Uploads from sillydog, tagged climatechange, with geodata

split_birch

nobody@flickr.com (sillydog) — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 17:58:05 -0800

sillydog posted a photo:

When one side of a tree heats up and the sap begins running, it becomes especially succeptible to damage when it gets cold again. This is very commonly seen as "southwest damage" in temperate zone trees.

Of course, chaotic weather can weaken entire forests this way, making them more succeptible to secondary predation by insects or pathogens.

unseaonably-warm-poolside1

nobody@flickr.com (sillydog) — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 01:26:17 -0800

sillydog posted a photo:

The caretaker whose job it is to administer to the pool warned us not to go in since he'd just put some powerful chemicals in.

Of course, by the time they had dissipated the next day the temperature had gone down again, but the damage was done. Cherry blossoms all over town had given up the ghost.

unseaonably-warm-poolside2

nobody@flickr.com (sillydog) — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 01:26:17 -0800

sillydog posted a photo:

We don't normally have 80F days here in Portland in April. As such, the later sweet cherry blossoms fell off in droves. Polly and I went to her pool for the first time in 2006 before it was even open for the season. By way of comparison, it's usually far too cold when it normally opens up on Memorial weekend, a month later.

two_pink_tulips

nobody@flickr.com (sillydog) — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 15:57:02 -0700

sillydog posted a photo:

Everything was about 10 days ahead of schedule this year except summer.

tree_down1

nobody@flickr.com (sillydog) — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 15:57:02 -0700

sillydog posted a photo:

Ah, side effect #54987 of Global Climate Change.

Our winters have become chaotic. What was once a rather reliable and steady state of rain has now become dry spells punctuated by heavy windstorms.

Here's how you knock a tree down: First you have a lengthy dry spell accompanied by very cold (for this area, anyhow) temperatures for a few weeks. Then you add some torrential rains for a few days, then you send in the 80 mph (129 kph) straight line winds and down they come, feeder roots and all. The tap root was broken off from all the stress and how violently it was torn down.

If it isn't one thing, it's another. Fires, winds, rodent and algae explosions. Hockey stick, indeed! I worry.

trillium_close2

nobody@flickr.com (sillydog) — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 15:26:02 -0700

sillydog posted a photo:

It's a sin to pick a trillium. It can take up to 7 years to go from seed to bloom. That's why their sites are so easily disturbed. They are, for all their reproductive rigidity, uniquely suited to the specific environment of the Willamette Valley.

If only those species that could tough out climate change were able to survive, would we, as a culture, have more reverence for the sparrow and the spider?