the latest government data, pushing the world’s biggest rainforest closer to a tipping point beyond which it cannot recover.

The sharp rise – following year-on-year increases in May and June – confirms fears that president Jair Bolsonaro has given a green light to illegal land invasion, logging and burning.

The steady erosion of tree cover weakens the role of the rainforest in stabilising the global climate. Scientists warn that the forest is in growing danger of degrading into a savannah, after which its capacity to absorb carbon will be severely diminished, with consequences for the rest of the planet.

...There are a number of tipping points which are not far away,” said Philip Fearnside, a professor at Brazil’s National Institute of Amazonian Research. “We can’t see exactly where they are, but we know they are very close. It means we have to do things right away. Unfortunately that is not what is happening. There are people denying we even have a problem.”

Tom_Mazanec · « **Reply #70 on:** July 29, 2019, 09:58:51 PM »

Canadian rainforest deforestation:
https://thenarwhal.ca/canadas-forgotten-rainforest/
and charred forests are not growing back in the hotter weather:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/charred-forests-not-growing-back-as-expected-in-pacific-northwest-researchers-say-1.5225825

nanning · « **Reply #71 on:** July 30, 2019, 04:51:11 AM »

Quote from: Tom_Mazanec on July 29, 2019, 09:58:51 PM

<snippage>
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/charred-forests-not-growing-back-as-expected-in-pacific-northwest-researchers-say-1.5225825

From the article:

Quote

Right now, upwards of 300 million trees are being planted in B.C. annually, a significant portion of it designated for areas that have previously burned. But Aitken says the fertility of landscape is inconsistent, as dry heat in some areas has stripped the soil of its ability to support trees.

"Some areas will likely convert from being forests to being more like grasslands at those very dry margins at the extent of the forest," she said.

Tom_Mazanec · « **Reply #72 on:** August 02, 2019, 01:11:43 AM »

Tree planting needs to happen fast:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-47541491
Northern tree demographics changing from AGW:
https://www.miragenews.com/climate-change-alters-tree-demography-in-northern-forests/
AGW causing "ghost forests";
https://www.coastalreview.org/2019/07/visible-change-alligator-river-ghost-forests/

Tom_Mazanec · « **Reply #73 on:** August 09, 2019, 01:54:42 AM »

California proposes punishing companies which damage planet's forests:
https://www.propublica.org/article/proposed-california-law-would-punish-companies-for-failing-to-limit-harm-to-the-planets-forests

vox_mundi · « **Reply #74 on:** August 09, 2019, 07:09:40 PM »

Future of Amazon Deforestation Data in Doubt as Research Head Sacked
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/future-of-amazon-deforestation-data-in-doubt-as-research-head-sacked/

The Brazilian government and the world have relied on the INPE (Brazilian National Institute of Space Research) satellite monitoring system to track deforestation since 1988, without controversy. INPE’s data gathering program has been hailed as one of the best such operations in the tropics.

However, after INPE reported a major uptick in the rate of Brazilian Amazon deforestation in June and July 2019, as compared with the same months in 2018, the Bolsonaro administration responded angrily by accusing the agency of manipulating data, of lying, and of being in conspiracy with international NGOs.

On August 2, the president fired Ricardo Magnus Osório Galvão, the head of INPE, leaving officials inside the institution concerned for the future of the satellite monitoring program. The government has repeatedly said it plans to develop a costly, privatized deforestation tracking system which would replace INPE.

Galvão’s removal triggered an outcry from scientists, NGOs and Brazilian federal prosecutors who are concerned over the threat to the future accuracy of Amazon deforestation monitoring. The Bolsonaro administration plans to announce a replacement shortly.

nanning · « **Reply #75 on:** August 10, 2019, 03:55:53 AM »

Everywhere the evil lackeys pop up. Champions of hell.
To them it's "Forests: Nothing more than a resource".
This over-indulging is sickening.

A real leader would say "Hey, there's not that much left and we still need to go a long way. Let's be cautious and restrain ourselves".

TerryM · « **Reply #76 on:** August 10, 2019, 08:28:07 AM »

Quote from: nanning on August 10, 2019, 03:55:53 AM

Everywhere the evil lackeys pop up. Champions of hell.
To them it's "Forests: Nothing more than a resource".
This over-indulging is sickening.

A real leader would say "Hey, there's not that much left and we still need to go a long way. Let's be cautious and restrain ourselves".

We could pelletize the old growth rainforests, ship the pellets to Ireland to be mixed with peat, then sell our green product in Southern Australia as an alternative to Methane - which we'd demand that the oil companies flare off on site!

Jose O-learys Leprechaun Kissed Peat Pellets.
The cleanest fuel this side of a Rainforest's Rainbow!
Sold in a fully biodegradable 1 kilo pack made from a genuine faux kangaroo pouch.

We'll be rich nanning. Rich on subsidies from all over the World!
We'd could even paint our jets green.
Terry

gerontocrat · « **Reply #77 on:** August 10, 2019, 09:53:08 AM »

Mass destruction of the Amazon now underway, and this is just the beginning.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/07/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-exploded-july-data

Bolsonaro rejects 'Captain Chainsaw' label as data shows deforestation 'exploded'
Data says 2,254 sq km cleared in July as president says Macron and Merkel ‘haven’t realized Brazil’s under new management’

Quote

According to a report in the Estado de São Paulo newspaper, Amazon destruction “exploded” in July with an estimated 2,254 sq km (870 sq miles) of forest cleared, according to preliminary data gathered by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, the government agency that monitors deforestation.

That is an area about half the size of Philadelphia and reportedly represents a 278% rise on the 596.6 sq km destroyed in July last year.

“It’s almost as if a licence to deforest illegally and with impunity has been given, now that you have the [environmental] inspection and control teams being attacked by no less than the president of the republic and the environment minister,”

In recent weeks the globally respected National Institute for Space Research has found itself at the eye of a political storm as a result of the inconvenient truths revealed by its data.

Earlier this month, with alarm growing about the consequences of the intensifying assault on the Amazon, its director, Ricardo Galvão, was sacked after contesting Bolsonaro’s “pusillanimous” claims he was peddling lies about the state of the Amazon.

Galvão’s successor, the air force colonel Darcton Policarpo Damião, looks set to follow a more Bolsonarian line. In an interview this week Damião said he was not convinced global heating was a manmade phenomenon and called such matters “not my cup of tea”.

Pope Francis – who is preparing to host a special synod on the Amazon in October – has also incurred Bolsonaro’s wrath on the environment.

In June the Argentinian leader of the Catholic church questioned “the blind and destructive mentality” of those seeking to profit from the world’s biggest rainforest. “What is happening in Amazonia will have repercussions at a global level,” he warned.

Asked about those comments, Bolsonaro offered a characteristically unvarnished response, suggesting they reflected an international conspiracy to commandeer the Amazon.

“Brazil is the virgin that every foreign pervert wants to get their hands on,” Bolsonaro said.

El Cid · « **Reply #78 on:** August 10, 2019, 10:15:09 AM »

And now - as a forest owner and tree-planter - let me add some good news:

"Between 1990 and 2015, the area covered by forests and woodlands increased by 90,000 square kilometres - an area roughly the size of Portugal in the EU". The EU has strong policies to increase the size of its forests and it's working.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/07/forest-europe-environment/
https://www.economist.com/europe/2019/07/18/why-frances-forests-are-getting-bigger?fsrc=scn/li/te/bl/ed/whyfrancesforestsaregettingbiggergallicshrubs

nanning · « **Reply #79 on:** August 10, 2019, 12:25:17 PM »

Quote from: TerryM on August 10, 2019, 08:28:07 AM

We'll be rich nanning. Rich on subsidies from all over the World!
We'd could even paint our jets green.
Terry

Had to L.O.L. there

Tom_Mazanec · « **Reply #80 on:** August 10, 2019, 08:12:15 PM »

UN says deforestation must stop. 15 billion trees a year are cut down. Of all the land-use-related carbon dioxide emissions between 2007 and 2016—between 2.6 and 7.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide yearly—most of it comes from deforestation:
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/08/planting-trees-is-good-eliminating-deforestation-is-better/

TerryM · « **Reply #81 on:** August 10, 2019, 11:34:27 PM »

Quote from: nanning on August 10, 2019, 12:25:17 PM

Quote from: TerryM on August 10, 2019, 08:28:07 AM
We'll be rich nanning. Rich on subsidies from all over the World!
We'd could even paint our jets green.
Terry
Had to L.O.L. there

Is this a "NO"?

Will you willingly pass on this offer to save Australia from the desertification that burning ff's inflicts?
Will you pass on this opportunity to ennoble generations of Impoverished Irish Peat cutters?
Are you denying Brazilian Bulldozer Braceros their final chance at "greening up" their image?

Alas Laddie, I'll miss your companionship as I doff my Paddy Green Top-Hat to supplicants lining the streets of Brasilia, Dublin and Sydney.

Your name will never be writ large on that Shale/Slate containing the names of the wondrous wordsmiths who changed the venial into the virtuous, simply by the alchemy of re-branding our overlords as Glorious Greentocratic Governors.

Terry

nanning · « **Reply #82 on:** August 11, 2019, 07:15:32 AM »

Quote from: TerryM on August 10, 2019, 11:34:27 PM

Is this a "NO"?
<snip>

I'm sorry, great ideas but yes.

I have another idea:

You could paint pellets, bullets and bombs green and start a green war. Terry's certified green pellets. "Shoot, kill and save the planet".
Wars make a lot of money I've heard.
Throw in some gimmicks for PR/marketing. A flamethrower with green flames? Radiumbombs?
There's more money to be made.

You'll get a statue I'm sure.

Best of luck with your endeavours Terry and sorry you have to go it alone. I'm very bad at lying

TerryM · « **Reply #83 on:** August 11, 2019, 02:20:19 PM »

Quote from: nanning on August 11, 2019, 07:15:32 AM

<snipp-ed>
Best of luck with your endeavours Terry and sorry you have to go it alone. I'm very bad at ~~lying~~ dissembling in the face of disturbing data that, if unchallenged, could have negated the very crux of our carefully constructed narrative.

Fixed it

Terry

vox_mundi · « **Reply #84 on:** August 12, 2019, 06:53:22 PM »

New Study Shows Impact of Large Scale Tree Death on Carbon Storage
https://phys.org/news/2019-08-impact-largescale-tree-death-carbon.html

Largescale 'disturbances', including fires, harvesting, windstorms and insect outbreaks, which kill large patches of forest, are responsible for more than a tenth of tree death worldwide, according to new research at the University of Birmingham

Researchers in the Institute for Forest Research (BIFoR) at the University of Birmingham studied satellite-based observations of forest lost between 2000 and 2014, and assessed the typical time interval between large disturbance events across the world's forests.

The team then used a computational model to calculate the impact of these events on tree deaths—measured as the amount of carbon stored in the wood of dead trees—and found that they accounted for 12 per cent of tree death overall. Their simulations showed how even small changes to the frequency of large-scale disturbances can have a significant effect on forest carbon stocks in 44 per cent of the world's dense forests.

Important role of forest disturbances in the global biomass turnover and carbon sinks, Nature Geoscience (2019).

TerryM · « **Reply #85 on:** August 12, 2019, 10:26:55 PM »

^^
We must Save our Forests to Pelletize our Future!

Without Pellets & Peat we'll never be able to monetize our mission of Providing Power without Penitence.

Power to the People through Pellets and Peat!!

Sales districts now available IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD for little or no low upfront costs.

"Ask not what your Forest can do to you, Ask what you can do to your Forest!"

operators now standing by for your call at Pedro O-Leary's Greenery.
call now to receive a genuine faux kangaroo Pellet Pouch!

Corporations that Lay together hunt Prey together - we still have openings for novice postulants between the ages of 16 and 20 - Buxom Scandinavian Beauties are given preference, but you too may share a night at our very well appointed Cloistery.

Thanks for your Pennys and your Prey
Pedro de Pedo

Tom_Mazanec · « **Reply #86 on:** August 13, 2019, 02:16:22 AM »

Bolsonaro: No need for German money to combat deforestation
Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said on Tuesday that roughly 2,254 square kilometres (870 square miles) of the Amazon were cleared in July, a spike of 278 percent from a year earlier.
https://www.france24.com/en/20190811-no-need-german-amazon-subsidy-brazils-bolsonaro
Tree damaging pests pose devastating damage to 40% of US forests (450 of them imported):
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/12/us-forests-pests-risk-climate-crisis-resource

nanning · « **Reply #87 on:** August 13, 2019, 10:44:46 AM »

Tree-damaging pests pose ‘devastating’ threat to 40% of US forests

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/12/us-forests-pests-risk-climate-crisis-resource

Some excerpts:

Tree-damaging pests have already destroyed swathes of US woodland, with the American chestnut virtually wiped out by a fungal disease and elms blighted by Dutch elm disease. About 450 overseas pests that damage or feed on trees have been introduced to US forests due to the growth in international trade and travel.

A PNAS-published study of the 15 most damaging non-native forest pests has found that they destroy so many trees that about 6m tons of carbon are expelled each year from the dying plants. This is the equivalent, researchers say, of adding an extra 4.6m cars to the roads every year in terms of the release of planet-warming gases.

Together, these maladies pose a growing threat to US forests that are coming under increasing strain from rising temperatures and altered rainfall and wildfire patterns, particularly in the west of the country, due to global heating.

There are an estimated 6bn dead trees standing in the US west, with more trees now dying due to disease, insects and wildfire than are being felled for wood products.

Tom_Mazanec · « **Reply #88 on:** August 14, 2019, 11:48:44 PM »

Satellite data show the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve lost more than 10 percent of its tree cover between 2001 and 2017, more than a third of which happened within the last three years of that time period. Preliminary data for 2019 indicate Río Plátano is experiencing another heavy round of forest loss this year, with UMD recording around 160,000 deforestation alerts in the reserve between January and August, which appears to be an uptick from the same period in 2018.
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/rainforest-destruction-accelerates-in-honduras-unesco-site/

vox_mundi · « **Reply #89 on:** August 15, 2019, 03:17:00 PM »

If you understand the science of this - this is VERY BAD!

--------------

Research: Link Between Increased Atmospheric Vapor Deficit and Worldwide Loss of Vegetation
https://phys.org/news/2019-08-link-atmospheric-vapor-deficit-worldwide.html

Scientists have been studying the possible repercussions of global warming for several years, and suggest it is likely to lead not only to warmer temperatures, but also changes to weather patterns. One such weather change not often mentioned is VPD, which is the difference in air pressure due to water vapor during fully saturated times versus times when it unsaturated. When VPD is increasing, there is less water in the air. VPD is important because of its impact on plants. When VPD rises a certain amount, plants react by closing their stomata, the pores in their leaves, to prevent water loss. But this also shuts down the release of oxygen and the absorption of carbon dioxide—partially shutting down photosynthesis and slowing growth. In this new effort, the researchers wondered if there might be a connection between observed losses of vegetation worldwide and changes to VPD in some parts of the world.

To find out, the researchers obtained datasets that included observation information from across the globe going all the way back to the 1950s. When focusing on VPD, they found that prior to the 1990s, VPD increased only slightly. But after 1998, the VPD grew quite dramatically—by up to 17 times over the next several years in some places, and it remained at those levels. They also found that over half of all vegetated land on the planet experienced a rise in VPD. The researchers also found that the upswing in VPD occurred in lockstep with the rise in global temperatures and the decrease in worldwide vegetative cover. They suggest that global warming is pushing VPD ever higher, resulting in more loss of vegetation—and because the planet is growing hotter, they predict that VPD will continue to increase, as well, resulting in diminishing vegetative cover.

Fig. 1 Global mean vapor pressure deficit (VPD) anomalies of vegetated area over the growing season

Open Access: Wenping Yuan et al. Increased atmospheric vapor pressure deficit reduces global vegetation growth, Science Advances (2019).

TerryM · « **Reply #90 on:** August 15, 2019, 07:51:50 PM »

Quote from: Tom_Mazanec on August 14, 2019, 11:48:44 PM

Satellite data show the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve lost more than 10 percent of its tree cover between 2001 and 2017, more than a third of which happened within the last three years of that time period. Preliminary data for 2019 indicate Río Plátano is experiencing another heavy round of forest loss this year, with UMD recording around 160,000 deforestation alerts in the reserve between January and August, which appears to be an uptick from the same period in 2018.
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/rainforest-destruction-accelerates-in-honduras-unesco-site/

WOW!
Drug gangs run by the new President - Rainforest Destruction - Torture and Death Squads
No wonder we supported the Coup!

Long Live Maduros
Long Live the Revolution
Long Live Venezuela
oh &
Viva Cuba

Honduras is Toast
Terry

Mozi · « **Reply #91 on:** August 15, 2019, 09:01:20 PM »

You're aware that Maduro's family and friends are directly implicated in major drug trafficking schemes as well, of course.

TerryM · « **Reply #92 on:** August 15, 2019, 10:53:08 PM »

Quote from: Mozi on August 15, 2019, 09:01:20 PM

You're aware that Maduro's family and friends are directly implicated in major drug trafficking schemes as well, of course.

Sure they are.
That's probably why the UK won't return the country's deposited bullion.
Terry

rboyd · « **Reply #93 on:** August 19, 2019, 08:37:56 PM »

Race to save the rainforest - Why replacing cocaine barons with cattle ranchers is destroying the Amazon

Quote

Colombia’s great Amazon rainforest – a ‘vital lung’ of the planet – is being cleared for grazing cattle by an area bigger than Los Angeles every year

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/amazon-deforestation-in-colombia/

So we have the elites of Honduras, Brazil and Colombia happily wiping out the vast carbon sink we call the rain forest.

And Peru...

Record levels of deforestation in Peruvian Amazon as gold mines spread

https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/record-levels-of-deforestation-in-peruvian-amazon-as-gold-mines-spreads/

And words, but seemingly no real actions in Indonesia...

Indonesia forest-clearing ban is made permanent, but labeled ‘propaganda’

https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/indonesia-forest-clearing-ban-is-made-permanent-but-labeled-propaganda/

Once these levels of deforestation get properly figured into the emissions figures (under the Land Use and Land Cover changes category) it will make it even harder to reduce reported emissions.

sidd · « **Reply #94 on:** August 19, 2019, 09:35:20 PM »

Repost to fix error in subject:

I just returned from a trip out west, Yellowstone seems to be recovering a little from the beetle attack. I was there two years ago and was shocked by the extent of damage. This time the trees seem to be coming back. I also see a few deciduous trees appearing at higher elevations than before. This leads me to believe that we are going to see an evolution of yellowstone/grand tetons into a mixed forest.

sidd

blumenkraft · « **Reply #95 on:** August 19, 2019, 09:40:53 PM »

Glad to have you back, Sidd!

TerryM · « **Reply #96 on:** August 19, 2019, 10:32:39 PM »

sidd

Wonderful that you're back!!

Many here were concerned.
Terry

oren · « **Reply #97 on:** August 19, 2019, 11:06:15 PM »

Quote from: blumenkraft on August 19, 2019, 09:40:53 PM

Glad to have you back, Sidd!

Same here.

nanning · « **Reply #98 on:** August 20, 2019, 06:36:15 AM »

Same here.
Only yesterday I almost made a post inquiring whether you had left, and here you are!

sidd · « **Reply #99 on:** August 20, 2019, 08:05:03 AM »

No, happy to report i not be dead yet. Just had very small or nonexistent bandwidth forawhile.

From what I saw, the beetle spread in yellowstone/teton seems abated to some extent from a couple years ago. East yellowstone was the most seriously affected then, but is better. I got into the backcountry forabit, same story, the trees seem better. Good.

Sorta reminds me of the gipsy moths in Pennsylvania a decade or two ago. Forabit it looked like they would eat the whole thing and come west into ohio but they quit.

sidd

News:

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