Tag: climate

Good News For Corn Syrup

Changing climate is affecting maple syrup producers in the Northeast. Cold winters with frigid nights are essential for trees to generate the precious syrup. Warmer weather causes sap to rise up in the trees instead of descending to the taps. One producer reports that 75 gallons produced in 2000 is now down to 15 gallons. Some growers report lower sugar content.

New England produces most of this country’s maple syrup. Tiny Vermont by itself accounts for 47% of it. (A famous Illinois maple “sirup” producer is a must-stop for Route 66 travelers.)

Log Cabin brand long ago contained maple syrup. Now it advertises “authentic maple-tasting syrup.”

Climate change is also good news for Oregon wine growers – short term – but maybe not so good for California. Major producers in the Golden State are hedging bets by purchasing vineyards in Oregon and Washington.

Our new president has taken up the challenge by proposing a 25% cut in the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget.

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What You Don’t Know Can’t Hurt You.

The day of our peaceful transfer of power, one of the first changes was the disappearance of the Climate Change page on whitehouse.gov. (Also disappearing: LGBT, Civil Rights. Oh, and the button for users with disabilities including a White House video tour in sign language, an explanation of links on the site for viewers to access audible screen readers, closed captioning and other services.)

  • Wildfires in the West are worse, much worse
  • Artic ice is melting; sea levels are rising
  • Oceans are becoming more acidic
  • Plants and animals are migrating
  • It’s getting hotter (yes, blizzards fit into the scientific model)

If we pretend it’s not there, it will go away.

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If You Believe the Climate Is Changing

ice-melting-experiment-1If you are a climate-change denier, you will be pleased to know whom the President-to-Be has chosen to oversee the selection of people for important positions in the new administration.

Continue reading “If You Believe the Climate Is Changing”

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Climate Change – Real or Hoax?

fire-8754The western United States has suffered a large increase in wildfires in over the past three decades. A new study reports that the area burned is twice what used to be normal. That’s an additional 16,000 square miles of scorched earth. The report blames climate change; more specifically, climate change caused by human activity.

The higher temperatures dry the air, sucking moisture from plants, trees and dead vegetation. Millions of trees are dead, killed by warm-weather beetles. Less snow fall means less snow melt which means drier ground.

The report concludes that wildfires may eventually become smaller as there is less to burn.

For some amusement, read the comments below the Los Angeles Times story. Deniers are eager to flaunt their willful ignorance by posting the same dreary, debunked bromides.

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Proof That Climate Change Is Real

benjerry0Maybe you’re one of the disbelievers who argue that the whole climate change thing is a hoax. Global warming is just a conspiracy of scientists who want to scare us so they’ll continue to receive government grants for their purported research.

Well, see what happens to your smug disbelief when you can’t find your favorite Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream flavor in the grocer’s freezer. That’s right, your need for Chubby Hubby may be unfulfilled because of drought in nut-growing regions. Think you can get along without Cherry Garcia when no chocolate is available?

Life as you know it could be ending soon.

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Climate Progress Report

sum15_beatheat-17413According to Michael Mann, a climatologist at Penn State University, “The impacts of climate change are no longer subtle. They are playing out before us, in real time. The 2015 numbers drive that home.”

The Planet Earth set several records in 2015:

  • The Earth experienced its hottest year on record
  • Greenhouse gas concentration was the highest on record
  • Ocean surface temperatures were the highest on record
  • Global sea level rose to a new record high
  • More floods and droughts ravaged the planet
  • Arctic sea ice continued to disappear

Not to worry though. The Earth doesn’t care. It was OK before humans arrived and will recover and be just fine after we’re gone.

roz-chast-the-concrete-cafe-egg-bacon-hash-browns-fried-on-sidewalk-new-yorker-cartoon

Click here for full report.

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