DAILY QUICK READ - AUGUST 29, 2016

Donald Trump Is Dangerous

OK.  That’s not a man bites dog headline is it?  The Republican Party’s assault on science has culminated in Trump’s studied ignorance of the real world.  Now Scientific American is calling him out on that ignorance.

…one of the two major party candidates for the highest office in the land has repeatedly and resoundingly demonstrated a disregard, if not outright contempt, for science. Donald Trump also has shown an authoritarian tendency to base policy arguments on questionable assertions of fact and a cult of personality.

…the major Republican candidate for president has tweeted that global warming is a Chinese plot, threatens to dismantle a climate agreement 20 years in the making and to eliminate an agency that enforces clean air and water regulations, and speaks passionately about a link between vaccines and autism that was utterly discredited years ago, we can only hope that there is nowhere to go but up.

We encourage the nation's political leaders to demonstrate a respect for scientific truths in word and deed. And we urge the people who vote to hold them to that standard.

Third Pole Is Melting

One billion people may lose the source of the water within 50 years.  But, Everest may become a much easier climb in shorts and t-shirts. 

The Himalayan Mountains and Tibetan Plateau, dubbed the "Third Pole" for having the largest ice mass on Earth after the polar regions, are rapidly losing their glaciers. Eighteen percent of China's glaciers have vanished in the past 50 years according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Air pollution and rising air temperatures are combining to increase glacial melt, threatening water supplies for one billion people.

Most of the 5,500 glaciers in the Himalaya-Hindu-Kush region—home of Mount Everest—may vanish by the end of this century. The long history of climbing through the Khumbu Icefall and up the Lhotse Face may become a rock scramble instead.

Hummingbirds Are Simply Amazing

A 3,000 mile migration for some, extinction for many.  Habitat destruction is the leading cause.  That’s something we could fix.

Imagine a Rufous Hummingbird traveling more than 3,000 miles on his annual spring migration from Mexico to British Columbia. Armed with a prodigious mental map of every place he's ever found food, the tiny bird heads to a familiar spot in California where he remembers a field full of flowers. He arrives only to find a big-box store and a giant parking lot. No flowers, no nectar. But the hummingbird has no time to waste; he spends the majority of his waking life gathering food to survive. So he flies on.

The Americas are home to 365 species of hummingbirds. Of these, the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists 28 species, or roughly 8 percent, as endangered or critically endangered. For most of these declining hummingbirds, loss of habitat is the leading threat to their survival.

11 Places to See

Before it’s too late.  Even, always optimistic travel publicans are facing the reality of global warming.  These are good places to go, however, as you won’t run into any Republicans at any of them, otherwise they might have to admit that climate change is real.

Get your reservations.

Climate Change Isn’t The Only Problem

Human behavior is a larger threat today than climate change.  We might not be able to fix climate change tomorrow, but there are things we can do to protect wildlife right now.

Climate change is dangerous, and it’s happening now. It threatens wildlife and the ecosystems they live in. It will make life harder for billions of people, with the greatest harm hitting the world’s poorest people. It may make some parts of the world uninhabitable for humans, and will almost certainly drive many species to extinction.

But there are a half-dozen other environmental threats that are even worse.

That’s according to a study published this month in Nature, generally considered the world’s most respected scientific journal. According to the study, which lists ten kinds of human-caused environmental damage and ranks them according to the number of wildlife species they now threaten, climate change comes in at just seventh place behind things like logging, farming, and urban development.

National Parks At 100

Great collection of vintage posters promoting our national parks.

A collection of posters created to promote tourism to the national parks is part of the creative legacy of the New Deal developed by Franklin D Roosevelt. Between 1938 and 1941, the Works Progress Administration and its Federal Arts Project designed a series of artworks promoting, and inspired by, the landscapes and wildlife of the parks. The collection is housed in the Library of Congress.

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 23, 2016

More Hummingbirds

Diverse and fascinating examples of the miracle of evolution.  Talk about unique methods to fill the niches in ecosystems.

Hummingbirds do just have a way of obsessing you. They're so fascinating, they're so diverse, and there's still so much we don't know about them. The Sword-billed Hummingbird in the Andes—nobody's ever seen their nest. Even some of our more familiar species are still yielding secrets.

My favorite species is more or less the one that's in my binoculars at the moment. My favorite almost has to be the Black-chinned Hummingbird. It's a pretty ordinary hummingbird in most respects. But I spent so much time banding them, getting to know their personal history, they're almost like family.

They're among the brainiest of the birds. They have amazing memories. They can remember not only which plants have nectar but how often it's replenished and which flowers they've just visited. Absolutely they remember your backyard. And they may even remember you. If the feeder is empty, they come looking for you.

Get your Climate Denier Action Figures

Check the Years of Living Dangerously site here.

Understanding Ecosystems – Not So Much

The Chinese government’s wrong-headed attempt to exterminate the pika are leading to the devastation of crucial grasslands and causing potential disastrous ramifications to a watershed that supports 20% of the world’s population.

Justifying the government’s extermination campaign, some Chinese scientists have blamed the pika for grassland degradation and erosion.

But a growing body of Western conservationists say they have it all wrong.

Far from causing grassland degradation, pikas tend to colonize areas where the grassland is already damaged by overgrazing or has dried out as a result of climate change. Not surprisingly, they prefer areas where the grass is short, so they can spot predators from farther away.

Rather than causing soil erosion, pika burrows dramatically improve drainage on the plateau, according to a 2014 study by Smith and Maxwell Wilson in the journal Ambio, published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Without them, water runoff creates more erosion and heightens the potential of dangerous floods downstream.

Fire, Fire, Fire

Normally the high fire season in Southern California is usually in September and October.  So this weekend’s fires are just a preview of what years of climate change driven drought and the expansion of residential housing are going to be like later.

Flames lit up the evening sky as a wildfire marched across hillsides north of Los Angeles, blackening thousands of acres, fire officials said.

The fire also created a huge cloud of smoke that wafted across the metropolis. As of 9:45 p.m. PT, the fire had burned 3,327 acres, the Los Angeles County Fire Department reported.

A fast-moving brush fire in northern Los Angeles County grew to 11,000 acres Saturday, darkening skies with smoke that spread across the city and suburbs, reducing the sun to an orange disk at times.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District warned that at times air would reach unhealthy levels, as the region was gripped by high heat and very low humidity.

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 20, 2016

Speed Freaks – Hummingbirds

At 60 miles per hour, how do hummingbirds navigate through tight spaces with seeming ease?  Despite their obvious skills, ten percent of these incredible bird species are endangered.

Hummingbirds dart around in colorful blurs, twisting and turning their flight and stopping on a dime, all at top speeds. Anna's hummingbird, native to the West Coast of North America, can even clock in at speeds of over 60 miles an hour.

The tiny birds actually use sophisticated visual clues to determine just how far away objects are, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But the hummingbirds didn't use the cues researchers expected.

Here's how it likely works when a hummingbird flies along in a wild environment: A tree just a foot away would expand more quickly in the bird's field of vision than one 15 feet away. So the birds seem to notice how different objects expand in their field of vision to determine which course corrections to make to avoid collisions.

"When objects grow in size, it can indicate how much time there is until they collide even without knowing the actual size of the object," Dr. Dakin said in a press release. "Perhaps this strategy allows birds to more precisely avoid collisions over the very wide range of flight speeds they use."

People Are Stupid - Mountain Goat Dies

Really!  Is it possible that people can be so clueless?  Even in Alaska - epicenter of American cluelessness (see Palin, Sarah)

A mountain goat in Alaska jumped into the ocean to get away from crowds snapping its picture, and the animal drowned when it couldn’t get back to land because of the crush of people on shore, troopers said.

Alaska state troopers said it was imperative to give animals adequate space. That didn’t happen on Saturday in downtown Seward, and troopers said in an online post that it “resulted in a wild animal dying for no cause”.

Stuff Still Happening

Just because a major American political party refuses to believe in climate change doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.  Each month in 2016 is the warmest recorded since formal record keeping began in 1880.

Global temperatures have been rising and sea ice has been melting at unprecedented rates since the start of 2016.

Scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York said that each month in the first half of this year set a record as the warmest month globally since temperature records began in 1880. The analysis is based on ground-based observations and satellite data for global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent. The period of January-June 2016 saw average temperatures 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) higher compared to the late 19th century.

And as temperatures continue to warm, global sea ice continues to melt. Five of the first six months in 2016 showed the smallest sea ice extent -- the area of the sea covered with ice -- since satellite tracking began in 1979. March was the only exception, recording the second smallest extent for that month.

Wolf Pack in Ontario

Wolves are under such incredible pressure in the wild.  Places like Haliburton are critical to keeping the species viable.

A wolf pack lives in a large forested enclosure near Haliburton, Ontario, where visitors can watch from the observatory and learn lots about these magnificent and reclusive animals.

If you drive three hours north of Toronto, then veer a bit to the east, you’ll come to the Haliburton Forest & Wild Life Reserve. This unique forest, privately owned by Peter Schliefenbaum, sprawls over 80,000 acres of rolling hills, stands of hardwood, and clean lakes. Lesser known than its famous neighbor, Algonquin Park, the Haliburton Forest has plenty of beautiful sights and fun activities worth checking out. Its attractions include camping, dog sledding, treetop canopy tours, astronomy, hiking and biking trails, public wolf howls, and wildlife viewing.

One of the Forest’s most unusual attractions is the Wolf Center. This is a 15-acre enclosure where a pack of wolves lives and roams. An interpretive center comprises part of the fence in one corner, with an observatory that’s equipped with one-way glass and a microphone to watch and listen to the wolf pack. The only problem is, you never know when the wolf pack will be hanging out in front of the observatory! With 15 acres of forest to explore, they could be anywhere. (There is a live wolf cam that allows you to check in from home to see what's going on.)

The only problem is, you never know when the wolf pack will be hanging out in front of the observatory! With 15 acres of forest to explore, they could be anywhere. (There is a live wolf cam that allows you to check in from home to see what's going on.)