Climate change dulls fall foliage.
By on Oct 20th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Climate change dulls fall foliage.
Forested hillsides in New England are usually “riotous with reds, oranges and yellows” at this time of the season. But many trees are now “going straight from the dull green of late summer to the rust-brown of late fall with barely a stop at a brighter hue.” According to the National Weather Service, temperatures in Burlington, VT, have “run above the 30-year averages in every September and October for the past four years, save for October 2004, when they were 0.2 degrees below average.”
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What’s good for business is good for America. As long as conservs can fill up their SUV’s, who cares about losing another legacy for future generations? Those trees are just in the way of a strip mall anyway.
Sigh.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:01 pmHave seen the same thing here in Washington state…..Late July brought out a quick seasonal change by the trees and insect’s….Winter type changes of ground bees and spiders was evident in the morning and evening’s…….Leaves were changing and dropping 2 month’s early and all vegitation showed stress……We are in for a huge change…Any one that think’s that global warming is bunk isn’t paying attention….Blessings
October 20th, 2007 at 1:03 pmTell this to Rush Limbaugh and you will get a lecture on the “Gore’s conspiracy about global warming”….
October 20th, 2007 at 1:11 pmBill Clinton did it.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:11 pmI believe in global warming but using it as an excuse for the dull foliage is poor reporting and wrong. I live in New England. The primary reason for the dull foliage is the dry summer we had. This summer’s rainfall has been below average. The summer was mild. We did not have a long stretch of hot weather. We haven’t had much rain.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:16 pmAnd why do you suppose that is, zak? Could it be abnormal weather patterns? Have you been paying attention to what’s been going on in other parts of the country? The climate’s out of whack and if we don’t do anything, it’s only going to get worse.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:18 pmGee, puppy blood is no longer enough for Darth Cheney, he has started to suck all the color out of the leaves. Keep yer garlic and holy water by yer bedside I say….
/snark off
October 20th, 2007 at 1:20 pmHere is some Saturday reading for The World is Flat and Hot Society…
Gore won’t run in 08 because he’s working on a new book so he can fleece more money out of you Koolaid Kiddies.
Can the huge claimed consensus on CO2 and global warming possibly be wrong?
October 20th, 2007 at 1:24 pmTrees here in Bucks County, Pennsylvania are dying at an alarming pace. Something I’ve never seen before in my 45 years here. Many have already lost their leaves, and it isn’t because of the Fall, since it’s consistently been between 70 and 80 degrees here. It’s because they are dying.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:26 pmThe climate’s out of whack and if we don’t do anything, it’s only going to get worse.
Comment by TheToonGuy — October 20, 2007 @ 1:18 pm
I’ve got to go with zak on this one. Yes the climate is out of whack and its getting worse, but this single year of “rust-brown” foliage proves little. Besides, there’s really no reason that we have to point to foliage as evidence for global warming when pictures like this exist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Instrumental_Temperature_Record.png
October 20th, 2007 at 1:26 pmSpeaking of puppy blood…
October 20th, 2007 at 1:26 pmI believe in global warming but using it as an excuse for the dull foliage is poor reporting and wrong. I live in New England. The primary reason for the dull foliage is the dry summer we had. This summer’s rainfall has been below average. The summer was mild. We did not have a long stretch of hot weather. We haven’t had much rain.
Comment by zak — October 20, 2007 @ 1:16 pm
With all due respect, please don’t conflate two different phenomena. Neither the TP item above nor the article to which it linked used the term “global warming”. And only the news article even mentioned “climate change”, which is the real issue. The problem wasn’t excessive heat in New England but rather a lack of sufficient cold. The cold weather is needed for the leaf-changing process to proceed more predictably. Without it, the peak color arrives later (if at all), and this can disrupt the tourist industry (upon which many people depend for their livelihood.)
October 20th, 2007 at 1:28 pmGore won’t run in 08 because he’s working on a new book so he can fleece more money out of you Koolaid Kiddies.
Can the huge claimed consensus on CO2 and global warming possibly be wrong?
Comment by muckdog — October 20, 2007 @ 1:24 pm
how ridiculous. If Gore wanted to fleece the people, he’d run for president and foloow Bush’s example of robbing from the poor to enrich the already fat. Your dumbass pretzeldent has created more debt than all other presidents combined. You still the stupidest troll here, suckdog. Good boy.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:32 pmI expect the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to no water in Atlanta will be very similar to their response to an abundance of water in New Orleans.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:33 pmI love how suckdog’s oil industry apologists finish off their idiotic bullshit with Gore’s “draconian measures”. What pussies these rightards are.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:36 pmWhat kind of cretin goes to the Western Fuels Association site that is funded by Exxon for information on climate science? Oh, yes! A conservative!
World Climate Report, a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels, was produced by the Greening Earth Society,[1] a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association.[2] Early editions were paper based; it then transferred to web-only. It appears to have ceased publication as a “report” with volume 8 in 2002. It appears to have re-invented itself in “blog” format at http://www.worldclimatereport.com
October 20th, 2007 at 1:38 pmI expect the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to no water in Atlanta will be very similar to their response to an abundance of water in New Orleans.
Comment by Clumberfeet — October 20, 2007 @ 1:33 pm
I suspect they’ll let the market forces sort it out…if people in Atlanta really need water, they can move to NO.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:41 pmWorld Climate Report, a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels, was produced by the Greening Earth Society,[1] a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association.[2] Early editions were paper based; it then transferred to web-only. It appears to have ceased publication as a “report†with volume 8 in 2002. It appears to have re-invented itself in “blog†format at http://www.worldclimatereport.com
Comment by LD.50 — October 20, 2007 @ 1:38 pm
more repuke, antiAmerican Koolaid for the braindead like suckdog.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:42 pmThere is no need to namecall. He’s wearing a big sign on his forehead with a large “L” and it doesn’t stand for “liberal”. On his back he’s got another sign that says, “Kick me! I’m a conservative!”
Here, muckdog, read this: Why I Am Not a Conservative
by F. A. Hayek/1960
http://www.fahayek.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46
Then come back and we can point at you and laugh because you are now a “Libertarian” of the Austrian School. Otherwise known as a paleoconservative. Almost as old as the dinosaurs and just as extinct!
October 20th, 2007 at 1:50 pm“Only about half of the Alder leaves on my 21 acres have turned and fallen…”
Comment by Billy Hill
So, is that a good crop, or just average?
October 20th, 2007 at 2:05 pmDo you smoke them straight up, or have to cure them any further?
Well hill billy, clearly you have been smoking it……
October 20th, 2007 at 2:13 pmThats your lesson for today kiddy’s!
Comment by Billy Hill — October 20, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
21 acres? IN YOUUR DREAMS!!!
(Mom’s basement probably isn’t anymore than 800 sq foot. Double wides don’t have much of a footprint, Hilly Billy… and it’s really not a basement, either, just a crawl space. Mom just let’s you call it “the basement” so it’s not even more embarrassing…)
October 20th, 2007 at 2:13 pmIf you REALLY do live here you know each of the above places have distinctly different climates….one of the rarest places on the earth….shore line, high mountains, rain forests, high desert, low desert all with in a 300 mile radius. Thats your lesson for today kiddy’s!
Comment by Billy Hill — October 20, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
And, as usual, the meth has scrambled what’s left of your tiny little brain. Since you live in a microclimate, your results are atypical, and statistically meaningless, like your posts. Thanks for nothing.
October 20th, 2007 at 2:14 pmGlobal warming will end as soon as we burn up the remaining oil, which will probably happen in the next twenty or thirty years… Just search on “peak oil” and read up on the soon-coming-to-your -neighborhood: no more gasoline…
Global warming will be the least of our problems then…
People need to start reproducing less…
October 20th, 2007 at 2:20 pm“Global warming will end as soon as we burn up the remaining oil”
Nah. You just go back to horses and then there will be methane from horse farts. Then there is all that coal still to burn for electricity.
Solve Global Warming! Burn conservatives! They are as warm as a dead fish anyway!
October 20th, 2007 at 2:26 pmSpot on Oval, Untill people limit their reproduction and conserve use of all resources our stay on and life expectancy of our planet is in jepordy…..Water is going to be a bigger issue than oil very soon….The world can resort to walking or bike peddeling but nothing will survive with out water.. Nothing…..Blessings all.
October 20th, 2007 at 2:30 pmFuny… I’m under the distinct impression things are ‘redder’ in Nor Cal this year. I was out for a walk last week and I was impressed w/ how much the foliage had already turned on the street I was walking down.
It’s also started raining early this yr. Don’t knnow what it means, but it is happening.
October 20th, 2007 at 2:32 pmJames, if we think the previous wars over resources and territory were bad, we ain’t seen nothing yet. Everything we do every day involves the use of oil. We’re not just dependent on oil for our cars – it’s our food supply, lights, water pumps, manufacturing, internet, cooking, clothing, communications. It’s a frightening scenario, and it’s not science fiction. I think I’ve read we have 40 years of sustainable oil left. Once it begins to decline, we are headed toward a permanent state that will be very different from what the world now knows.
This is not about global warming – it’s about the loss of a finite, unrenewable resource that the world depends on for everything.
October 20th, 2007 at 2:39 pmLOL.Hit the link folk’s…A snap shot of hill bill, a pussy with a gun….
October 20th, 2007 at 2:56 pmNew England is a unique ecosystem, and trying to relate botanical and ecological trends with anywhere else, especially the West and Pacific Northwest, is like trying to equate hillbillys with modern humans.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:09 pmHere in Portland, Oregon, we have actually had a remarkably cool summer and a much cooler and earlier Fall. Unlike the NE, we’re having a bumper crop of fall color, one of the more lovely autumns I can remember. Only the oaks went right from green to brown, and that’s normal because oaks seem to need really cold snaps in order to produce colorful foliage and cold snaps like that never happen here.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:10 pmHey hillbilly and suckpuppy. Why dont you tell us how the planets heating up because that’s the way Jebus wants it so when the rapture comes for you loons the rest of us will be left on an inhospitable planet?
October 20th, 2007 at 3:33 pmHere in Chicago it’s been 90 plus degrees in October and the leaves haven’t gotten any noticable change in color. Just some uninteresting browns and a little falling. Not exactly the usual fall weather around here.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:35 pmThere used to be some real resistance on these global warming threads. Now we just get a few whimpers from muckdog. Throw in the towel, dog, nobody believes the big oil propaganda anymore.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:54 pmJust a note to say that we’re bot necessarily doomed: the yearly inflow of energy to the Earth from the sun is 175 petawatts, or 175 million gigawatts (175 billion megawatts) of energy. A year. For comparison, in 2004, global human energy usage was about 15 terawatts, 15 thousand gigawatts. 175,000:15. We could double our energy usage by getting hold of 1/5,000 of the energy pouring at us.
Of course, it’s easier said than done to grab it and convert it to a useful form. In some way all of human civilization has been an effort to do that.
If we had put effort into alternative energy under Carter, we might not even be worrying about this now. And in 40 years we might be able to compare gasoline to whale oil.
If we sit here and think nothing’s wrong, we’re in for a catastrophe. It’s by no means inevitable, though–which would make it bitter if it happened.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:23 pmSpot on Oval, Untill people limit their reproduction and conserve use of all resources our stay on and life expectancy of our planet is in jepordy…..Water is going to be a bigger issue than oil very soon….The world can resort to walking or bike peddeling but nothing will survive with out water.. Nothing…..Blessings all.
Comment by Witch1 — October 20, 2007 @ 2:30 pm
True enough, water is going to be a major problem for poorer areas, and areas without access to cheap water purification plants.
The water problem is less a side-effect of global warming and climate change than it is a side-effect of global dimming (GD). The heat from the sun is not adequate to cause the kind of evaporation you experience in cooking, when you boil water. In the climate sense, it is the AMOUNT of sunlight that hits the water that causes it to evaporate. As the sunlight hits the surface of the water, it excites the particles until they eventually garner enough energy to escape in to the air as water vapor.
GD has been receding in recent years, thanks to the control over aerosols. It is thought that GD was helping to cover up and alleviate some of the effects of global warming. GD is caused by particulate matter (little motes of black carbon around floating in the upper atmosphere, absorbing sunlight), as opposed to GW, which is more affected by gasses (trapping the light from escaping back in to space, which excites more particles on Earth; excited particles are “hotter”, as our perception of “heat” is merely how our bodies interpret the data of more excited particles).
GD is now thought to be one of the causes of the droughts in the 80’s, and one of the reasons that scientists THOUGHT we were experiencing global cooling, as GD was ahead of GW in noticeable trending.
Since we HAVE been successfully scrubbing the air of particulate matter, but not greenhouse gases, we’ve been decreasing the effects of GD WHILE we’ve been increasing the effects of GW.
Preventing water from evaporating, which is the effect GD has on surface water, hurts the water cycle quite significantly. It disrupts annual rainfall patterns, which screws with the weather in many ways detrimental to our survival (drought, longer dry seasons, expanding deserts, and so on).
So yes, water problems are just beginning to emerge all around the world, and are most likely the long-term results of GD having its profound effect upon the water cycle. If we prematurely eliminate unnatural GD, GW will in all likelihood have a larger impact. Right now, ironically, GD has been saving our butts from the REAL effects GW would be achieving by now had GD not been occurring.
On an slightly unrelated note, wanna hear a weird effect the screwed up seasons has had here in Florida? Love-bugs, which breed like crazy in the middle of September and the middle of March, appeared in late April this year (in smaller numbers), and in early October (in DRASTICALLY decreased numbers). Such a huge disruption of the breeding cycle of an incredibly successful species is a really bad sign.
Want to know what REALLY scares me about GW? More than the heat, more than the weather patterns, more than any of that? The melting of the permafrost. Want to know why? Chew on this one for awhile: How many bacteria and viruses have lain dormant for millions of years under the ice? How many of these bacteria and viruses have never been experienced by mankind? What kind of virulence and potency will some of these microbes have? Now, wake those microbes up after millions of years of dormancy, and put them in a world with increased winds, stronger hurricanes, and unpredictable weather patterns, and see how fast they spread. That’s only one of the lovely things we have to look forward to in our future.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:25 pm#38 pgb, you are right, the energy is there. Solar devices with 10% efficiency covering 0.1% of the earth’s surface would replace all our energy needs (of course it would be necessary to convert some of it to liquid fuels). What is needed is a solar cell that is cheap to mass manufacture. It won’t be something based on current semiconductor p-n junction devices. There are some possibilities involving conducting polymers and electrolyte solutions, but such technologies could be decades away from scalable production. But the Bush administration is not funding this kind of research to any significant degree.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:32 pmGreat post’s Moderation and verbalknit, thank you for the added info….Blessings
October 20th, 2007 at 6:06 pmRealizing that this thread is dying fast, I just hope that someone picks this up and distributes it. I can’t post here often whent he threads are active because of my work/home schedule.
Two points I’d like to make:
1. I’m a retired AF weather forecaster (technically a meteorologist-AMS definition), but really just a forecaster (still do it for fun and work friends). I HATE the term Global Warming (GW). It’s not GW, it’s Global Climate Change (GCC). Some areas will get warmer, some colder (year to year), but ALL climate is and will continue to change!
2. Simply an FYI:
NOAA is predicting as warmer and drier than “normal” winter again.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2007/20071018_winteroutlook.html
My main point is that GW is a misnomer and way to easy for the “flat earthers and Oil apologists” to argue.
GCC is real. I’m 55, it really not going to affect me or my wife that much, but I kind of care about my grandaughter and grandson.
October 20th, 2007 at 7:38 pmFair enough Stormy. You are correct, of course, that Global Warming is not as apt a term as Global Climate Change.
Apropos name, btw! :)
October 20th, 2007 at 7:45 pmI still think the most dangerous element in the World are those who think Jesus will fix it if we kill enough Muslims to lure Him back. I once heard some jack-ass on a call in show state, “we can always cool the Earth by nuking a few mountain tops to trigger a mild nuclear winter”. So long as institutionalized ignorance is the norm, our lives and planet are in dire peril.
October 20th, 2007 at 9:25 pmi have noticed drastic changes the past several years…
this summer has been the worst, as far as low rainfall and heat…
my own guage has collect maybe 3 inches of rain since may…
i will probably have to make changes to the plant types in my garden…
no more moisture needy ones that i love so much… i do use the
soaker hoses selectively, when drastic measure are necessary…
on the lastest maps showing the drought, my area at the northern border of southern illinois is included in the yellow band…
certainly looks bad in the atlanta region, southeast…
climate change… 30 years of denial and neglect make it even worse…
October 20th, 2007 at 10:11 pm…
Comment by muckdog — October 20, 2007 @ 1:24 pm
Your sorry link in no way is a rebuttal to the strong consensus that exists about the reality of global climate change. All it shows is that scientists can be wrong, as if we didn’t know that.
It’s full of conjectures and speculations. Nothing to show that data has been proven wrong, or that global climate change isn’t happening.
The reason being, of course, that the authors of the article have no leg to stand on so they have to stoop to confusing the issue and trying to sow doubt around the facts.
You know the article is dishonest when it implies climate change better not be true, lest it require us to live under “draconian” measures nobody is advocating.
Dishonest is the person who states a lie. Even more dishonest is the one who helps perpetuate it. That’s you, muckdog.
October 21st, 2007 at 4:10 amreaching a little bit. the fall colors here are stupendous
October 21st, 2007 at 11:50 am#47: Your sorry link in no way is a rebuttal to the strong consensus that exists about the reality of global climate change. All it shows is that scientists can be wrong, as if we didn’t know that.
So, consensus of opinion has replaced science in the liberal world? Shame on you.
October 21st, 2007 at 12:52 pmMuckdog:
October 21st, 2007 at 4:46 pmScience can never be certain yet it is the clear consensus of most of the world’s scientific community that something is up and thus you see the topic on the agenda of the entire world. What is your beef with simply acknowledging this. Do you believe it is some weird conspiracy or what. I would otherwise think you a thinking person but you seem to have some strange agenda with regard to this topic. What’s up with that?