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| An old tree to pine for | |||
| (Wednesday, 29 September 2010) Written by greeniac36831 | |||
| There’s a bristlecone pine tree in California that is nearly 5,000 years old, making it the oldest tree in the world. When it germinated, the global human population still hovered around 14 million, less than that of Los Angeles, California today. The wheel, the plow, and the written word were novelties, invented only a few centuries ago. The Egyptians had just unified under one pharaoh, and the pyramids were yet to be built. Methuselah the tree, named after the longest-lived person in the Bible, had just peaked through the soil in what would much later be called the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains. Bristlecone pines grow very slowly in cold, dry, and windy conditions about two miles above sea level. With their gnarled and twisted trunks, they look like they’ve escaped from a witch’s front lawn. What’s really scary is that these survivors might be in danger. They have two enemies: white pine blister rust, a fungus that came from Asia a century ago, and the native pine bark beetle, whose populations are booming with warmer temperatures. Read the full story from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/science/28pines.html |
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| Preservation and Restoration | |||
| (Saturday, 19 July 2008) Written by greeniac40021 | |||
| Before I moved to Illinois, I had never seen a real prairie. I heard about them from time to time, but I mostly had a weird, skewed idea about what a prairie was. In my head there was some region in middle America filled with grasses and rolling hills and nothing else. This scene also included cowboys, native Americans and teepees, covered wagons, Laura Ingalls Wilder along with her whole family, as well as large herds of galloping bison. Needless to say, I was pretty wrong about a lot of things. I visited a prairie for the first time when someone from the environmental club invited me to go on a restoration workday at one of the nearby Cook County forest preserves. Standing in the middle of a prairie was amazing. The plants were beautiful and diverse, birds flew overhead and I could hear the wind rustle through the grasses. But not all of the prairie was like this. A large part of it had been overrun by an invasive species, buckthorn, that crowded out the native grasses and flowers and took away habitat from native animals. Every weekend, volunteers diligently worked to restore the little prairie that Illinois has left, in some effort to preserve some of our nation's natural history and native wild lands. There are less than 1 percent of the United States' tall grass prairies left, and the ones that are left are in special preserves or parks. However, because of invasive plants, lack of natural fires, and increasing development, even these prairies are being threatened. Restoration and preservation of our natural wildlands is important, and will never succeed without the help of volunteers and activists. Not only are we preserving our natural heritage for our children and grandchildren to see, but we are also preserving the habitats for thousands of plants and animals, many of which are already faced with extinction. A famous scientist, James Lovelock, pioneered the Gaia Hypothesis. According to Lovelock, Earth is like an organism, with complex processes and everything in it operating to create the world as we know it. In the same way that a human body needs all of its parts to function, Lovelock proposed that Earth functions the way it does because of the interactions and relationships of all of its parts. In an effort to protect and preserve our wild lands and all of Earth's ecosystems, volunteers have been working hard to undo some of the damage that has already been done. There are lots of ways for you to get involved. Try searching the internet for a local restoration group in your area. If you live in Chicago and are interested in prairie restoration, try looking up the North Branch Restoration Group (www.northbranchrestoration.org) Otherwise, try contacting local environmental groups and finding ways that you can help preserve America's natural wildlands. |
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| A Shark Problem | |||
| (Tuesday, 24 June 2008) Written by greeniac40021 | |||
| Sharks get a bad rap. Painted as vicious killers who can't wait to take a bite out of an unsuspecting surfer, sharks have struck fear into the hearts of many a beach visitor. But there is a lot more to the story than what we can see in the special edition of 'Jaws.' In fact, humans are surely responsible for the painful and tragic deaths of many more sharks than humans that have suffered a shark attack. A particularly brutal practice is known as “finning” or catching a shark for its fin (considered a delicacy in many parts of the world), and then throwing the fin-less shark back into the ocean where it dies a slow death, unable to swim without its fin. This is just one way that we are damaging shark species, and there are many more. Shark populations around the world have suffered and slowly declined and it’s time that we paid attention. Healthy oceans are so important to so many people, and sharks are important to healthy oceans. Next time you are renting a movie or want to expand your video collection, please take the time to see Sharkwater (See: http://www.sharkwater.com/index.php). It is a beautiful and tragic film that will educate you on the importance of sharks and how we are dangerously threatening these beautiful creatures. Seriously. Watch this movie. It’s worth it. |
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