Southern California: Breathtaking Natural Wonders that will one day Disappear

My Postcard World

In the old days back in the 1950s, animated post cards for travelers were everywhere like this California Natural Wonders postcard. I've always loved the map card's artwork and this one of California is really kool with all the little animated cartoony characters. This map card shows all the different natural wonders throughout California, like the giant redwoods, Death Valley and of course Yosemite National Park, just to name a few. California was always promoted and advertised as a land of wonders and rightly so. But I want to focuss on Southern California and many of the wonders which are now either gone or will be going soon. Did you know that Southern California boast one of the largest Lodgepole Pines ?

Photograph - Bryant Olsen - June 19, 2010

ebay.com - prefab log cabin kit

Most of us when we think of the lodgepole Pines, we may think of those dense woodlands in the northern reaches like Yellowstone where 80% of forest there is Lodgepole pine. We may also think of where their name comes from because these were used by the Native Americans there who did use them for lodgepoles for the typical Indian Teepee. The density of a Lodgepole Pine forest is such that because of the phenotypic plasticity scenario they often are associated with, competition is so incredibly extreme that all these trees can do is grow up as opposed to out. Hence we get a pole that is so perfect, that many prefab log cabin kit companies use the Lodgepole Pine for this very purpose.

Photograph - Jim Peaco - Yellowstone Sept 1998

Another name for a Lodgepole Pine forest is a Matchstick Forest. Not only because they actually do look like a book of matchsticks, but they are also known to go up in an explosion of fierce forest fire like matchsticks when ignited. Whenever the subject of wildfire comes up together with Lodgepole Pine, you almost always get an associated headline that reads, "Fire Adapted Forests & Fire Ecology." Fire Ecologists are passionate bunch when it comes to wildfire, so much so that they sometimes seem to almost worship fire as the only means for saving a plant community. This doesn't mean that fire cannot be used for good. Because it most certainly can. I know because I've used it on my own  land. But the question is, "Is fire really all that necessary in every and all circumstance and with what frequency ?" Opinions and beliefs among fire ecologists vary. Some say the necessary interval between wildfires should be 30-50 years, other say 70-130 years. Trust me there is no real united consensus among them. How often do you hear or read about them bickering amongst themselves for position as to each one's expertise in the public eye through various journals ? Now take a look at this megafauna dude below known as a Mastadon. He was mainly a browser. Can you imagine what effect he had on keeping forests and chaparral bush habitats open and airy ??? Or what about the giant ground sloth ???

No matter who you wish to believe or follow, almost none of them will acknowledge the benefits of grazing and browsing animals as a means of healthy ecosystem maintenance. Megafauna are almost never mentioned as part of the term "Natural" for no other reason than they no longer exist. Yet we often hear the term, "Pristine Wilderness." This term most generally means untouched pre-European white man landscape. But this also most often gives the impression that the Native American is somehow considered as having a sub-human status. Like a sort of animistic conservation force guiding nature. Indeed, the Native Americans are much revered and worshipped by fire ecologists and even environmental groups because of this ongoing romantacized myth that these people were the ultimate ecological land stewards. When we listen to their public lectures or read their articles in journals, the conversation almost always comes from the standpoint of the methods used by the Indians as land stewards. What has always bothered me is that I know for a fact that the Native Americans were and still are equal to all other human beings. They are prone to mistakes as everyone else. So are we to believe they only lit fires for conservation purposes ? What about mistakes with fire like lighting fires during a Santa Ana wind event to cook supper or deliberate acts of war utilizing fire against other hated enemy tribes ? The list is endless, but apparently if they made stupid mistakes, are we then to believe this too is a part of natural because they were natives??? Now consider this item below.

Champion Lodgepole Pine in San Bernardino National Forest

"Champion Lodgepole Pine"

image - bigbearlake.net

Wow, now that's not exactly what one thinks of when the image of a Lodgepole Pine comes to mind. The world "Champion Lodgepole Pine" (discovered in 1963) is a magnificent, double-topped tree that towers above the surrounding forest reaching a height of roughly 110 feet. It's age is estimated to be older than 450 years, which means that it germinated about the year 1560 CE. You really have to stand back at a distance to get the full view from across the meadow up there in the San Bernardino Mountains near Big Bear. The trail getting there features a wet meadow and other mature conifers including this largest recorded Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) in California! But some puzzling questions come up about the fire ecology dogma we are force fed about what is "natural" & "normal" when it comes to fire ecology. Take a look at those low hanging branches on this massive Lodgepole in the photo taken by Walter Feller above. Are we to believe that no fire blew through here and used those low hanging branches as a fire ladder at any time in it's 450+ years of life from 1650 onward ??? Clearly when this tree was young, the dense branches would have been from the ground up for a 100+ years anyway, with time and age naturally pruning off lower branches eventually. But still, these other giant dead limbs are almost touching the ground, how did all those fires miss this tree ??? There has been some remarkable work done on fire history and it doesn't really jive with all the blind faith dogma we've been fed. Back in February 2017 of this year, the Smithsonian Magazine printed an article about research done which stated that 84% of wildfires in North America were human caused. Interestingly, on the west coast of the United States the percentage is actually 90%. Here's the article below:

SmithsonianMag: Study Shows 84% of Wildfires Caused by Humans

Now back this past September, ScienceMag, did an interview with one of the researchers of that original study, Jennifer Balch, a wildfire ecologist at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Surprisingly, California itself is up around 90% higher than nationwide average of human caused wildfires:

"Nationwide, humans are responsible for starting 84% of wildfires, according to a paper co-authored by Balch, published this past March in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In California, the eastern United States, and the coastal Northwest, people are behind more than 90% of wildfires."

Now here is a breakdown on highest reasons in order of highest stupidy just why many wildfires come about:

"So the breakdown: Of the approximately 1.5 million wildfires in the government record, 25% were burning of trash and debris; about a quarter (22%) were unknown human causes. The next biggest category is arson, [then] heavy equipment, campfires, children, and smokers. Those are the seven biggest categories.  Fireworks didn't rank in the very top for the whole year, but it does pop on July 4th. It’s the day with the most fires. Over 7000 events started on July 4th alone. They were predominantly started by fireworks. It's unfortunate that our Independence Day didn't fall in January or December when it's cooler and wetter.

So now we have to assume that out of all these wildfires, natural wildfire only accounts for a mere 10% which might translate to lightning storms (rarely volcanoes). Most of these occur within the middle of the country along either side of the Rocky Mountains all the way west to the Pacific Ocean. That 10% is still not a lot of wildfire if we want to label something natural in the forest maintenance department. When researchers study wildfire and proclaim it's hallowed importance to mantaining a healthy vegetative ecosystems, rarely do any of them ever account for the historical presence of large animal herds (herbivores like deer, elk, antelope, etc) and possibly even still farther back, the one time extistence of the herbivore megafauna presence which would have kept forests and chaparral bush habitats with well pruned understories.

But it was when Native Americans (also real human beings) finally arrived on the scene, that they then would introduce their reasons for utilizing wildfire, like running buffalo (bison and/or other megafauna) off cliffs and gradually putting pressure on slow moving megafauna species towards extinction through hunting, then yes everything did change. But some are still clinging to this Indian Burn dogma as natural phenomena for no other reason than ideologically driven religious dogma and politics. I'll move on and put other references at the bottom of this post. The final point here is that environmental components and other natural mechanisms now have changed for the worse and unfortunately this Champion Lodgepole tree's good fortune for avoiding catastrophe has run out. No doubt the end is nearer than we think for this tree also. If a catastrophic forest wildfire doesn't take the Lodgepole Pine tree, then perhaps it'll succumb to another fate like that of the last ancient Ponderosa Pine tree in Idyllwild California earlier this year 2017 which finally died and was professionally removed.

Image from myidyllwild.org

I wrote about this very tree in 2013. In all my searching while I lived up there this was the biggest Ponderosa Pine in all of Idyllwild and before that early logging in the area, such large trees were very common. But here is the last final documentation I am aware of. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. 😞

Saturday in Idyllwild viewing it's most gigantic Ponderosa Pine

Image is mine from 2013 - Idyllwild California

One sad thing for sure we can count on is that this mega-drought is not over and this despite many eco-groups & government officials proclaiming the drought over and all is well, offering proof through photo posting on social media sites of a record year of wildflower abundance. And most bought into that. Scott McLean, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal-Fire said this in June 2017:

“Everybody’s excited about the drought being over but all that moisture enhances the grass crop. It’s denser and higher, and it catches fire very easily."

(Source) 

Yes and the 2017 wildfire season turned out to be another record year of destruction. But lo & behold we are hearing again the drought was not over as propagandized last year. The death of trees will now only escalate. Previous news reports had estimated that 100 million trees in California had died thus far as a result of the 4 or 5 year mega-drought, but now a new report has that firgure at 129 million trees. As a news report just today stated, the warmer temps, lack of rain and snow are allowing more bark beetles to survive, when the normal cold should be killing and reducing their numbers. But that's not happening right now.

"Unseasonably warm and dry winter giving Bark Beetles in the Sierra a second lease on life" ABC30 Action News

More Bad News for another natural icon, Torrey Pines 😬

Photo: Scott Davenport/Flickr/Creative Commons (2013)

Major decline in Torrey Pines & SoCal Forests in general

Sad to imagine decline and general death in Torrey Pines, but it's true. The top photo is a favourite viewpoint for 1000s of photographers, both professional and amateur. Take note of the beautiful iconic scene in the top photo from 2013. Below is a photo of this same geological location as it exists today. Notice the dead trees ? Many blamed drought, but oddly enough down the road at Torrey Pines Country Club and Golf Resort, 66 trees planted many decades ago in association with massive networks of golf course green lawns are dead as well. This is a strange anomaly because the golf course setting creates a wetter climate scenario which is the extreme opposite of the State Reserve circumstance just to the north. Thus far no one is really taking note of the difference.

Broken Hill Sunrise by Phillip Colla (2015)

Other examples are just plain devastation of natural areas by wildfire. In San Diego County, the 2003 Cedar Fire almost completely obliterated the entire Cuyamaca Stat Park. For those who don't know this region in the San Diego Mountains, it was like the Yosemite of Southern California with numerous square miles of no development, just raw unbridled wild old growth forest. It's all gone now and numerous generations after generations will never see Cuyamaca's old growth splender with the exception of old photographs. Go ahead and google it for yourself. Mankind is debating back and forth about whether or not humans are the cause of climate change. No one now disputes climate change is upon us, but rather the argument appears to be who or what is at fault for the climate change. Presently, the Scientific Orthodoxy is fingerpointing at the whole of mankind as fault for climate. Oddly enough there is an element of truth to that.

This Lemming animation above is well known. The animals themselves have often been the subject of overpopulation and mass suicide myths. Interestingly back in 1951, there was a science-fiction piece published entitled, "The_Marching_Morons" which depicted an over-populated planet run by a handful of Elites who viewed the rest of humanity as nothing more than unintellectual morons (compared to themselves) who needed to be controlled. You see, the morons over-populated (prolithic at having babies) Earth as compared to the intellectual elites who didn't procreate as much. Sound familiar ??? Sounds like much of the scientific environmental talking points from scientists who blame global climate change on everyone else but themselves. The sad reality fact is that mankind only follows the bad leadership it has been given. People have been conditioned and trained that way from birth. Secular Science has truly further created a mainly materialist minded human being who only wants more and more THINGS (TOYS) like the wealthy among them have. Mind you, this same materialism infects the conventionally religious among mankind who also have been material minded for many centuries as opposed to anything spiritual. And science for the past 150 years has oblidged their hunger for materialism with their technologically advanced products. Unfortunately these products and other wares demand raw materials taken from Earth's dwindling easy to get natural resources and science has oblidged there as well by providing more efficient technologically advanced destructive means by which these raw materals could be extracted. In so doing they have reverse engineered vast ecosystems across the globe, much of which provide weather and climate controls, clean water filtration and food production by incredibly complex and sophisticated mechanisms for countless 1000s of years which other more responsible parts of science are now only beginning to understand. Yes the average poor slob human beings are viewed as those moron Lemmings and Big Consensus Settled Science represents the Elitists who now attempt to run things and fingerpoint at everyone else as the problem. Really guys ??? 😔😕

I'll add more examples as I have time, but clearly many many more major natural attractions in California will continue to be in decline, despite so-called proclamations from environmental groups that all is well.

Other References on Reason for Decline

What's the real connection between Droughts & Wildfires ?

Burn Baby Burn - Fire Ecologist Celebrate Fire Season

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."

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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/

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 - 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 ?

Breaking News: Fire Ecology Updates, Bird digestion aids Seed germination & Ed Morgan deserves an Acquittal

First: Ed Morgan's Acquittal

Courtesy US Forest Service

For many of us growing up in the 1960s, we remember those US Forest Service public announcements about "Because Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires". But in 1968, a man named Ed Morgan was publicly exposed as a could care less city dweller who hated Nature, even though he was just coming back from a day at the lake with his 1950s cold war wholesome looking family. You remember his wife Maryland, son Casey and daughter Kelly-Sue ? Their lives would never be the same. Ed's crime was simply throwing a cigarette outside his driver's side window. The arresting authorities called it a weapon and Ed was accused as being a killer. Sure enough that decision on Ed's part caused the death of countless trees, shrubs and other wildlife. Ed Morgan's Constitutional Rights were however violated, since he had no formal court trail as demanded by Law. He was only tried and convicted in 1968 by the Press (Rod Serling). Here's a transcript of that trial below:

Forest fires were suppressed and considered evil back there in the 1960s. But times have changed and so have attitudes. Today fire is actually considered the ultimate hero and savior in regards to land management. Why today, many fire ecologists now know that Fire is not a destructive force at all as once believed, but rather a Creator of Parks. They insist they know this because of Scientific Research which reveals to them that Indians did this practice in the old West all the time and conditions were Park-like as a result. Why, it is said you could race your friends on horseback through the woods, something you can't do today. But it wasn't just the Native Americans that used fire, white settlers did so as well. In fact you can Google many many reports of Settlers, US Cavalry, the Railroad Industry etc who directly set or inadvertently caused fires by their actions. Take for example this account of the fire history written by Jim McKee, Historian for the Lincoln Journal Star:

Settlers fought fire with fire when calming prairie flames — 11/4/2007

"Most of territorial Nebraska was covered with grasses - from the tall and mixed grassy areas of the east to the short-grass plains west of the 100th meridian. In the late summer, the grass died, dried and turned to virtual tinder just waiting for an uncontrolled campfire, arson, lightning strike, or, with the coming of the railroad, embers from an unchecked smokestack to start a prairie fire."

 Prairie fires of the West, Currier & Ives, 1872

Yes, those Human caused Prairie Fires could last for months or until the first rains or a natural barrier put a halt to their destructive march across the landscape. Those big upside down cones on those Steam Locomotive chimney stacks were spark arrestors, which as you can see from the painting didn't always do their job very well. 

"Two fires in one consisted of a headfire, which ravaged instantly, ahead of a prairie fire, which was followed by a slower but more thorough backfire. The heat generated by the fire created an updraft that caught tumbleweeds or combustible debris, sucked them upward and blew them to start other fires. Once started, a prairie fire simply kept spreading until rain quenched it or it reached a natural wall such as a stream, although fires were even known to jump the Missouri River and burn for a month or more."

"An October 1871 prairie fire jumped the Blue River, and in 1893 a 25 mph fire burned thousands of square miles. 1910 saw several hundred acres of the Nebraska National Forest consumed, and in 1925 more than a million acres burned, burning nearly 50 percent of the Bessey Division of the forest. In 1972, a 385-square-mile fire narrowly missed the National Forest."

Incredible as all that burned acreage is, it's also interesting to note that the U.S. Government was already involved with purposed &/or accidental prescribed burns whether they meant to or not back in the 1800s. One account I read last year was of a Cavalry Officer in New Mexico who complained to his Superiors that he was having a tough time getting his troops to be responsible and not through down their cigarette butts along the trail where they kept lighting grass fires. In fact control burns were first used prior to this westward expansion during the Civil War against the Confederates. But also interesting, is that the first control burns in the wild wild west were used to control Indians, but not vegetation. That came later.

"In October 1864 the U.S. Cavalry purposely set a fire "to control Indians" and managed to start a blaze that ultimately spread westward into Colorado and Wyoming and as far south as Texas before it burned itself out."

Incidentally, Arizona Old West Historian, Marshall Trimble agrees with many of the catastrophic fire events which happened during this period which he says were into the millions of acres. Now given the historical evidence that Cowboys, Indians, Railroad Barons, and even the U.S. Cavalry were involved in purposed or not wildfires, especially with cigarettes carelessly thrown about which oddly enough according to the science, resulted in pristine paradisaic park-like Forests conditions back there in the 1800s, is it any wonder Ed Morgan deserves an acquittal for doing what we now understand was the right thing ? Of course this was back in the 1960s when attitudes weren't as enlightened as they are today, and since Ed being a smoker as a result of buying into the other science-based research of cigarette health at the time, Ed probably isn't around with us anymore. But his children may still may be among us. Wouldn't you agree that Casey & Kelly-Sue would have the legal right to sue the US Government for their Father's false arrest, false imprisonment and defamation of character in the Press ? 

Note of admission to Readers: Yes yes, okay, I know Ed Morgan and his family are nothing more than made up fictional characters of a myth for some official government advertisement promoting the Science Doctrine of the day, but so is much of the fire ecology research which is funded by powerful special agricultural interests when it comes to the Science of Prescribed Burning programs today. Such research  actually champions obliterating whole tracts of land under the guise of helping Nature in a less than viable eco-green sustainability policy - "Burn Baby Burn". 

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Update: Fire Ecology Breaking News

Previously back on December 19, 2012, I wrote an article on the subject of An Icon of the Old West, Sagebrush (Atermisia tridentata) . There was a study done in June 2003 correcting the myths about Big Silver Sagebrush which has been demonized by government land managers and Ranchers alike for almost a century. There were several Axioms or bullet points that were dealt with, but first, here is the abstract that all of them in the light of recent Ecology News which came out April 2, 2014. Here are a couple of quotes from that article about long held religious beliefs about Big Silver Sagebrush:

USDA: "Countering Misinformation Concerning Big Sagebrush"

Abstract:

"This paper examines the scientific merits of eight axioms of range or vegetative management pertaining to big sagebrush. These axioms are: (1) Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis) does not naturally exceed 10 percent canopy cover and mountain big sagebrush (A. t. ssp. vaseyana) does not naturally exceed 20 percent canopy cover; (2) As big sagebrush canopy cover increases over 12 to15 percent, bare ground increases and perennial grass cover decreases; (3) Removing, controlling, or killing big sagebrush will results in a two or three or more fold increase in perennial grass production; (4) Nothing eats it; (5) Biodiversity increases with removing, controlling, thinning, or killing of big sagebrush; (6) Mountain big sagebrush evolved in an environment with a mean fire interval of 20 to 30 years; (7) Big sagebrush is an agent of allelopathy; and (8) Big sagebrush is a highly competitive, dominating, suppressive plant species"

I'll only deal with a couple of these Axioms (For the purpose of quick definition: "A self-evident principle or one that is accepted as true without proof as the basis for argument; a postulate") The first Axiom is a beauty and it has been bulldozed and smothered by new evidence as far as fire ecology goes. 

Axion #6

"Mountain big sagebrush evolved in an environment with a mean fire interval of 20 to 30 years (Winward 1984), or as expressed by Winward (1991, p.4): “These ecosystems, which have developed with an historical 10-40 year fire interval, were dependent on this periodic removal or thinning of sagebrush crowns to maintain their balanced understories.”

This is what was published in the US Geological Survey website on March 24, 2014. The title of the report is titled: "Post-Fire Stabilization Seedings Have Not Developed Into Sage-grouse Habitat"

"Burned areas, whether treated or not, generally lacked shrubs even after 20 years, and in low elevation areas especially, non-native plants like cheatgrass were often too prevalent for burned sites to be used as sage-grouse habitat. This is important because it means that for at least 20 years following wildfire, burned areas of the Great Basin are not likely to be used by sage-grouse, regardless of emergency stabilization treatment. With this kind of time lag, a substantial amount of sage-grouse habitat is lost each year to wildfire, while gaining relatively little through natural plant succession or emergency stabilization treatments."

""This is part of a growing body of science demonstrating how difficult it is to rehabilitate sagebrush landscapes once native vegetation is lost through wildfire," said USGS ecologist David Pilliod, who co-authored the publication. "Restoration in the Great Basin is a huge challenge for land managers not only because of difficulties associated with reducing non-native plants and establishing natives, but also because of the rate at which landscapes with sagebrush and other native vegetation are lost. These habitat losses can have negative consequences for sage-grouse and other wildlife that depend on sagebrush."

 (source)

 Credit, Robert Arkle, June 2011

"A sea of non-native crested wheatgrass (left) fills the path of the Poison Creek fire, which burned on the remote Owyhee High Plateau, tucked into the southwest corner of Idaho, in 1996. Nearly two decades later, an abrupt transition to healthy sagebrush marks the edge of the fire. The Jarbidge Mountains sit on the horizon."   

You can clearly see the demarcation line or barrier where for 20+ years the Big Sagebrush, which has NOT evolved a thing regarding fire as it is incapable of sprouting from the crown again, has not even by means of transmitted seed by wind or birds been able to make any headway back into it's former territory as insisted upon by earlier flawed biased research, no doubt funded by special agricultural interests.

Credit, Robert Arkle, June 2011

"An early summer storm passes over sagebrush country near Hollister, Idaho. The area has not burned within the 20 year time frame of the study. It features mature sagebrush, but also non-native cheatgrass, mustard, and crested wheatgrass, and barbed-wire fencing, which provides perches for predatory birds. Non-native plants and human infrastructure diminish the quality of the habitat for sage grouse."

(Source) Ecology Society of America: "Sage Grouse Losing Habitat To Fire As Endangered Species Decision Looms"

I want ever one to also take special not of the barb wire fencing and the Big Silver Sagebrush which has come back with a vengeance here. Now why is that ? Because this is a fence line and a favourite perch of almost any kind of bird which uses this as a weigh station for taking a short rest & pooping where it wishes along the fence. I pointed this out in my last post dealing with Western Juniper which is presently demonized in eastern Oregon as an invasive. But birds are spreading those hard heavy seeds about, not wind and it especially noted along fence lines which is proof of the various birds diet. I also pointed this out about the spread of Tecate & Arizona Cypress up in Ranchita California through the chaparral plant habitat up there where along the road, the chain link fence line has numerous young Arizona Cypress. These facts pull the chair out from under the fire ecology insistence that these plants need fire to propagate themselves into newer areas and that germination is impossible without it. For all you day hikers, explorers and other assorted researchers, start paying more attention to fence lines when you're out among chaparral plant species and write these incredible  observations down on note pads for future reference. 

Note Axiom #4

Nothing eats it, or as expressed by Tueller (1985, p. 29): “It is ironic that the dominant plant and highest producer on this area of 30,000 square miles is essentially unpalatable.”

In another report or study on the creatures which do depend on Big Silver Sagebrush as an import food source, this paper published by the US Forest Service by Bruce L. Welsh contradictions that unpalatable myth. 

Abstract: - "This paper challenges the notion that Big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) is a range plant of low value. Present data that documents the consumption of Big Sagebrush seeds by Dark Eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), horned lark (Eremophila alpestris), and white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys), and shows the nutritive value of the consumed seeds to be high in energy, crude protein, and phosphorus."

USFS: "Add Three More to the List of Big Sagebrush Eaters"

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Update: Bird Digestion Aids in Seed Germination

Image credit: Joshua Tewksbury

The short-billed Elaenia, here with a ripe chili pepper in its beak, is the most
common consumer of chilies at the study site in southeast Bolivia.

After birds eat a wild chili pepper, more seeds grow. 

"When a South American bird eats a certain wild chili pepper, its gut changes the seeds in ways that may improve the seeds' chances of growing into new pepper plants, a new study suggests."

Inside Science: "Bird Gut Boosts Wild Chili Seed Survival"

 Other reading references of import on the role of Birds:

What Is the Fate of a Silent Forest: "The Ecology of Bird Loss Project" 

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The roles birds and other wildlife play in ecosystem maintenance and sustainability is often hidden and unknown to most of this world's Official Experts who should know better, let alone the average person on the street. It's clear however that some researchers get it and have done so for years, yet their paper work is often ignored and shelved for sometimes decades in favour of more colourful pseudo-science which plays better in the careers of those more interested in the Economic and political policy making aspects. The average person is often by nature a mere Lemming (who who doesn't do their own homework and opts for allowing others to do their educational research & thinking for them) and they have been trained and conditioned that way, especially through the 20th Century. Most of the natural world's health problems in every ecosystem have to do with mankind feeding themselves and the Industrial powers that run those profit feeding programs. That is what most of the above News was about. Prescribed burning is promoted as "because it helps nature be what it use to be" which is a lame lazy excuse for other ulterior motives for land management uses. Yet the average poor sap on Earth won't question it because it's inconvenient. Because it means the average person may have to do their own homework and actually think for themselves. The story in Oregon on the demonization of Western Juniper for it's supposed "invasiveness hurts the ecosystems" was nothing more than a smokescreen for powerful the Beef industry which needs more grasslands for cattle, which in reality are the true non-native invasive organisms on the landscape. Try and reason all of this to the average person on the street where their food comes from, the ecological cost, even the health consequences of our Food's manufacture and they slip back in to their lazy comfortable Thurston Howell III default answer, "How vulgar!" Like the Howells, nobody wants to hear it. If you've ever watched that old comedy show from the 1960s, Mr & Mrs Howell would often say this after it was explained to them by the Professor where food really comes from down on the Farm, when they had previously stated they always thought it came from a can at the Grocery Store. It's the same with Meat production and availability. People don't care what the environmental consequences are, they just want to find their steak behind the glass counter when they get the craving for it. People are seriously going to have to start cutting back. Chalmers University here in Gothenburg Sweden came out with a study just on the very thing. (Read it Here) Same can be said for Vegetable & Fruit produce available from all over the world. We have things available all year long produce-wise which we use to have to wait for next season. That too cuts into the Earth's ecological health program. The costs for transport of these products across oceans it's worth that cost, especially since often times it has no real flavour about it whatsoever.

I have to admit that I was very serious when I said to those outdoor enthusiast who do love nature and love seeing & photographing all those pretty things, to do more than simply enjoy what is on the surface when you are out there hiking around. That's a great start but there is far more. Make your outing an educational one. Challenge yourself in what you think you know. I'm talking about those fence row lines. You've all seen the birds flying in and rest on the Barbed Wire or Chain link Fence. But you never give a thought as to why trees and shrubs seem to link growing next to fences, even when it's out in the middle of a field. 

United Kingdom

Think real hard about how that seedling got established way out in a field, especially when the seed is a heavy one, unlike the cottony fuzz as that of willow or cottonwood which can carry for miles, or with wings of a maple or pine seed to propel it far away from the Mother tree. Ever stumble upon barb wire fence where a tree whose trunk is growing into the the wire and wonder, why didn't they clear the land better before building that fence line ? They probably did, but critters with wings came along and pooped sometime way back and up popped a tree growing into the fence years later. Fence lines tell great stories of what birds like to eat. Not all birds are the glamorous looking ones that get noticed, but what they accomplish in a healthy ecosystem does get noticed, although you're totally oblivious to the reasons for it. So when some ecologist comes along and tells the world that some obscure piece of land is important habitat for some minor sounding bird you never heard of before, think about it. You won't be able to unless you have first put forth the effort to develop appreciation for such things in the first place. Once again, here is my post about the spread of Cypress out in Ranchita where fire isn't a requirement as the literature insists. 

What We Need Here is Wildfire to Propagate !!!

Climate Change: Should we put our trust in Computer Models ?

Neither do I, that's why I opt for Personal Observation & Common Sense

An  article came out the other day which reveals just how rural folks and those native indigenous peoples have a deeper connection to the landscape from a personal hands on observational and practical applications point of view. They have not had any need of Scientific Studies, Computer Models or any stupid worthless debates found on any number combat discussion forums in Cyber Space to understand something is amiss with the weather. Below are a few great photos and I'll post the link here for you to follow the entire story from the Washington Post:

"Age-old indicators under stress in high Bolivia" 

Photo: Juan Karita, AP

In this Feb. 14, 2014 photo, farmer and traditional meteorologist Francisco Condori measures rain water with a flow meter in Cutusuma, on Lake Titicaca's southern shore in Bolivia. Condori is a well-heeded font of ancestral knowledge for fellow farmers in these treeless climes frequently punished by frosts, hailstorms and drought.

Photo: Juan Karita, AP

This is a photo of farmer and traditional meteorologist Francisco Condori looks at his notes on changes in climate in Cutusuma, Bolivia. Bio-indicators are catalogued in what are known as Pachagrama, registries whose name derives from “Pachamama,” the native Andean word for “Mother Earth.” Communities compile and share the registry information, which is especially crucial from September to November when the dry season ends and farmers need to know how soon to plant, when the rains will begin and how long they will last. Condori says the "bio-indicators" he follows most closely have helped reduce agricultural losses 40 percent in Cutusuma and surrounding communities. Scientists, however, stress there are no empirical data to support the beliefs. 

The indicators are catalogued in what are known as Pachagrama, registries whose name derives from "Pachamama," the native Andean word for "Mother Earth." Communities compile and share the registry information, which is especially crucial from September to November when the dry season ends and farmers need to know how soon to plant, when the rains will begin and how long they will last. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

My favourite picture is the last one in that series. There are 1000s of these types of simple observations everywhere around the globe, which unfortunately in most developed countries have been lost by a disconnected modern industrial public. Hence debates from ignorance is the new normal. This example below is so simple, even a child could get this. 

Photo: Juan Karita, AP

This same farmer and traditional meteorologist Francisco Condori measures last year's nest made by a small bird known as quilli quilli, inside his home in Cutusuma, Bolivia. It's in that season they look for guidance to the southern lapwing, a long-legged plover that likes grasslands. If the female drops her eggs on the crest of a furrow, a lot of rain is expected and farmers will plant potatoes rather than quinoa, which requires less water. But if she deposits them inside the furrow, it supposedly will be a dry year. Condori measures the height of the nests from the surface of the lake water determine how much rain is to come. “This year they initially built their nests about 40 centimeters (1.3 feet) above the water level. Then they dismantled them,” Condori says. Twice, in fact, did the birds dismantle nests before finally reweaving them at nearly twice their original height. “We knew it was going to rain a lot,” he says.

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The Fallacies of Computer Models

I have to admit that I never been impressed by most of the modern day computer models we hear about for whatever reasons they have been created. I do however tend to have deeper appreciation for historical charts and graphs than these future electronic prediction fortune telling schemes and they are numerous and for varying reasons. But just to focus on the climate change debate, I think these have hurt more than help in the cause of educating the public. How many times since this whole political GW debate mess has started have these scientists continually had to revise these models because of sudden dramatic unexpected change blew former religious assumption and assertions right out of the saddle ? I'm using the term "religious" in the true sense of the word because what we really have here is "blind faith", not actual facts. I have no problem with the word and need for faith. But I like faith based on facts. For example, almost every human on Earth has faith every night that the very next day the sun will rise and do so even if it's a cloudy day. That's because in the experience of single human being the Sun's rising is an every day common occurrence No one ever gives it another thought that day will always without fail follow night. Called, faith based on fact. But again, I hate blind faith because this is where various components of this world's leadership has it's death grip on the majority of mankind. 

These Climate Models are made with simplifications and assumptions about the real world. Some aspects are discounted as insignificant while others make it into the computer model based on the personal bias of the particular research in charge of programming. The problem I have observed over the past decade is that every single year since this mess has been debated, they find it necessary to discard what they previously insisted upon as fact and replace it with newer assumptions based mostly on the worsening problems which threw water on their previous climate model campfire. How many of these futuristic fortune-telling prediction models went from how bad things would be at the end of the 21st Century, then downgrading to 2050, 2030, 2020, etc ? Roy Kalawsky, Professor of Systems Engineering at Loughborough University had this to say about the problems associated with computer modeling:  

“The model can never be the real thing because there are things you haven't taken into account in the modelling process that could have a tiny but still important impact later on,” 

“One of biggest challenges I feel in the modelling process is being able to validate and verify the model you've created," says Roy, "The modelling process doesn't finish when you've made the model, because you've got to compare the outputs from the model or what you observe in the model against what you can see in the real world. If it doesn’t comply then you have to try and understand why that is so you go back and refine the model."

The computer models for the average human being are generally right over their heads and mostly used by politicians and journalists to manipulate some ideologically driven agenda. While some importance could be obtained, mostly they fail. Seriously, read the daily News and nothing around the planet ever seems to improve despite all their self-promoted enlightenment of how things work here on Earth. I'm not talking pilot programs or localized success stories being exaggerated or being embellished to propagandize a cause or obtain further grant funds. I'm talking nothing is improving anywhere from an environmental standpoint. Mostly what I often find disturbingly wrong with the way which much of science attempts communication to the average person is often times they exhibit a total lack of common sense. For all the understanding that is out there archived over the past 100 years about how nature really works, very little of it gets put into any meaningful context in the form of biomimicry when it comes to ideas, solutions or technological innovation. What they need to do is follow the lead of people like Alan Alda who created a program for teaching Scientists to communicate in meaningful terminology by  dumping the "Intellect Speak" they are so fond of amongst their peers, but generally alienates the majority of the public. Take a good of one paragraph along with the link below: 

"You don't think of knowledge as a curse, but it's a curse if I think you know everything I know and I talk to you in ways [where] you can't understand me," Alda said. "So that's not only the public, that's policy makers like Congress, who have told me over and over again they cannot understand scientists who come in to talk to them."

(Source) 

Then there are those science research paper abstracts which mostly are never meant for the Public's eyes, but have you ever wished that peer reviewed publications were written in plain, easy to understand language, without intellect speak jargon and hidden meaning technical terms? Wouldn't it be great if the Scientists were held under the same standard of communication rules as the Plain Writing Act of 2010 requires of Government ? Not that it would make any difference! Then there is this from Adjunct Professor, Matthew Russell of South College in Knoxville Tennessee and his new Venture called Abtract 2.0. He says:

"A majority of published scientific research is federally funded by taxpayer dollars in the U.S. yet most taxpayers have no idea why the research findings from these funds are important or how they contribute to a better society.

What if the article abstracts, laced with big words and jargon, were rewritten to a level where most people could understand; an abstract 2.0 if you will? By reading a short summary of the work, anyone who wanted to know could actually understand the problem studied and the results. Maybe more importantly, the reader would not have to rely on interpretations of the research from popular media sources that have higher priorities than educating the public."  

(Source: Abstract 2.0)

This is certainly true not only of climate change, but also other areas of import regarding other topics about of Earth's environment where models and studies are unfortunately incorrect because of personal bias and priori judgements motivated by various biased heartfelt assumptions. This is beautifully illustrated in a post by Prairie Ecologist, Chris Helzer who made an interesting admission about many of his assumptions which later turned out to be incorrect. Here is how it works according to him. Actually, I believe we all have had this experience on and off throughout our lives. I certainly have. 

"Unfortunately, observations are inherently biased. When I start to notice a pattern through observation, I construct a theory to explain it. That’s good science. However, once I have a theory in mind, it influences the way I see things – and I tend to interpret my observations based on my theory.  That means it’s pretty easy to start telling myself a story that sounds good, but isn’t actually true. Sometimes, I figure out that my story is wrong through repeated observations. More often, however, what causes me to stop and reconsider is cold hard data. Here’s a recent example of my data showing me that I need to reconsider a theory based on observations."

Please read the entire article which is actually very interesting and illustrative in how and where things can go wrong in research, although unlike Chris, most researchers are reluctant to backtrack and admit errors. Here is the link to the entire post on Canadian Rye grass.

The Prairie Ecologist: "Just When I Think I’ve Got Something Figured Out…"

Here are some further concluding remarks from his post;

"I take two major lessons from this. First, I need to be more careful in my assumptions about how our management is impacting prairies. That’s nothing new – I fall into that trap all the time, and frequently have to remind myself not to overgeneralize. In this case, I had constructed a logical story explaining why Canada wildrye was abundant in our well-established (old) restored prairies but rare in ungrazed plantings such as CRP fields. There are, of course, many possible explanations for that phenomenon (differences in soil types, plant diversity, seeding rates – particularly of warm-season grasses, fire management, etc.) but I grabbed one simple explanation without adequately considering all those other factors."

"The second lesson is that it’s dangerous to rely solely on observations when trying to figure out natural systems.  This is not a new lesson either, and it’s why I try to collect as much data as I can. Observations are really important, but are easily biased by what we think is – or should be – happening. It’s natural to see what you expect to see."

Admittedly, the Science behind climate change computer models are just as loaded down with persional biased assumptions and assertions. Mainly because the researchers themselves are as equally mistake and error prone just as any other human being on Earth. However, the average person shouldn't really need a Scientist, Politician, Businessman or some Religious Cleric to tell them something is perverted and wrong with our planet's daily functions in the natural world. Watch this video below about the caution which should be taken in trusting any computer models. Most computer models are shackled to the prjudice, biases and flaws of the one inputing the data into them. This is because scientists are humans equal to everyone else on the planet, although admitting this is rarely done.

Can Computer Models accurately predict what the climate will be decades from now? What evidence is there that these models are any more reliable than fortune tellers? Not much. In fact there are many real-world examples of computer modeling failing miserably while working on issues that are much, much less complicated than climate. These indigenous natives peoples from Bolivia are no doubt considered illiterate by today's intellectual standards practiced by the majority of the world's elites. But this same leadership are themselves irrelevant.

What about those Inuit (Eskimo) Elders above the Arctic Circle who for centuries learned to navigate by the stars and geological terrain markings on the horizon, but have noticed the skyline has change, infering something wrong with the Earth's tilt ? Everyone else is going to have to make a decision as to who or what they are going to believe and live with the consequences of that choice. Burying one's head in the global weirding sand can go either way.