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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Joe Corsiglia, President Trump, Henry Heimuller, VP Pence, Pat Robertson, Debi Corsiglia’s dog, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Standard Disclaimer.
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The Joshua tree symbolizes the strength and beauty that can arise from dysfunction. Joshua trees are slow-growing, but because of this, they live for a long time. ...Because they require a cold period to flower, Joshua trees are vulnerable to climate change. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is currently reviewing the Joshua tree for listing under the Endangered Species Act
Climate Change
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest increased by 278% in July 2019 matched with July 2018, causing in the destruction of 870 square miles of vegetation. That’s an area about twice the size of the city of Los Angeles. And, while the forest still spans some 2.1 million square miles — just a little bit bigger than Mexico, the spike in tree loss is part of a hazardous trend. This is the single biggest swell in rainforest destruction since INPE(Brazilian National Institute for Space Research began monitoring deforestation with its current methodology in 2014. The data release falls in the middle of an ongoing quarrel between INPE scientists and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a climate change disbeliever who vowed on the campaign trail to open more of the Amazon to various mining, logging and agricultural interests, in spite of environmental protections on the land. On Aug. 2, Bolsonaro fired then-head of INPE, Ricardo Galvão, after the agency announced satellite data showing an 88% deforestation increase in June 2019 compared with June 2018. Bolsonaro called the data "a lie" and accused Galvão of serving "some NGO" (nongovernmental organization). The president's administration also announced that the government would hire a private company to take over Amazon deforestation monitoring. This way the president and his government can cook the books so to speak and release only the data they choose or not release any information. Sounds like the president gets a huge kick back from companies, to ensure that they get to rape the rainforest. As the largest remaining rainforest on Earth, the Amazon is also one of the planet's single largest carbon offsets, absorbing as much as 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year (as its trees use it for photosynthesis) and releasing roughly 20% of Earth's oxygen. Protecting the Amazon and other rainforests is one of the most cost-effective ways to combat the ongoing climate crisis. Yet greedy people are still destroying this valuable necessity. They would rather make a buck than have air to breath. Over the last 100 years, global temperatures have warmed by about 1.33 degrees Fahrenheit on average. The change may seem minor, but it's happening very quickly — more than half of it since 1979, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As the Arctic ice opens up, the world turns its attention to the resources below. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, 30 percent of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil are under this region. As a result, military action in the Arctic is heating up, with the United States, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Canada holding talks about regional security and border issues. Several nations, including the U.S., are also drilling troops in the far north, preparing for increased border patrol and disaster response efforts in a busier Arctic. As we all know natural resources is a capitalists wet-dream, and everyone wants it all. As temperatures shift, penguins are shifting their breeding seasons, too. A March 2012 study found that Gentoo penguins are adapting more quickly to warmer weather, because they aren't as dependent on sea ice for breeding as other species.
It's not just penguins that seem to be responding to climate change. Changes a bit closer to home might make the information easier to believe. Animal shelters in the U.S. have reported increasing numbers of stray cats and kittens attributed to a longer breeding season for the felines. It’s not just the Artic or mild climates that are feeling the climate change.Decreased winter snowfall on mountaintops is allowing elk in northern Arizona to forage at higher elevations all winter, contributing to a decline in seasonal plants. Elk have ravaged trees such as maples and aspens, which in turn has led to a decline in songbirds that rely on these trees for habitat. In Concord Massachusetts, compared to the late 1800s, the first flowering dates for 43 of the most common plant species in the area have moved forward an average of 10 days. Other plants have simply disappeared, including 15 species of orchids. Yet humans don’t really care, but they should. Even those pesky ole fruit flies are feeling the heat. According to a 2006 study, fruit fly genetic patterns normally seen at hot latitudes are showing up more frequently at higher latitudes. According to the research, the gene patterns of Drosophila subobscura, a common fruit fly, are changing so that populations look about one degree closer in latitude to the equator than they actually are. Ggenotypes are shifting so that a fly in the Northern Hemisphere has a genome that looks more like a fly 75 to 100 miles south. We all love Polar Bears, but not so much that we are trying to stop what we have done by reducing carbon. Polar bear cubs are struggling to swim increasingly long distances in search of stable sea ice, according to a 2011 study. The rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic is forcing bears to sometimes swim up to more than 12 days at a time, the research found. Cubs of adult bears that had to swim more than 30 miles had a 45 percent mortality rate, compared with 18 percent for cubs that had to swim shorter distances. Humans are slowly killing off these beautiful animals who have done nothing but what nature has evolved them to do, they don’t bother humans, for craps sake they live in the coldest or use to be the coldest place in earth. Yet human actions and greed are hurting them to “death”. Species are straying from their native habitats at an unprecedented rate: 11 miles ) toward the poles per decade. Areas where temperature is increasing the most show the most straying by native creatures. The Cetti's warbler, for example, has moved north over the last two decades by more than 90 miles. Earths creatures are trying to survive, sadly many are not, and the future looks bleak for those which do. A staggering 217 billion tons of meltwater flowed off of Greenland's ice sheet into the Atlantic Ocean this July. The worst day of melting was July 31, when 11 billion tons of melted ice poured into the ocean. This July's melt alone was enough to raise global average sea levels by 0.02 inches. Some people do not think that this is much but think about how much water that is world- wide. That vast amount is significant. In the long term, climate change is expected to cause even more-rapid melting — there is melting that is even more extreme than predicted by even the worst-case models just a few years ago. That will mean worsening storms, swamped coastlines and millions of climate refugees. At the same time, the heat that's melting all that ice is expected to make vast regions of the world uninhabitable for parts of the year, as temperatures climb beyond what the human body can handle. Humans has caused these issues which is adversely effecting all creatures, when will humans stop being so ignorant and do what is right and necessary to ensure the continuation of all life on this planet. I fear that humans will not do the right thing and life on this planet as we know it will be changed for the worse. The only good thing is that maybe the innocent creatures of our planet will somehow survive and if any one has to take the brunt of climate change is humans, maybe by then humans will finally understand that greed and money and convenience may not be so important. That a living, sustainable planet is.
Tammy
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