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Global Warming It’s the Trees’ Fault

Looks like Ronald Reagan’s statement may not have been so wrong when he said: “Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.” — Ronald Reagan, 1981

The assumption that planting new forests helps limit climate change has been challenged by a new study.  Researchers found that in Europe, trees grown since 1750 have actually increased global warming.  The scientists believe that replacing broadleaved species with conifers is a key reason for the negative climate impact.  Conifers like pines and spruce are generally darker and absorb more heat than species such as oak and birch.  The authors believe the work has implications for current efforts to limit rising temperatures through mass tree planting.

The research team reconstructed 250 years of forest management history in Europe – and found that the way forests are controlled by humans can lead to far less carbon being stored than would have been the case when nature was in charge.  Removing trees in an organised fashion tends to release carbon that would otherwise remain stored in forest litter, dead wood and soil.  Choosing conifers over broadleaved varieties also had significant impacts on the albedo – the amount of solar radiation reflected back into space.  “Even well managed forests today store less carbon than their natural counterparts in 1750,” said Dr Kim Naudts who carried out the study while at the Laboratory of Climate Science and Environment in Gif-sur-Yvette, France.

Speaking to Science in Action on the BBC World Service, she said: “Due to the shift to conifer species, there was a warming over Europe of almost 0.12 degrees and that is caused because the conifers are darker and absorb more solar radiation.”  The researchers say that the increase in temperature equates to 6% of the global warming attributed to the burning of fossil fuels. They say that is a significant amount and believe that similar impacts are likely in regions where the same type of afforestation has taken place.  Many governments have made planting trees a key part of their plans for dealing with climate change; China is building a “great green wall” of trees, set to cover around 400 million hectares when complete.  The authors suggest the world should look carefully at both the types trees that we are planting and the ways in which they are managed.

Trees’ Role in Global Warming

FOCM New Member Ceremonies

January 28, 2016 is a day, well an evening really, which shall long live in the dim memories of all those present to witness the historic event.  At a dinner hosted by PRA’s vendor management team for clinical research vendors with who they partner to bring new medicines to patients, Joe Perpetua and Shae Wilkins were inducted into the exclusive (that’s a bit of a stretch) FOCM organization.  I have known Joe for 1+ years and feel he has spent his probationary time well.  Shae, on the other hand, I have known for over 10 years and he just recently been deemed ready for membership.

Shae Wilkins Ceremony
Shae Wilkins Ceremony
Joe Perpetua Ceremony
Joe Perpetua Ceremony

The event was held at Americas in The Woodlands, TX (Americas Restaurant).

Hillary vs Bernie: Friend or Foe of Wall Street

From last night’s town hall on CNN,  Anderson Cooper asked the Democratic front-runner if she made “a bad error in judgment” by accepting $675,000 from Goldman Sachs for three speeches. She didn’t hesitate to say no.

Her explanation sounded flip. “That’s what they offered,” she said, adding that “every secretary of state that I know” has also given such high-priced speeches.

Cooper followed up by asking why she’d take the risk of making such appearances if she was going to run for president. Clinton said it was because she was not totally sure she would get in the race. “To be honest, I wasn’t committed to running,” she replied.

The most problematic part of her answer came when she insisted something that is demonstrably untrue: “They’re not giving me very much money now, I can tell you that much. Fine with me.”

However, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission filings.”

  • “In all, donors from Wall Street and other financial-services firms have given $44.1 million to support Hillary Clinton’s campaigns and allied super PACs, compared with $39.7 million in backing that former president Bill Clinton received from the industry.”
  • “Only about $75,000 of the $75 million Sanders has raised for his 2016 campaign has come from donors in the finance sector.”
  • “With the $21.4 million that Wall Street has given for her current White House bid, Clinton is on track to quickly exceed the nearly $23 million that she raised in her three previous campaigns combined from the PACs and employees of banks, hedge funds, securities firms and insurance companies.”

Washington Post article

So how can she attack Wall Street big money?  because she’s a politician and has a long history of saying whatever she feels she needs to in order to get elected.

Timbuktu Rhyming Joke

One of the jokes my Dad kept in his inventory and now my brother has made it one of his standard go-to jokes.  The version my Dad told is different than my google search on “timbuktu limerick”.  Shown below is the way my Dad told it, I remember the poets names could and did change:

The two great poets, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow have passed away and are at the Golden Gate.  St. Peter greets them enthusiastically: how wonderful to meet you two.  Unfortunately, we are nearly full of poets at this time.  I can only accept one of you at this time.   I will give each of you the same word and you must come up with a verse using this word.

“The word is: Timbuktu”, said St. Peter.

Tennyson went first:
” Across the hot Sahara sand,
Trekked the dusty caravan.
Men on camels, two by two,
Destination- Timbuktu.

St. Peter replied, “that is very good. Henry, it’s your turn.”

Longfellow cleared his throat and began:
” Tim and I, a-hunting went,
We met three girls in a pop-up-tent,
They were three and we were two,
So, I bucked one and Tim Buck Two!

Historical Information Captain Von Trapp

I imagine many of you have seen the movie The Sound of Music.  Well, at least people within 10 years of my age certainly have.  It was based on a true story of Georg von Trapp.  I was recently reading the book “Dead Wake” by Erik Larson about World War I and the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, a British oceanliner in 1915.  This event helped bring the USA into World War I.

I like history and in reading this book, I found it interesting to see a paragraph with a quote from Captain von Trapp.  As you recall from The Sound of Music, he was an Austrian Naval officer who the Nazis were demanding he join the German Navy.  Here’s the section which talks about Captain von Trapp:

Off the southeast tip of Italy a young Austrian U-boat commander named Georg von Trapp, later to gain eternal renown when played by Christopher Plummer in the film The Sound of Music, fired two torpedoes into a large French cruiser, the Leon Gambetta.  The ship sank in nine minutes, killing 684 sailors.  “So that’s what war looks like!” von Trapp wrote in a later memoir.  He told his chief officer, “We are like highway men, sneaking up on an unsuspecting ship in such a cowardly fashion.” Fighting in a trench or aboard a torpedo boat would have been better, he said.  “There you hear shooting, hear your comrades fall, you hear the wounded groaning-you become filled with rage and can shoot men in self-defense or fear; at an assault you can even yell! But we! Simply cold-blooded to drown a mass of men in an ambush!”