Ascension Island's Green Mountain Cloud Forest Created by Mist ?

Genesis 2:5-6

"No bush of the field was yet on the earth and no vegetation of the field had begun sprouting, because Jehovah God had not made it rain on the earth and there was no man to cultivate the ground.  But a mist [fog, vapor] would go up from the earth, and it watered the entire surface of the ground."

For the moment before you freak out about the quoted text from Genesis, dump all the secular ideological baggage against the source referenced above and focus here for a change. I'll explain why I quoted this text above from Genesis down below at the bottom of this post. There are whole plant ecosystems around the Earth which are not necessarily hydrated by conventional storm systems we are all familiar with, but rather from a hydrological phenomena originating from fog, vapor or even a mist. I've written about some of these in the past such as Ascension Island, Canary Islands and even minerotrophic systems such as those that receive no rainfall ever like large Oasis in the Sahara of North Africa which predominantly are hydrated by means of underground springs. Yet the plants within those ecosystems do thrive and replicate themselves. Here is an update on some things I wrote previously about Ascension Island.

Climate Change and "Ascension Island" (Ideology trumps Reality)

Photo by Meg Wilkie

The photograph above is of a man made pond create near the top of Green Mountain on Ascension Island. There are water Lilies and some tiny goldfish in the pond. This pond was constructed near an area ravine which was historically given the name Dampiers Drip. It is kept filled not by normal precipitation such as rain, but rather cloud forest condensation, fog, mist, vapor etc.

image: Ascension-Island Government

On a Remote Island, Lessons In How Ecosystems Function

Lanzarote National Park of Timanfaya

Canary Islands

Ascension Island is near St Helena in the Southern Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South America. Right west of Angola if that gives some reference for you. The island wasn't always looking like the big green lush photograph you see above. It looked a lot more like on of the volcanic islands of Spain's Canary Islands. When Charles Darwin visited Ascension Island in 1836 on his voyage with the ship Beagle, he declared it to be "naked hideousness". But it was British Botanist Sir Joseph Hooker, who had the bright idea of planting trees on the mountains which would bring more rainfall. His idea or scheme is what the researchers call "Terra Forming."  The raw canvas both these men saw was much like the smaller photo to the right with volcanic rock, lifeless looking soils and very little life other than maybe biological soils crusts. Mostly lichens, mosses, algaes and ferns. No indigenous or introduced & naturalized shrubs or trees anywhere. I wrote an article about another article on Ascension Island which I will reference in a link below of this beautiful green island picture at the top. What appalled me were the critics of Fred Pearce's article on lessons we can learn as far as ecosystem function. You see in Ascension's early history, there were no ponds, springs or streams. There was no real fresh water source anywhere when the British outpost was first set up on the island. There was one small spring, but it was remote and couldn't support any human settlement. Most all water and other supplies had to be brought in by ship. In this time of dire climate change, it was a golden opportunity for scientists and other researchers to come and study plant community mechanisms on what creates cloud formation, moderates weather and causes precipitation. Keep in mind that this island's transformation has taken place in little over 100 + years. However, I kid you not, very few Scientists are interested in studying this transformation and weather mechanism, why ? 

Image: BBC News

Conservation Officer, Stedson Stroud
finding a supposedly extinct Fern

Mostly the vicious criticism came from ideologically driven EcoActivist Groups who freaked out over the Island's non-native invasive plant species which totally fogged the real issue here and that is how to reverse climate change and repair our damaged Earth. There is no argument that invasiveness and a screwed up planet in general can be found everywhere. Numerous things were done many many years ago which we can not do nothing about, but what these people were missing was the climate driving mechanisms of the Acesion Island forest. The other argument was that existing endemic species had disappeared or were going extinct. The photo to the left here is of Green Mountain's Conservation Officer, Stedson Stroud, who found what was insisted upon to be an extinct Fern. The volcanic island prior to human influence was once sterile looking true desert island from a visual point of view other than small plants and biological soil crusts. But it's this artificially introduced vegetation growth that apparently offends many of this  Ideologues for nothing more than blind faith reasons. Once again just to repeat, prior to these introduced plants, the island was mostly a collection of Biological Soil Crusts [bacteria, lichens, mosses, algae, Ferns, etc]. But you cannot communicate anything with these types of people whose view themselves as the only ones qualified as keepers of all knowledge and any understanding on how our Earth works. Their precious hallowed topic (biological diversity) is generally considered their prerogative. Any understanding must first go through them. I once got myself in hot water about a year and a half ago when a person from a desert protection ecology group posted a photograph of their favourite outback Badlands spot at the Anza Borrego Desert. I made an innocent comment about how many people would view such a place as nothing more than a desolate wasteland, but I saw it as having great future potential. I merely meant potential in creating an environment of a healthy viable desert plant community which would further benefit all manner of other desert wildlife. But the commenter was outraged and I was hammered.

In their view, it was perfect as is and any thought of even desert plants, animals and birds thriving there was repugnant. Whatever people!  It wasn't even worth giving a response. Things are not as bad on the Ascension Island as the outraged scientists want us to believe, who would rather the plant life be removed. Seriously, you have to read it to believe it. Actually, I've written Stedson and he has been busy with tough job of keeping under control one of the native plants from the Southwestern United States, Mesquite, which has spread by seed by wild feral Burros. He also has had to keep up with capturing and removing over 500 cats which were killing off the native sea birds and their young on the plains below. So clearly some things need correcting. I wrote to Stedson a message and thanked him for his hard work and to keep it up despite the vicious criticism they received. He responded with this: 

"Thank you kindly for those words above, I sometimes feel let down and used by the very people I have helped and trust. But as a committed conservationist, I keep going, earlier this year I discovered a new algae and a new to science fungi in a sea vent on the South East coast of Ascension."

Of course not all is lost as much of the alarmist fear mongering insisted would happen. Below is a short paragraph from another article about Ascension Island back in December 16, 2010

"Beneath the summit ridge on Green Mountain, on the lawns of a small garden, Mr Stroud nurtures indigenous plants. He discovered one fern only a couple of years ago—a species hidden for centuries. He plants the successes under a huge fig tree on the ridge. When they flourish he takes them further out into what on other islands would be the wild, but here is the artifice, returning occasionally to check up on them and take more seed. While he and his successors are here, those ferns and grasses will be safe from extinction. And a few are taking the initiative themselves. Xiphopteris ascensionis, a tiny endemic fern, had never seen a tree before the Victorian planters came. Now it lives in and on them, nestled in their moist bark, pioneering the epiphytic way of life familiar from ancient forests around the world and discovered afresh in their youngest cousin. Life, with helping hands, adapts."

(Source: BBC)

Below are a couple examples of the Endemic Natives successfully mixing and taking better advantage provided by the non-native invasive plants which have provided further opportunity for them to excel and thrive more so than previously. I know many out there from the ideologically driven purist gang (Center for Biological Diversity, etc) don't want to hear or see such success stories, but to quote one of their own hallowed blind faith afirmations, "Life Finds A Way." First, take a close look at the Mist/Fog Pond near the top of Green Mountain. Near the summit of this Green Mountain  is the Dew Pond which is actually kept filled with water captured from plant foliage from the Mist/Fog that moves across the landscape from the surrounding Atlantic Ocean, constructed in 1875. There are water Lilies and some tiny goldfish in the pond. I believe the pond was constructed near an area ravine which was historically given the name Dampiers Drip.

image: Arkive.org

Fern (Xiphopteris ascensionensis)

The photos above and below are of the interactions between the so-called escaped invasive plants and the endemic mosses and lichens which outraged eco-activists says would all go extinct as a result of the introductory species. But it hasn't worked out that way. No doubt Phenotypic Plasticity and Epigenetic Gene Expression influenced by newer   Environmental Cues allowed these endemic plants to engineer and adapt themselves within a symbiotic relationship on their new host plants.

image: Arkive.org

Fern (Xiphopteris ascensionensis) and Moss
most likely on a Laurel tree branch

Some Further Reading Reference on Ascension Island

On a Remote Island, Lessons In How Ecosystems Function

The Economist: "Another green world"

(2012) Team Member Stedson Stroud – Saving Ascension’s wildlife

Ascension Island - plant restoration

http://www.kew.org/press/images/Anogramma_ascensionis.html

Another interesting paper co-authored by Stedson Stroud of the Conservation Depart. of Georgetown on Ascension Island and David C Catling from the University of Washington

University of Washington, Seattle, Wash: "The Greening of Green Mountain, Ascension Island"

So where does all of this leave us now ? 

The subject of Climate Change is all over the Global News, but what you won't find in the Nightly News are success stories of how Nature drives and maintains climate on Ascension and Canary Islands.And when News Journals do draw attention, it's merely a token acknowledgement nature story as something of local interest and then shelved away. The actual education of John Q-Public of the interesting biological mechanisms which make the whole climate thing a success never rakes place because demonizing one's political opponents and their worldview is generally the goal. Once again, this subject should be in the main stream news. But it's not, other than the political back biting and positioning one team over another. The questions that are not being asked here are, "What are the mechanisms which make the global climate function, what creates clouds and moderates the weather, how does rainfall and other precipitation really occur and what do plants have to do with that ?" But we don't get such questions or their answers. There are plenty of other examples like Easter Island where uncontrolled deforestation hurt the population in the end. Other examples of desertification in Africa and the American southwest as the result of plant communities being obliterated for short term profit potential could be helped once again to a recovery by further research and understanding of how these mechanisms function. If vegetation removal causes less rain and mega-droughts, shouldn't replanting reverse that ? 

Occult Precipitation (Oxford Reference) ??? ☂☂☂

Photograph: Miguel Sequeira

Interestingly there are several scholars who have shown that, on the island of Madeira (Portugese island in the Atlantic), that the water fog collected by vegetation – the occult precipitation – constitutes an important component of their hydrologic system, reaching, under ideal conditions, more than 60% of the total water that annually falls in the forest ground. Take the example here on the right of droplets of occult precipitation (fog mist) in this tree heath – Erica arborea on Madeira Island. There is an interesting dictionary definition given on the term "Occult Precipitation", which defines the mist or fog rain phenomena as a form of precipitation which cannot be measured, then just how much of that mystery water have many areas actually lost during this climate shifting ? If most of the measurable rain records show major declines, how much more so of this un-measurable precipitation has been lost if we could actually put a number on it ? Nobody seems interested enough to ask. Clearly, some of these Fog or Mist capturing devises should be transformed into remote weather stations for monitoring in certain areas for measurements of marine layer precipitation. 

Cloud water interception in the high altitude tree heath forest (Erica arborea L.) of Paul da Serra Massif on Madeira 

Animation - Research Gate

References for Cloud Forest Precipitation

Cloud Water Interception in the high altitude Tree Heath Forest Erica arborea L of Paul da Serra Massif Madeira Portugal

Occult Precipitation on Madeira Island

But what about all those other Myths, Fables, Storytelling historically condemned by the prevailing Scientific Orthodoxy ???

Throughout the 20th century, there have been many stories or legends about natural phenomena which were written or spoken about in ancient times by various cultures and peoples who for the most part have been regarded as mere superstitions, myths, fables, etc by today's various intellectual elites. But I have always been really intrigued and curious about what real natural world phenomena they were first hand eye witness observers to and from which they could only explain things based on their limited knowledge of things like science. For example, about a month ago I watched a science documentary about the first discovery of many of the new animals originally found and documented by scientists in Australia when Europeans first colonized. There was debate over whether Duckbilled Platypus actually laid eggs or gave live birth. The Aboriginal natives had told the White Europeans that the Platypus laid eggs, but this was discounted as a fable and myth, because these peoples were illiterate, ignorant, primitive savages and what could they possibly know that a white European scientist couldn't discover and verify. Until that happened, such a thing was ridiculous. As it turned out such official verification and discovery was up to British Scientist William H. Caldwell. Click on this link and read the first short paragraph under introduction. It verifies what the BBC documentary I watched said: 

"The central narrative of this paper is the 'discovery' by British scientist W H Caldwell that monotremes (platypus and echidna) lay eggs. The famous telegram 'monotremes oviparous, ovum meriblastic' (monotremes lay eggs of the same sort as reptiles), sent to the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Canada in 1884, put to rest a debate about whether platypus laid eggs or had live young that had raged throughout the century. The story reveals much about the imperial shaping of scientific knowledge. Observers in Australia and Aboriginal informants, who had asserted that platypus laid eggs, had been disbelieved. 'Discovery' was reserved for Caldwell, a British scientist of impeccable scientific lineage."

(Source)

Another interesting natural phenomena which in the past hasn't receive much press or given much acknowledgement is the incredible phenomena of Mushroom or Truffle formation by mycorrhizal fungi almost not long after Lightning Storm occurrs. The Romans and Greeks both recorded such observations, but these have been condescendingly dismissed by most Scientists as myths or fables if you've tried to research the literature. The accounts have been categorized under what are a part of the Roman and Greek Mythologies. Then of course there are also the Bedouins of the Negev who call these desert truffles ‘the thunder fungus’ and so do other African peoples who search for the Kalahari Desert Truffles after lightning storms. But I've also known of this from personal observation back in the 1980s when I would go out to search for Pisolithus tinctorius mycorrhizal truffles. Certainly many would appear in Spring, but especially after the Monsoonal Thunderstorm season hit Anza California starting around the first of July. Almost two weeks after the heaviest Thunderstorms hit our area my favourite collection areas would provide a mother-lode of them. They are edible and sometimes they would still be a fresh white colour, but I wanted dried truffles for their spores for inoculation of my plant's rootsystems. So I waited a while for them to age. The main point is, while I always knew the location, I never knew the when until after Lightning Storms. Here is a previous post of mine where I providedreferences giving some legitimacy to what the Experts have labeled myths about truffle formation after lightning storms.

Snap, Crackle & Pop!, Rumor has it that the Lightning gods make the Mushrooms (truffles)

Then of course there are what many would call the biblical creation myths. Okay, I get the arguments and dislike Secular Scientists & their modern day IFL members have against Christendom. Frankly, I don't care for many of their beliefs or their historical atrocious conduct either, but the newer 20th & 21st century enlightenment Free-Thought Gang hasn't exactly managed the world's affairs any better since they began asserting their own version of religious Orthodoxy's influence over the world's affairs. Pushing that baggage aside for the moment, let's go back and look at the referenced verse 6 of Genesis 2 below and read it.

Genesis 2:6 - Amplified Bible

 "But there went up a mist (fog, vapor) from the land and watered the whole surface of the ground"

This scriptural text has always intrigued me since the early 1960s when it was first read to me. Why ? Because it's odd, it's not normal, sounds crazy and out of touch with today's reality as I understood normal hydrology and climate. In other words, I've only understood rainfall coming from an actual storms off oceans, moving over land masses and dumping rain. Still, in view of how other peoples have been treated in the past by so-called intellectuals which were proven wrong, could there really be any shade of truth to this description by ancient peoples from a time period in which our natural world's climate driving mechanisms were more intact, even if this were only a mere unexplainable observation ? So I asked myself, could this original writer have also been recording information as he actually observed it back several thousand years ago ? So was this writer recording phenomena occurring as it was normal and common to him and others thousands of years ago ? Ultimately I really have no idea to be sure. But the location where these texts  were written down was in the Sinai Peninsula which is right next door to where moisture is observed hydrating the various ecosystems within those western Saudi Arabia Mountains today next to the Red Sea. Once again I still have no real clue, and it was this puzzle got me interested more and more in just how plants could hydrate an entire community through a mycorrhizal fungal networks under pristine healthy vegetative conditions which would have been more common then in ancient times thousands of years before our planet with it's present 8+ billion humans who have mostly defoliated this Earth. What we can acknowledge is that the present mist or fog precipitation phenomena didn't always occur on Ascension island prior to the introduction of Trees, Shrubs and other plants. But now at present it does occur as a result of the trees and shrubs which took over and created a cloud forest. Also we know now that desertification does indeed occur when vegetation is removed from an environment. Given the fact that far less humans existed at that time period and more healthy vegetative systems were most likely in existence 1000s of years ago than today, it could be reasonable to assume such a common hydrological system was real at one time.

Even Austrian Forester and Physicist Viktor Schauberger (1878-1958) who wrote extensively about water and often tried to describe a phenomena of upwards movement of water (soil's natural capilliary action) within healthy old growth forests by attributing such phenomena to some sort of mysterious energy, had the prevailing scientific community of critics who thought he was a crackpot. How could he possibly have ever known what we do today about old growth forests incredible ability at Hydraulic Lift and redistribution ? But he did however make observations of pure clean water springs and brooks disappearing after old growth forest trees were cut down. He attributed it to the sun having a negative effect of draining power away from the naturally occurring energized water as he called it. Today however we know far more than he did and yet he was correct that such a phenomena did indeed exist. We do know about hydraulic lift and redistribution. We do known the phenomena of a soil's capillerary action with both upwards and downward movement of water. This phenomena is further enhanced by other phenomena by deep rooted Trees & Shrubs in what is known as Hydraulic Lift & Redistribution & Hydraulic Descent. While much research into both of these has been undertaken by some researchers, the public in general is oblivious to most of this infavour of conventional science. The main problem with today's intellectual movement is that they will automatically discount such phenomena for no other reasons than they hate of the messengers. That's irresponsible, but clearly throughout time, this has been the historical precedent. How many important discoveries have been stifled because of the condescending arrogance by the ruling elite Scientific Orthodoxy which controls most thought in our world today ? At least for the people who know me and what I am talking about, this phenomena and other intriguing complex networked functions which move and provide moisture to sustain ecosystems, this gives hope and promise that based on many of these facts, that our earth can be biologically repaired and made a more sustainable place in which to reside. The only thing that stands in the way is proper leadership around the globe. As time pants on to the end, count on this leadership getting weirder and weirder. This doesn't let the whole of Christendom off the hook either for their refusal to denial of global climate change because they involve themselves within a certain specific segment of rightwing politics which is opposed to leftwing secularism:

Matthew 24:37-39 - A warning message of 'Climate Change' & the consequences of "Apathy" ?

Still, for the moment, people can still decide what to believe and make practical application where important. Take special note of something I wrote about yesterday which can speed up the process.

Groasis Waterboxx: Desert Greening, Root Infrastructure Development, Water Savings, Teaching Kids Nature, etc, etc, etc

Emissions from forests influence very first stage of cloud formation

Hopefully everyone here has taken their Ascension Island Syndrome vaccination shots ?

"Clouds are the largest source of uncertainty in present climate models. Much of the uncertainty surrounding clouds' effect on climate stems from the complexity of cloud formation. New research sheds light on new particle formation -- the very first step of cloud formation. The findings closely match observations in the atmosphere and can help make climate prediction models more accurate."

(source) 

Credit: © Dmitry Parvanyan / Fotolia

And the winner is ? Yes, forests and of course other old growth plant community groups. To bad many of these ecosystems have been declining as of late and are most notably never mentioned nor referenced as having major impact on climate change as a result of their absence. Historically, their absence has brought on drought and higher temperature ranges on average around many parts of the globe even when the scenario was localized. As I've written in this blog [which is mostly about how nature networks & cooperates] previously, more goes on in ecosystem function than mere fungi interconnecting differing types of vegetation, sharing water and exchanging various chemicals for the well being and survival of everyone and everything in that community. Our general global climate systems as well as localized weather phenomena are tied to these varying plant mechanisms. But as the article states, these systems are just the beginning of cloud formation. Finally more and more of NASA's Satellite intelligence imagery is picking up on the reality of what many have been pointing out for years, Earth's vegetation clearly is the first line of cloud formation and weather creation. This understanding of course was lost recently at the end of last year 2013 when freelance author Fred Pearce wrote about the amazing turn around of a once desert island into a tropical cloud forest. Evidently there is little if any interest by many in the scientific world for studying this amazing turn around, and understanding the natural mechanisms involved for which practical application just might halt & perhaps reverse Earth's global climatic disruption. Now why is that ? Because the official global Scientific Orthodoxy's view is that the cloud forest's mere existence is artificial and unnatural. In other words it didn't evolve naturally as it should have. Excuse me ?  Almost immediately every single religiously driven ideologue came out of the woodwork condemning Fred Pearce for his article calling for study of and practical application being done elsewhere. Do a serious Google on some of the folks in the comments section at the bottom of that article who were involved in demonizing Fred Pearce. You'll find many of them spend more time in political and ideological squabbling in attempts to highjack world power than they do with anything regarding science. Science apparently is nothing more than a dastardly cloak for something more insidious. Does anyone see why the present ongoing Climate Change disaster [which I know for a fact is happening] isn't being taken more seriously than it should be by the average person ? Now let's take a close look at what this latest NASA photo reveals below regarding vegetation and cloud formation.
 

(NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response at NASA GSFC )

 "These clouds are almost certainly a result of evapotranspiration. The clouds are distributed evenly across the forest, but no clouds formed over the Amazon River and its floodplain, where there is no tall canopy of trees. While water may evaporate from the Amazon River itself, the air near the ground is too warm for clouds to form. Trees, on the other hand, release water vapor at higher levels of the atmosphere, so the water vapor more quickly reaches an altitude where the air is cool enough for clouds to form. When water vapor condenses, it releases heat into the atmosphere."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Photograph courtesy NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

The border between Haiti (left) and the Dominican Republic highlights the relative deforestation of Haiti. Take note of the slight formation of clouds over the vegetative regions left intact. Subtle, but still there.

 Satellite Photos Reveal Desertification & Cloud Formation Anomalies

Previously, I've written a post back on February 6th 2013, using the above photograph of just such a cloud formation phenomena as observed from NASA Satellite photograph which was actually intended to illustrate the contrast between the still forested land of the Dominican Republic and the deforested land of Haiti. I'm actually surprised that it actually generated almost 600 reads or views. But all of the journals highlighting that photograph all missed something very important. Although it's not as spectacular as the above photo of the Paria River area of the Amazon near the top of this post, the evidence is nevertheless still present although subtle. Back in the late 1970s and 1980s, I never needed such NASA Satellite proof to tell or prove to me what I already knew and could observe from the ground up in Anza California. Back then it wasn't hard to do. Many old growth Chaparral/Oak Woodlands still existed back then and the cloud formation during the monsoon season was easier to observe over certain specific geographical locations which contained the deepest old growth Chaparral. This phenomena persisted year after year, only being disrupted when fire came through obliterating the locality. Such formation also was not necessarily limited to geological Orographic mountain top areas where uplift would & should be expected. Many of these heavily vegetated regions up in Anza were nothing more than rolling foothills far away from any higher mountain peaks where it would normally be assumed such formations would usually occur. The idea of course is that the warmer moister air moving upwards would condense into clouds as it met the cooler air at the higher elevations. While this can be a factor, it was still not necessary as such conditions of cloud formation can and do happen even over desert areas. It was also a fact that often times very little wind was associated during this formation, other than a slight gentle breeze. As the article above pointed out, this phenomena is mainly being associated with the aerosols being given off by the vegetation which provide the necessary particle nuclei for the water droplet creation. The chaparral plant community has very intense noticeable VOCs they give off during monsoonal events.

The sad thing here is that only forest areas with trees will ever be discussed, dismissing any reference to the importance of Chaparral and other plant communities like even those of desert ecosystems. As I've previously written about, Desert plants of the southwestern USA have also been observed to give off aerosols which react with the air to create a mere haze which acts as a sort of natural sunscreen when temps reach a high point and trigger a mechanical response withing the plant life's genetic mechanisms. Again, none of this will ever see the light of day in any of the Global Warming or Climate Change debates where nothing more than spitting or poop throwing contests by the usual ideologues are more preferred than actually reaching people's hearts to see the dire need of great & radical change in human behavior. Below is a paragraph from the Ascension Island's own conservation website which describes it's own forested mountains this way in surprising and negative terms. 

"Prior to human settlement, the native ecosystems present on Ascension were almost certainly at a relatively early stage of development, making them particularly susceptible to invasion by introduced plants. With the first human inhabitants also came the destruction of large areas of native habitats and large scale re-planting e.g. with trees/ shrubs that provided a source of wood. Perhaps the most significant event in the process of transformation was brought about by the eminent botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker. He implemented the mass planting of organised forests, shrublands and pastures on Ascension, introducing over 220 exotic plant species from diverse parts of the world, with the aim of greatly increasing mist interception, soil development, water storage capacity and of reducing erosion. Today, Green Mountain is largely covered with dense invasive vegetation and man-made cloud forest." 

"Even the lowland areas of Ascension have now been substantially invaded by non-native shrublands – guava (Psidium guajava) became widespread in the south-east of the island during the early 1800s, Mexican thorn (Prosopis juliflora) has spread rapidly since the 1970s and yellowboy (Tecoma stans) even more recently than this. Introduced species now comprise approximately 90% of the higher plant flora." 

http://www.ascension-island.gov.ac/government/conservation/our-species/endemic-plants/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 - March 2013

The Administrator officially opening the new Elliotts Pass educational nature walk

The website then offers this critique under a picture of the tree vegetation and concludes with: "Artificial cloud forest on Green Mountain: a direct legacy of Hooker’s experiment"

image: Daily Mail

The Ascension Island website insists on utilizing the term "Artificial Cloud Forest". This is inaccurate because what exists is a true cloud forest which incorporate actual living biological components which manufacture and create the island's present day climate and rainfall. The idea of a cloud forest is to include the understanding of such a system's ability at tapping into moisture streams off oceans,  the creation of cloud formation, hence thereafter rainfall. So it's a true cloud forest in the natural sense. The image above of Meteo System's [Weather Modification Company from Switzerland] animated example of artificially creating rain over Dubai and other parts of the Arabian Penninsula is my idea of an artificial system. Natural systems are becoming far less and will most likely be out numbered in many areas around the globe as time goes on, by all these science-based artificial weather modification systems. So my preference for weather modification is a more natural one which was proposed by Botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker and illustrated by the reality that exists now on Ascension Island. Yet many of these Conservation Fundamentalists and the British government apparently would like to remove it under the guise of saving endemic plants. Seriously, the Fundies come in all flavours.

Here's another Fundie doctrine. It's the continued ongoing worship, romanticizing and praise of Native Americans using Fire to destroy supposedly dense forest vegetation and create more grasslands and meadows for big game animals like Deer to graze and feed upon. So let me get this right, Native burning and destroying forest vegetation equates to something natural, but Botanist Joseph Hooker and others planting trees on barren volcanic mountain constitutes an Artificial Cloud Forest ? Had the original Ascension Island pioneers brought over Native Americans as slave labor and made them plant the various types of exotic vegetation, would it then be considered a natural cloud forest as opposed to an artificial one because the native North American Tribes caused it to be so ? Are Native Americans to be considered nothing more than animals who were merely part of the ancient ecosystems ? What is it exactly that makes Europeans human by comparison ? I don't mean for these to be dumb questions, but many of the absurd positions taken by experts and the asinine assumptions and assertions found in many of the scientific publications lead one to believe that's what and how they think. Here is what I wrote much earlier on land mismanagement and differing opinions by different land stewards on the subject:

Forest Ecology & Management: Will Researchers ever get on the same page ?

NASA photo near Dolan Springs Arizona, Lake Mead & Grand Canyon

Above is my newest favourite picture on this subject of cloud formation over specific vegetated areas. The contrast is clear. This area is north of Dolan Springs Arizona, with Lake Mead to the left, Grand Canyon through the middle and a patchy vegetative landscape with small cloud cover overhead, indicating perhaps the beginning of the summer monsoon season kicking off. I love the natural cloud forming mechanism which can easily be observed and studied, but it's the destruction of important forested areas which can radically change the local and regional landscapes and perhaps climate in some cases forever. Many regions of the planet, this could be irreversible. Not one viable major vegetation rehabilitation program do you ever hear about as a viable climate change solution. It's all about Big Temps and CO2s. Evil Corporations and the supposed politicking behind them. Let's be honest here, no one political ideology is responsible for the destruction or going to bed with corporate interests. They all do it. Any political entity that champions eco-green over National economy loses big time. They all have to play the economy game. But once again, nobody in the public ever gets a thorough enough education on what creates and actually drives climate out there in Nature. As long as they use the same failed script they've been ordered to use in discussing climate change, don't expect the public to ever listen.

Photo by Brock Whittaker (Virga Clouds over Arizona Desert)

Proverbs 25:14    

14 "One who doesn’t give the gift he promised is like a cloud blowing over a desert without dropping any rain."

Ever experience a day in the middle of the summer hot sticky humid monsoonal season, where the clouds build up in the morning, seemingly providing a promise of relief later on in the afternoon, only to disappoint ? Those clouds are known as Virga Clouds. Virga is an observable rainy streak or shaft of precipitation that falls from a Thunder Cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground. These are dry Thunderstorms. They only offer a little shade from the intense hot summer sun. Something called dew point near the ground where there is very low humidity and high temperatures that can cause the rain to evaporate completely  in midair before your very eyes, shortly after its released from the thunder cloud. Desert areas often have clouds showing Virga Clouds, but they are also occurring in the mountains more frequently. In fact, the precipitation often starts out in the form of ice crystals and never reaches the ground. Hence the proverbs comparison of someone who promises but has no intention of delivering on the promise is like a Virga Cloud. Our planet's present leadership is almost the mirror image of the Virga Cloud phenomena. Folks need to reconsider what and who they are putting their complete trust without question in these days. Expect the forced change to not be pleasant. 

Those Conservation critics & indeed many of the Climate Change champions who down played the successes at Ascension Island are setting themselves up for a big fall. I'd like to think that these biologists and other ecologists will learn a lesson not to hasten to disparage an ecosystem success story and those who make noble attempts at rebuilding Earth's Forested climate mechanisms, calling their work artificial and unnatural, let alone mocking someone like Fred Pearce the way Kieran Suckling did so crudely in the comments section at the bottom of the ascension Island  article. Unfortunately, so-called higher scientific criticism like this often does years of damage on impressionable younger minds who are looking on and just starting to learn how our natural world really works before these criticisms are eventually debunked as the science envy & jealousy they truly are. One has to ask at this point, though, how many other great biomimetic inspired “eco-solutions” of climate change ideas are waiting for their turn at the intellectual guillotine of “superior knowledge”?  Don’t be so gullible as to believe that the present Climate Change leadership gang who claim all there is that is knowledge position is conclusive. This is been brought to you in the tradition of radio icon Paul Harvey’s famous pivotal phrase, “And now, the rest of the story.”

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Further Reading Interest

http://www.ascension-island.gov.ac/government/conservation/our-species/endemic-plants/

Earth's Internet: "Climate Change & Ascension Island

Forest Ecology & Management: Will Researchers ever get on the same page ?

Wow, So Trees Cause Cloud Formation and Create Climate ?

Old Growth Tree Roots are far far more than Nature's Climate Thermostat

Tropical Storms Linger Longer Over Wet Land & Fizzle Over Dry, But in Truth it's a Universal Phenomena Globally Speaking

Dances With Myths: Indigenous Native Peoples and Fire Ecology

How much Reverse Engineering of Earth happens before Humans Admit there's a Problem ?

Climate Change and "Ascension Island"

World's Collective Scientific Genius: "Incapable of Identifying Weather Mechanisms Through the Cloud Forest" !!!

image: David C. Catling (2013)

An acquaintance from the Google+ gang, Jean-Baptiste Pichancourt, posted a link on his BioCultural Landscapes & Seascapes (BCLS) group page to an article from Yale Environment 360, with the title, "On a Remote Island, Lessons In How Ecosystems Function". The opening caption read like this:

"Transformed by British sailors in the 19th century, Ascension Island in the South Atlantic has a unique tropical forest consisting almost entirely of alien species. Scientists say that what has happened there challenges some basic assumptions about ecosystems and evolution."

(article source)

Anytime or the next time you read words and phrases in any type of science journal or paper like, "challenges some basic assumptions", think of something ideologically driven and/or motivated by a paradigm dogmatically defended. It just doesn't get anymore religious than that despite insistence to the contrary. I would actually be happy if Science were truly ONLY about Physical and Naturalistic explanations, but it's not. The author of this article is Fred Pearce and as the Bio reveals, he is a freelance author and journalist based in the UK. His article on rethinking some of our understanding on invasive & native species sparked outrage by many of his readers who commented on how destructive his viewpoints were on how we should should be researching ways to eradicate what we can identify as an invasive species. The religious dogma with Native Plant Nazis is that there is no such thing as a good non-native plant. Whatever part of the globe a plant Nazi may be found, they resent any outside intrusion of any non-native. I'll deal further with that definition below with my own personal experience of past tunnel-visioned bigotry. I'm not going to deal with the criticism blasted towards the author of this article down which you yourself can read down in the comments section below where numerous anonymous Armchair Ideologue Biologists know more than than the Author. You can read that rubbish for yourself. Plus the incendiary article "Counterpoint: A Dissenting View" which is linked to the article's page. Again, you can read that article as well later.

Image - BBC 

Once a dry barren true desert island is far different today.
You can still see some desolate dry barreness in the fore-
ground, but in the back-ground is Green Mountain, but
 historically it was just rocky barren volcano

In the early years of discovery of Ascension Island the landscape of the island was a dry barren wilderness and the descriptions by early explorers and travelers wasn't exactly flowery. Incredibly one of the things missing were viable and reliable water sources like Springs or any type of creeks or streams. When Charles Darwin visited Ascension Island aboard the Beagle in 1836, he complained about Ascension’s “naked hideousness.” Whatever! But it is what happened after these first visits that transformed this seemingly dry lifeless volcanic cinder rock island partially into a tropical paradise of sorts that is the most intriguing and most ignored by the world's so-called Eco-experts. The high elevation itself has been given the name Green Mountain. Above about 660 meters, Green Mountain is now completely vegetated. What took place gradually, was that the early sailors over the following years brought with them such plants as coffee bushes, vines, monkey puzzle trees, jacaranda, juniper, bananas, buddleia, Japanese cherry trees, palm trees, clerodendrum, green aloe and the pretty pink flowers of the Madagascan periwinkles, Asian forms of Bamboo, etc. These plants eventually went beyond the confines of gardens or plantations and escaped into the wild to create a very unique healthy biodiverse ecosystem. Apparently, most visiting researchers are unconcerned with attempting any study of this because they consider it something unnatural.

Image e360

The Island's Conservation officer Stedson Stroud led the author up the mountain to view the Cloud Forest. Stroud explained to Fred Pearce that many of the endemic plants and other lifeforms seem to get along remarkably well with the motley collection of non-native invaders. He said that the ferns that once clung to the bare mountainside now prosper on the branches of introduced trees like bamboo. Pearce was shown ferns by Stroud that he believes now thrive only on the mosses that grow on such branches. Likewise, there is now a profusion of Ascension land crabs which are the island’s largest native land animals that now feast on the fruits of alien trees like the guava. The only researcher who has studied the land crabs in recent times, Richard Hartnoll of the University of Liverpool, says that the invasive vegetation “increases the area of shade and shelter for crabs, and also provides a large resource of food”, no doubt replacing the island's former scavenging seabird colonies. Author Fred Pearce said that a person might think that this ecological snugness would be of huge ecological interest? Yet, until now, as Pearce and Stroud pointed out, visiting scientists have ignored it. Most researchers who make the long journey the only practical way in to the island, doing so aboard a British military flight, have concentrated on the island’s charismatic populations of seabirds, green turtles, and the handful of endangered ferns. Unbelievable! And all because of Endemic Biota Nazism!

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My Own Former Life as a Native Plant Nazi

Blue Mist (Caryopteris x clandonensis)

I've always in the past historically favoured natives over exotics when it comes to habitat restoration within any given area. Logically when it comes to rebuilding any type of ecosystem in a specific location, you look for existing endemic  plant mechanisms which are well adapted and suited to the area. I use the term Nazi, because it truly identifies the close minded attitude of such strict dogmatic adherents of any type of Native Plant movement across the globe within any geographical location. If you just look at the definition of Nazism itself, the movement represented intolerance of anything it considered impure. Over here in Sweden where I presently reside, there are several National Socialist movements that want immigrants gone from all of Scandinavia and populations brought back to what they label a more Homogeneous purity. Often times, Native Plant people can be just like that. They want no other plants than what they consider native. They dogmatically demand a pristine environment be re-established, but is there really such a thing anymore ? Was there ever truly such an ecosystem ? Considering that even without humankind in existence, there has always been an amazing ability for variation in Nature. I wasn't that extreme, but let me give you an example of something that once happened to me, that changed my whole perspective on the "Natives Only" movement. See that plant in the upper right hand corner here ? This plant was given to me by a friend in 1980 (Daniel Perreli) who was moving back up to Washington State. It looked kool and I thought it would fit in my wild landscape up in Anza California very well, since it had certain desirable Sage (Salvia) qualities about it. 

Washington State University

It grew very well with little care or watering up there in Anza CA. It seemed a perfect fit, not only because of it's drought tolerance, but also because even the various native bees and hummingbirds loved it. But one year it reseeded itself in two other locations and that actually got me researching where this plant was from. I knew the original name from the Nursery pot label it came from, Blue Mist  (Caryopteris x clandonensis). I found out that this was originally a plant from the Mediterranean. Wow, that was a non-native!!! So I ignorantly removed the parent plant which I loved and one of the newly germinated plants and left one down at the base of the rock steps I built. There were never any other plants that ever sprung up new anywhere else, just the one. So it really wasn't a bad invasive and so many other native lifeforms loved this plant, besides me. 

image by W.P. Armstrong

One little insect critter that I really enjoyed every hot summer day was a little insect I call a Hover fly or more commonly known as a Beefly (Bombylius montanus). These little cleverly maneuvering biological helicopters could do a go almost anywhere at angle. They were fun to watch and they loved another native plant up in Anza which also had gray green foliage with cobalt blue flowers just like the Blue Mist. For the life of me, I don't know what that little summer flowering plant was called because I never bothered to investigate. It never was more than a foot high. It's leaves were almost totally gray and very slender. Flowers always striking and loaded with the sound of high pitched buzzing on a hot day. Nevertheless, most people will recognize this little Hover Fly or Beefly from the picture above which was attracted to this summer blooming plant up in Anza Valley. It's only truly abundant during the really hot period of summer and the sound of high pitched buzzing is everywhere. But it was these types of experiences made me reassess my Native Only position. That Blue Mist shrub actually wasn't invasive, other than a small ability to naturalize and it had much to offer to the Native Critters who did live there. In fact I became more and more of a collector of plants from all over the southwest. I'll post a link to my post about problem with "ScrubJay Syndrome" below. Oh, and Wayne Armstrong's Palomar College page has a great read on the little Beefly for which my wife and I recently saw a kool documentary about recently. I'll link to at the bottom for those curious. I never knew these cute little guys were invaders of other ground Bee nests and their young parasitic.

 (AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY)

There is also one other important reason I gave up Native Plant Nazism. The Fossil record. Ever notice in almost every article about amazing fossil discoveries how incredibly more biodiverse the Earth was than it is at present ? That's always fascinated me. Let me give just one example. Ellesmere & Axel Heiberg Islands in the extreme northern Canadian Archipelago near Greenland near the Arctic's North Pole. How is it that before whatever extinction event, the Earth was extremely biodiverse from Pole to Pole ? How is it that an ancient ecosystems had what we know as Boreal, Temperate and Tropical fauna and flora all living together ? The above photo appeared in many science journals and other news outlet venues reporting on the once biodiverse life of the bitter cold Arctic where there were found giant turtles, large snakes, alligators, flying lemurs, tapirs, and hippo- and rhino-like mammals roamed in places now favoured by muskox and hares. This is also an area where Boreal Forest environment existed with Dawn Redwood Trees, Larches, Aspens, Firs and even mummified wood of a Beaver Dam with Beaver's bones discovered along with a crocodile fossil. Seriously, what's up with that ? I mean the Homogeneous Eco-Landscape Nazis would freak at the suggestion of such an ecosystem. And yet such ecosystems were more common countless centuries ago. It's things like this that changed me. For example, one of my favourite places to visit is southeastern Arizona where Tropical and Temperate ecosystems of both flora and fauna clash and blend beautifully together. Yup, I have been cure, well sort of. I also respect that some things, like my beloved Mesquite from the southwest where I come from is a horrible invasive plant in Hawaii, Ethiopia, Australia etc and controls are important. But being stubbornly dogmatic and opinionated also needs limits. (See Link on Ellesmere Island below) 

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Points missed in the Ascension Island Article

"But the Royal Navy garrison, established in 1815, set about changing that. First, it put together a farm on the few patches of natural soil on the mountain. Then British colonial botanist Sir Joseph Hooker — a future head of the famous botanical gardens at Kew in London who visited the island in 1843 — came up with the idea of growing trees to green the arid island and increase its rainfall. The idea was that the new vegetation on the mountaintop would scavenge moisture from the passing clouds. Further down the slopes, planting would encourage soil growth. Hooker’s ambition was nothing less than “terra-forming” the volcanic island, says Stroud in a recent paper with David Catling of the University of Washington, Seattle."

"Today, the island has about 300 introduced species of plants to add to its 25 native species, says David Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. Many are spreading. Above about 660 meters, Green Mountain is completely vegetated, with coffee bushes, vines, monkey puzzle trees, jacaranda, juniper, bananas, buddleia, Japanese cherry trees, palm trees, clerodendrum, green aloe and the pretty pink flowers of the Madagascan periwinkles. And Stroud says the vegetation captures more cloud moisture, just as Hooker had hoped, even though rainfall has declined in the lowlands around." 

Image - Fred Pearce e360

Take specific care to look at the colour highlighted portions of the quoted paragraphs. There is not a single mention about the climate and localized weather transforming ability of the vegetation and it's mechanical nature for cloud creation. This isn't surprising since most ALL of the Climate Solution debates, there is never one viable project, scheme, plan, or discussion on rebuilding the Earth's vegetative systems to reboot the Earth's climate driving weather mechanisms. Nobody, not even the Native Plant Nazi Ideologues even remotely care about such consideration. Their attitude is that of the British government’s environmental policy for Ascension island is the “control and eradication of invasive species” in order to “ensure the protection and restoration of key habitats.” Apparently, they want everything returned to it's biological soil crust era. Nothing wrong with Soil Crust lifeforms, but they are merely the foundations of higher systems and will always be around in certain specific niches. The British Government eradication policy has nothing to say about the protection of or even ecological research into the extraordinary novel ecosystem which was accidentally created in their midst on which the indigenous species often depend. There are important lesson to be learn and this unique ecosystem on top of Green Mountain may hold important lessons about how ecosystems around the world function and thrive and result in climate maintenance and moderation. Take a look at the photo above here. How much water do you suppose it takes to maintain such a water loving tropical ecosystem, even if it is considered impure by the "homogeneous only" Gangsters ? Seriously, would you say they are missing the climate driving mechanisms through the cloud forest here ? In an atmosphere of Global Warming Alarmism and we only have a short time left to fix things on earth activism outrage, what the heck are they waiting for ? Is it any wonder that skeptics will never take them serious ? From my vantage point, all I've ever seen with this whole ridiculous debate is backbiting by various ideologically driven environmental groups looking to acquire and take power from someone else deemed an opposent of their self-righteous version of worldview.

 Image shot by Spumador - flickr

Luytla-Duymun Island, Faroe Islands

One of the funnier views by some in discrediting the effect of plants on the mountain was the naysayers pointing out that the cloud mist from the surrounding seas had always been around previously. Well, yes, of course. That's the nature of such geographical locations, I mean there is sea all around. Islands with large mountains (like volcanoes) have a geographical phenomena called Orographic lift which concentrates moist humid air at cooler elevations which  can create cloud mist. But seriously, there is more going on here on Ascension than mere physics of the Island's geographical landscape  phenomena of Orographic lift. As I've even previously written about in this blog, Cahuilla Mountain in Anza California had the amazing mechanical ability to create the beginnings of thunderstorms during monsoonal moisture movement weather events which come up from Mexico. The were other similar locations around Anza Valley, but Cahuilla Mountain was unique in this formation which was always precise and had a very mechanical conveyor patterned about it. An observation which could be seen for years until in 1996 when an arson set wildfire at Diego Flats changed everything. The old growth Chaparral along with Coulter Pine and various old growth Oak woodlands were almost completely destroyed on over half of this mountain. Thereafter the regular summer pattern of cloud formation was halted. The heavier vegetative pattern up on "Green Mountain" has actually magnified and increased the ability to form clouds and hence rainfall. Again, how much rain does it take to sustain a tropical forest ? Certainly more than the previous mist.

Link and image from invasiveplants.com

Now take a look at this Google Earth satellite image of Ascension Island's Green Mountain which was provided by the Invasive Plants website. Notice the cloud creation and formation caused by the vegetation below ? So is this some kind of an evil thing going on here ? Do you really believe such a system to be forced back into is previously dry barren condition because it would be restored to it's original unadulterated "pure and pristine" state ? That's like saying we should leave the Sahara pure and untouched, despite it's once being a subtropical Savanna paradise where biodiversity once ruled as King. Chaparral Plant Communities of California and other parts of the world accomplish and perform the very same thing as other Temperate, Tropical etc ecosystems if they are allowed to develop into an old growth state. Unfortunately, failed land management policies and perverted uneducated attitudes towards the value of such plant communities promoted by the flawed leadership in these regions have also formulated unhealthy opinions and understanding by many average citizens and property owners of these areas. These fascinating mechanisms are the whole reason I created this specific blog. In fact I even wrote about an incredible phenomena observed by some researchers where it has been observed that Tropical Storms linger over moist or wet areas than over dry areas. Not many people were interested in that subject (44 in total), but still, look at the Ascension Island example. (See the link below) I'm not going to link to any more of my other posts, you've got them all here within this blog if you're truly interested in mechanical nature of weather in which physics and biological mechanisms interact. Sadly, they'll be mostly ignored anyway and/or it's contents be buried in a plethora of intellect speak which benefits no one, with the exception of some anonymous ideologue who takes pleasure and delight in patting himself on the back after a combative anonymous exchange with a equally competitive idiot who enjoys the game playing. 

Important Update:

Emissions from forests influence very first stage of cloud formation 

Interestingly, another one of the other reasons this article caught my initial attention is because of a conversation I had with Chris Rohrer who owns, writes and photographs in the LAS AVENTURAS Blog Chris over a decade back, participated in a similar island chain environment where an experiment by the University of Arizona was to vegetate the landscape on a couple of the islands which are in an area further north of Ascension known as Cape Verde. They incorporated Arizona Native Plants on the island like Prosopis juliflora, or Mesquite because of it's deep rooting ability and even Palo Verde. Info on these projects is tough to find, but in a report from the U of A, called Draft Environment Report on Cape Verde (see link below), I found some interesting reasons which the Mesquite was chosen over the native Acacia from Africa. One major reason was that it was much more deeper rooted. That makes sense in a survival game, but there are more important mechanical component reasons for this. Mesquite is one of the best trees for not only Hydraulic Lift and Redistribution which benefit the surrounding plant community with shallower root systems, but it is also one of the best trees (even when dormant) at performing something called Hydraulic Descent. This is where it has the ability to capture and transport excesses of surface water during a rainy season and pump it deep into the earth well beyond where mere geological percolation takes place. The deep earth is the best place to store fresh water and understanding this should factor in to any habitat rebuilding program when selecting first, those dominant foundational plants which will help drive and sustain a ecosystem. Problem is, while some have studied this incredible phenomena, nobody ever really talks about it, references it or teaches it from school textbooks where it needs to be taught at an early age to instill deep appreciation for Earth's brilliantly put together natural environment. Although there are a tremendous amount of papers on these subjects, most seem to be buried and filed away in deep dark archived catacombs in some intellectual dungeon somewhere under, "Of Interesting Note", never to be actually acknowledged or talked about openly in any discussion or restoration program.

Fred Pearce showed that these researchers were missing a golden learning opportunity in rejecting any study of "Green Mountain". And Why is this ? Because they all consider it artificial or unnatural and that such change is suppose to happen on it's own over long periods of deep time or as Pearce put in the use of the term, "ecological fitting" as coined by evolutionary ecologist Dr. Daniel Janzen, where he believes as Fred Pearce put it, "ecological fitting holds that ecosystems are typically much more random. Stuff happens." Stuff Happens ? Our planet doesn't have time to wait and see how stuff will just happen. Humans presently are artificially accelerating the destruction of natural systems through the so-called brilliance of their technological innovative achievements of what is left of the viable biological world at an extremely rapid pace. Doing so in the justification and name of each country's own National Economies. As I've often stated before, when one’s theory-ladened paradigm reduces to random actions for no particular reason, then you've abandoned such excellent sciences like biomemetics and/or Biomimicry which are nothing more than discovering and observing how nature mechanically works and operates, then proceeding to make intelligent practical application in replication of what was discovered and observed. Around the Earth we have what are termed designated Wilderness Areas where there are strict intolerant hands-off policies where no disturbance is allowed, even to fight wildfires or restore what was lost. They say it is important to allow Nature to take care of itself. I'm afraid such Scientific Orthodoxy hardliner rules are going to have to change since globally all ecosystems are in trouble. But this narrow minded tunnel vision focus by a lot of researchers has to be dumped in favour of reality. They need to dump the tunnel vision blinders and start developing the ability to see and focus on an intuitive ecological peripheral vision. If all a person can do is say is “Stuff happens,” then they haven't learned nor explained anything to the rest of the world. Even the island's ecologist Stroud stated, “Green Mountain might help inform strategies to green some deserts or other barren locations in the world.” And even the environmental ecologist Dr David Wilkinson beautifully put it this way:

“Is it possible... to suggest, for example, that large deforested areas of Amazonia could be returned to functioning forest on a 100-year time-scale?”

And Fred Pearce followed up with: 

"And maybe not just former rainforests. If a forest can form so quickly and successfully on a volcano in the middle of the Atlantic, they why not in other unlikely places?"

Sadly, none of the article's readers, with the exception of a handful, ever got any of these important points the article was trying to convey. Fred Pearce was viciously attacked by people like Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological diversity, an organization that basically makes it's income off "Sue & Settle" strategies for which he receives a $200,000+ salary each year. The comments section had only a handful of sensible folks that actually got the main point of the article. And neither did the Author's of those follow up two dissenting articles ever get the point. Oh, BTW, this came out recently from Princeton University: 

Without plants, Earth would cook under billions of tons of additional carbon

Sarcasm alert! Ah gee whiz, really ? No kidding ? Unbelievable! 

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Further Reference Reading: 

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/on_a_remote_island_lessons__in_how_ecosystems_function/2683/

http://invasiveplantnews.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/ascensionislandphotogoogleearth.png 

http://www.academia.edu/462808/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Biotic_Nativeness_A_Historical_Perspective 

http://faculty.washington.edu/dcatling/Catling2012_GreenMountainSubmitted.pdf

The parable of Green Mountain: Ascension Island, ecosystem construction and ecological fitting

http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/bitstream/10150/228232/1/capeverde.pdf

Fossils from Ellesmere Island reveal a much-warmer past

Tropical Storms Linger Longer Over Wet Land & Fizzle Over Dry, But in Truth it's a Universal Phenomena Globally Speaking

Always Collecting Seeds & Plants even when I have no Place to put them

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/rsnakecan1.htm#beefly