Year 2, Month 3, Day 8: And We Shiver When The (Hot) Winds Blow

The Seattle Times runs an AP story detailing a new study co-authored by Richard Waring, a tree expert. Climate change is going to destroy the habitat of the lodgepole pine, one of the most important trees in the Pacific Northwest:

Scientists have developed a computer model that predicts the lodgepole pine – one of the most common trees at high elevations in the Cascades and Rockies – will be largely driven out of the Northwest by 2080 due to the warming climate.

A more extensive version of the same article can be found at greenwichtime.com. Sent February 28:

The “skeptics” who continue to obfuscate and deny the ominous realities of global climate change will respond predictably to the just-published study showing the decimation of Lodgepole pine habitat within the coming century due to increasing temperatures. Some will claim that computer models cannot be trusted, some will simply say, “Who cares about trees?”, and some will claim it’s part of a widespread conspiracy to imprison SUV drivers on behalf of a New World Order. A scientifically literate reader could respond as follows: 1 – we trust computer models all the time throughout our civilization, 2 – those trees form important habitat for thousands of animal and plant species and have played important roles in human history as well, and, 3 – aside from being a paranoid delusion, such a worldwide cabal of research scientists is exponentially more improbable than the idea that human greenhouse emissions are drastically affecting our atmosphere, our climate and our lives.

Warren Senders