Earth’s Oldest Trees Dying at 10 Times Normal Rate
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Let’s face it, there are just too many people in the world. We’re burning, building, and polluting at an alarming rate. Add this to a warming planet, a change in climate accelerated by man’s indifference to protecting the ozone layer, and you have a deadly witches’ brew of extinction, extermination, and eradication of our planet’s life. Here’s Newser’s summary:
In what one researcher calls a “very, very disturbing trend,” new research finds that the planet’s oldest trees have started dying at 10 times the normal rate, a change that could greatly damage the planet’s ecosystems and biodiversity. Researchers blame logging, development, drought, and climate change for the decline of 100- to 300-year-old trees, reports AFP, a new reality found at all latitudes on every continent that is home to them.
“Just as large-bodied animals such as elephants, tigers, and cetaceans have declined drastically in many parts of the world, a growing body of evidence suggests that large old trees could be equally imperiled,” said the study’s lead author. Among the trees at risk: mountain ash in Australia, pine trees in America, California redwoods, and baobabs in Tanzania. And the decline endangers more than just the woods, as up to 30% of birds and animals in some areas find shelter in those large trees. “Their loss could mean extinction for such creatures,” says the researcher.
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Too many people is exactly it. And far too many of them “need” cars, air conditioning, and refrigerators. All power generation and consumption generates heat. It doesn’t matter if it’s solar, wind, hydro, or nuclear. every amp eventually becomes heat. Turn a generator and it becomes warm, use an electric motor and it releases heat.
Even if every vehicle in the world were electric, it wouldn’t change the heat pollution a bit. The laws of physics are uncaring and inflexible.
I have had the thought that the quality of life, at least in the USA, peaked somewhere around 1955 when there were about 150 million people there.
At least it peaked if you were a white male and protestant. Still, social issues aside, if there were fewer people in the world, perhaps the ecology could handle the pollution.