Good afternoon Emery, your poor trees were suffering before this September heat. Now it looks as though it will be dry until October. Just looked at the Bay area where your daughter is and saw this. Very worrying!!!! What is going on !!!!
I think we all saw the terrible videos of what's happening there. The orange kind of "smog" in LA is really scary. And once again, a lot of people have lost their homes, and almost everything. I watched interviews of people who can't figure out what their future will be. Heartbreaking...
Saw some blue late yesterday afternoon after a smoke filled sky permeated the last week. Our air quality dropped down to moderate also, though the nearest city Eugene(65 m/105km inland) is still deep in the throes of toxicity as shown by their 3 monitors. theme song of the last week Zoom Zoom Zooooom Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom Zooooom Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom As I sit... In my four cornered room As I sit... In my four cornered room
I didn't know the song : the beat made me think of chain-gang songs, as if someone had to ease the pain through a song. "Just because we took our time to think and talk For a much better understanding" My youngest son is presently a barman, in the Pyreneans, near the Catalan/Spanish border. He just wrote to me that he played reggae yesterday as a tribute to "Toots and the Maytals". I'll suggest him to play that one before "le coup de feu", when there's a lot of customers coming in the rush hours, to think of those who have to bear that disaster. It's not only the dead : its the hundreds, tousands of those who have lost everyting. This being said, I think it's hard to imagine what the people who are in the middle of this feel. Not only those who have lost everything, but the people around in a sort of doomsday atmosphere. I don't want to get "political", but I believe there's some change to be made before we all, not only you, burn in hell (I don't believe in hell, no more than in heaven, but hell, that does look like hell...)
@wind-borne what a great band that was. Groove city! Well I'm afraid there are a lot of leaves just curling up on various JMs and other maples. The wind, heat and sun is just too much. I don't think it will be a famous year for autumn colors, though no doubt a few of the usual suspects will put on a show. A. pubinerve (as it is now unfortunately known, maybe better to just call it the Chocolate Maple) is quite beautiful just now.
@AlainK not sure if you managed to see or can see the programme, "Extinction: The Facts" with David Attenborough......it aired in the UK on Sunday and is available on the BBC iplayer. Provides an excellent summary of the situation and my take away is that we must get political now if we want things to change. Even if that means voting for a party that has some enivornmental agenda for the next 10 years - it's not as if they can do more damage to the economy, in fact it can be well argued that capitalism has brought us to where we are today. It's just not working.
Extinction: The Facts: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000mn4n via @bbciplayer Here is the link if anybody wants to see it. Not politics at all, just common sense !!! Good posting Mani !!!
So far I haven't been able to play the "BBC iplayer" (pre-brexit punishment ?) but I watched a lot of his documentaries on Arte. The kind of knowledge you're happy to have met, and want to share...
Just thought I would mention that a Prof. Daniel Pauly of the UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries appears on the program. Expect Daniel Mosquin knows him or knows of him.
Feeling my age today, LOL @AlainK saw Toots and the Maytals in a small beach town theater in '76 where they let us stay for second show for free as so few folks showed up. Saw War when they were backing band for Eric Burdon in '69.
@wind-borne Eric Burdon of the Animals, what a great early sixties group. Now I'm showing my age Lol. Must have been a fantastic gig!!
I still can play Pete Seegher's version : I have three double Folkways album of "American Favorite Ballads" or something, in my basement somewhere ;0) My late father loved when I was 15 and played "the campton ladies sing this song, doo-dah, doo-dah". He left us before I could show him the first scene of one of my favourite comedies, Blazing Saddles : I get no kick from Ficus - ooh ooh.... Mere Picea doesn't thrill me at all... <LOL> Distancing.
@AlainK How music can invoke memories and plants also seem to have that effect. Agreed, Blazing Saddles was and is a great film. With nothing new to watch atm, might just put this on again!!! Back to the weather, it is so very dry here this morning, no sign of any dew either. All very still with no breeze at all and it has that uncomfortable heat that is normally associated with mid Summer this morning. Forecasts have said it will break tomorrow though, back to seasonal averages. We will see.
@AlainK Good morning Alain. Here is the link to Extinction via YouTube. Hope that works. It only touches briefly on the main problem and that is population growth. The old saying that 3 into 1 won't go, seems the most obvious to me.
"Mere Picea"? :) Astonishingly we got 10mm of (unforecast) rain this morning! Hope you got some too Alain. How about: I get no no thrill from "bruine", Barely some "flotte" doesn't thrill me like "lotte", And drizzle just can't make the scene...
You are right population growth is part of the issue. But the documentary highlights that the far more detrimental issue is that of consumption. The average person in the UK consumes 4 times as much as the average person in India; and in the US it's 7 times more consumption. This is an issue as product manufacture leads to pollution of land, water and air.......products might be manufactured overseas but it's our consumption which is driving that problem. The biggest way we are affecting eco-systems is in the destruction of habitat and this is largely to meet the needs of our meat and dairy consumption (coffee, cocoa, soy, palm oil, beef are all mentioned). Even though we currently have enough land in use, it is quicker and cheaper to destroy more land for production. Livestock accounts for 60% of the global total mass of animals, humans 36% and wildlife a mere 4%. And when trees are destroyed this leads to the increases in global temperatures which we are experiencing. By expanding into more "wild" land we expose ourselves to new diseases and viruses as we come into contact with more wildlife. This is how HIV started and is likely how Covid-19 started as we expanded into Yunnan. 31% of all emerging diseases have come from land use change, again, to meet our consumption needs. For those interested, other ways we have destroyed eco-systems include the illegal wildlife trade for medicines and the fashion industry and global over fishing (5% of fish left in British seas, 16% in Chinese). The documentary mentions an 'escalation to extinction', the process whereby as global temperatures have risen wildlife has needed to find higher ground to live in. In Australia, 50% of wildlife living in higher ground is now at risk of extinction. And globally, 1 million species out of 8 million now faces extinction and 1 in 4 plant species do too. The possible remedies mentioned include: 1. Resetting how economies are run by investing in environmental projects (restoring degraded land, planting trees, efficient housing, cleaner cities) 2. Reducing production damage by accounting for nature's value, and ensuring any extraction for it is paid for, producing affordable food without further expansion, less chemical use and less wastage (40% of all food produced is wasted) 3. International/National Enivornmental laws - goodwill alone won't solve the issue, laws must ensure that products must be produced in a sustainable way only 4. Reduce consumption levels - by asking ourselves where a product comes from, how it has been produced and by reducing meat and dairy consumption. 5. Education especially for the younger generation.
@Mani very well thought through Mani, if only everybody thought the same way as you do. But alas they don't!!!! I have a feeling things will get a lot worse before they get better. But will it be too late !!! ? I must mention again that this planet can only sustain around 3.5 billion, we now have 8 billion and as was said in the program , we will very soon have 9 billion. It is totally unsustainable!!!! The balloon will pop!!!! As far as planting more trees is concerned, I think everybody on the maples forum is definatly doing their bit, Lol. Good posting with passion Mani.
A beautiful start to the day here in England, but for the first time there is a little chill in the air. Low twenties and sunshine expected for the next few days, so something to bring some cheer, when all around us this dreaded virus is on the rise again.
Caught off guard a couple times this morning, D, when you said chilly and 20's I naturally read as if F˚as that is my first language. LOL Forecast high is 17˚C for here today. In light rain on my walk on road with a creek on one side and dense forest on steep dune slope on other a bear stepped out in front of me, I must have looked scary as bear took off before I had a chance to. Next song that popped up on iphone was this, timing a little off.
@wind-borne great to hear your able to get out and walk again G, but a bear, Wow!!! Nice to have rain to settle everything down there in Oregon. Song is very apt!!!!
Same here in SW BC. There's nothing I enjoy more than the sound of rain on the roof! The weather has definitely changed just in time for the Autumn Equinox.
We are all so thankful for rain, how much we all miss it. So pleased it is with you at last Alain @AlainK. And I agree Margot @Margot the sound after a long dry spell has that something !!! But the smell of freshness is wonderful and what I enjoy the most. Autumn equinox, yes only three days away now. The colours will hopefully bring us all some joy, which is greatly needed this year everywhere.
Today it's finally raining and temperatures drop in Granada. And music to listen to contemplating our maples.