Flashback: Greens Stump for a Treeless Christmas – Recommend ‘a storm-felled branch’ instead
The Sierra Club, in its publication Sierra Magazine, recommends that people look for “a storm-felled branch, or a piece of driftwood” to decorate in their homes, instead of the traditional Christmas tree.
Eric Antebi, the Sierra Club’s national secretary, also suggested that people consider celebrating Hanukah instead of Christmas because Hanukah is a more earth-friendly celebration.
Environmental activists also appear to be struggling over which type of Christmas tree to condemn the most.
“The choice between real and not real is especially painful for some environmentalists. Either they desecrate the Earth and chop down a tree or buy a fake one that’s full of landfill-clogging polyvinyl chloride, which is kryptonite to greenies,” stated an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on Dec. 15, titled “Choosing a Christmas tree can be an ethical quagmire for environmentalists.”
But critics of the environmental movement ridiculed what they saw as an unwarranted attack on Christmas trees.
“Having tried to shame us for our 4th of July barbecues and fireworks because of air pollution, and our Thanksgiving turkeys because of hunting and farm issues, it’s no surprise that some of our more egg-nogged environmentalist friends have now come a-carolin’ over the outrage of Christmas trees,” said David Rothbard, president of the Washington-based Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) in an interview with Cybercast News Service.
“As for the Sierra Club’s idea that we make our own trees out of storm-downed branches or driftwood, I think someone’s been standing alone under the mistletoe for too long. I can’t imagine what waking up to presents under that kind of tree would look like, but I think I’d rather try the mangy, forlorn tree from Charlie Brown’s Christmas first.” Rothbard said.
Rothbard’s sarcasm notwithstanding, some environmentalists see a genuine ethical dilemma involving Christmas trees.
San Francisco forest activist Kristi Chester Vance summed up her environmental concerns when she described how she had to warn her eco-friendly friends that there would be a “dead tree” at her Christmas party.
“I’m a forest activist and there’s a dead tree in the middle of my house,” Vance told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this month.
“Geez, if I have a
World Agricultural Output Continues to Rise, Despite Predictions of Decline
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that world rice harvests for 2012/2013 were a record 469 million metric tons. Corn and wheat harvests were also strong, following record harvests for both grains during the 2011/2012 season. The USDA is now projecting world record harvests for corn, wheat, and rice for 2013/2014.
1922 Shock News: Higher CO2 Levels Needed To Feed The Human Race
…Listen Now: Craig Idso on the Benefits of CO2
Power Hour: Craig Idso on the Benefits of CO2
http://industrialprogress.com/2013/11/15/power-hour-craig-idso-on-the-benefits-of-co2/
On this episode of Power Hour, Alex Epstein talks with Dr. Craig D. Idso, former president and current chairman of the board of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, about the benefits of CO2. You can learn about Dr. Idso’s work at www.co2science.org.
Download Episode 76 – Craig Idso on the Benefits of CO2
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New paper finds existing cropland could feed an additional 4 billion people if not wasted on biofuels
New paper finds existing cropland could feed an additional 4 billion people if not wasted on biofuels
http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2013/08/new-paper-finds-existing-cropland-could.html
Paging Paul Ehrlich:Existing cropland could feed four billion moreby Staff WritersMinneapolis MN (SPX) Aug 08, 2013
Demand for crops is expected to double by 2050 as population grows and increasing affluence boosts meat consumption.
The world’s croplands could feed 4 billion more people than they do now just by shifting from producing animal feed and biofuels to producing exclusively food for human consumption, according to new research from the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota.
Even a smaller, partial shift from crop-intensive livestock such as feedlot beef to food animals such as chicken or pork could increase agricultural efficiency and provide food for millions, the study says.
“We essentially have uncovered an astoundingly abundant supply of food for a hungry world, hidden in plain sight in the farmlands we already
cultivate,” says graduate research assistant Emily Cassidy, lead author of the paper published in Environmental Research Letters. “Depending on the extent to which farmers and consumers are willing to change current practices, existing croplands could feed millions or even billions more people.”
Demand for crops is expected to double by 2050 as population grows and increasing affluence boosts meat consumption. Meat takes a particularly big toll on food security because it takes up to 30 crop calories to produce a single calorie of meat.
In addition, crops are increasingly being used for biofuels [which don’t even reduce emissions] rather than food production. This study sought to quantify the benefit to food security that would accrue if some or all of the lands used to produce animal feed and fuel were reallocated to directly produce food for people.
To get at that question, Cassidy and colleagues first mapped the extent and productivity of 41 major crops between 1997 and 2003, adjusting numbers for imports and exports and calculating conversion efficiencies of animal feed using U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
The researchers assumed humans need an average of 2,700 calories per day, and grazing lands and animals were not included in the study. Among the team’s findings:
+ Only 12 percent of crop calories used for animal feed end up as calories consumed by humans.
+ Only 55 percent of crop calories worldwide directly nourish people.
+ Growing food exclusively for direct human consumption could boost available food calories up to …
CO2-induced crop failure update: “if USDA is correct American farmers will harvest their first 14 billion bushel corn crop this fall, about a billion bushels above the old record”
CO2-induced crop failure update: “if USDA is correct American farmers will harvest their first 14 billion bushel corn crop this fall, about a billion bushels above the old record”
http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2013/07/co2-induced-crop-failure-update-usda-is.html
Record US Corn Production Expected to Improve Pork Industry Profitability – The Pig SiteUS – An agricultural economist with the University of Missouri expects record US corn production to result in greatly improved profitability for North American pork producers, Bruce Cochrane writes.The typical summer peak in live hog prices combined with some relief on the feed cost side has pushed the majority of North American pork producers back into the black.Dr Ron Plain, an agricultural economics professor with the University of Missouri, says if USDA is correct American farmers will harvest their first 14 billion bushel corn crop this fall, about a billion bushels above the old record.…
CO2-induced crop failure update: Record harvests estimated for Bangladesh, Philippines, and Indonesia
…Another CO2-induced crop failure update: ‘World cereal production set to reach historic high in 2013’
…New paper finds tropical forests are producing more flowers, a sign of vitality
New paper finds tropical forests are producing more flowers, a sign of vitality
http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2013/07/new-paper-finds-tropical-forests-are.html
Temperature increases causing tropical forests to blossom
by Staff Writers Tallahassee FL (SPX) Jul 10, 2013
File image.
A new study led by Florida State University researcher Stephanie Pau shows that tropical forests are producing more flowers in response to only slight increases in temperature. [What about the increase in CO2 that is greening the planet?]
The study examined how changes in temperature, clouds and rainfall affect the number of flowers that tropical forests produce.
Results showed that clouds mainly have an effect over short-term seasonal growth, but longer-term changes of these forests appear to be due to temperature. While other studies have used long-term flower production data, this is the first study to combine these data with direct estimates of cloud cover based on satellite information.
The results of the study, “Clouds and Temperature Drive Dynamic Changes in Tropical Flower Production,” was published July 7 in the journal Nature Climate Change.
“Tropical forests are commonly thought of as the lungs of the earth and how many flowers they produce is one vital sign of their health,” said Pau, an assistant professor in Florida State’s Department of Geography. “However, there is a point at which forests can get too warm and flower production will decrease. We’re not seeing that yet at the sites we looked at, and whether that happens depends on how much the tropics will continue to warm.”
U.S. Geological Survey Senior Scientist Julio Betancourt, who was not involved in the study, described Pau’s research as “clever.”
“It integrates ground and satellite observations over nearly three decades to tease apart the influence of temperature and cloudiness on local flower production,” Betancourt said. “It confirms other recent findings that, in the tropics, even a modest warming can pack quite a punch.”
Pau led a team of international researchers who studied seasonal and year-to-year flower production in two contrasting tropical forests — a seasonally dry forest on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, and an “ever-wet” forest in Luquillo, Puerto Rico.
The seasonally dry site, according to Pau, has been producing more flowers at an average rate of 3 percent each year over the last several decades, an increase that appears to be tied to warming temperatures.
“We studied flowers because their growth is a measure of the reproductive health and overall growth of the forests, and because …
Study: Trees using water more efficiently as atmospheric carbon dioxide rises
Study: Trees using water more efficiently as atmospheric carbon dioxide rises
“Our analysis suggests that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is having a direct and unexpectedly strong influence on ecosystem processes and biosphere-atmosphere interactions in temperate and boreal forests.” The media release is below. ### Trees using water more efficiently as atmospheric carbon dioxide rises DURHAM, N.H., July 10, 2013 – A study by scientists with the […]…