Joshua Trees Dying

[_Gunnar]

http://news.yahoo.com/thanks-climate-ch ... 40524.html
Yet another casualty of climate change. Persistent drought conditions and rising temperatures killing off the yucca moths essential to pollination of Joshua trees, and also causing deadly stress on the Joshua trees themselves. Even though these trees are adapted to desert conditions, the climate changes in Joshua Tree National Monument is apparently proving too much, even for them.

[_Brackite]

Changing climate could move Joshua trees north

...

Climate change could be chasing Joshua trees out of Arizona, and the U.S. Geological Survey has sent a researcher to check on them.

Research ecologist Todd Esque is measuring and examining the plants at Grapevine Mesa Joshua Trees forest in Mohave County to see if they'll have the same fate as those he's been studying in Nevada.

"We've seen an area where there's, right at the fringe of the population, there's a band of really small Joshua trees," he explained. "Really young ones, and it looks like it's possible that as the conditions where the Joshua trees can germinate and grow potentially move more northward, then the Joshua tree population will be following that."

You can still see many picturesque Joshua trees in Grapevine Mesa. But just a few miles to the south, Joshua trees that thrived a decade ago are now dead or dying. To survive, the trees have to move northward and upward in elevation to escape drought and find that perfect climate that originally brought them to Arizona.

"Joshua trees used to be in Yuma, Ariz., where they're no longer at anymore," said Esque. "They're a couple hundred miles from there now, but where will they be 100 years from now? Will they be here or 100 miles north from here?"

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/ari ... h/9096935/

[_ldsfaqs]

Man you people are dumb.... The "environment" changes all the time, within even just a few years.
While you are crying some area's are getting hotter, other normally warmer areas are getting colder.

This has zero to do with "man" people. Have you forgotten "Greenland" used to be GREEN and full of trees?
Yet, it's mostly cold ice now.

Get with the program, "change" is the only constant. Environments do not and never have stayed "constant", so stop thinking they are supposed to.

[_Gunnar]

Man you people are dumb.... The "environment" changes all the time, within even just a few years.
While you are crying some area's are getting hotter, other normally warmer areas are getting colder.

This has zero to do with "man" people. Have you forgotten "Greenland" used to be GREEN and full of trees?
Yet, it's mostly cold ice now.

Get with the program, "change" is the only constant. Environments do not and never have stayed "constant", so stop thinking they are supposed to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland#Etymology Eric the Red did not give Greenland that name because it was actually green and full of trees. He gave it that name for PR purposes to entice prospective colonists and subjects that he could rule over to settle there.

Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for manslaughter. Along with his extended family and his thralls, he set out in ships to explore icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding a habitable area and settling there, he named it Grœnland (translated as "Greenland"), supposedly in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers.[12][13][14]

Admittedly, as the world continues to warm, Greenland may yet be able to live up to its name, but the one of the most undesirable tradeoffs is sea level rising enough to force abandonment of presently coastal communities everywhere, which include many of the most populous cities on earth.

[_ludwigm]

... sea level rising enough to force abandonment of presently coastal communities everywhere, which include many of the most populous cities on earth.

"Even the dead are affected".

The skeletons of 26 Japanese soldiers who died during World War II have been washed from their graves in the low-lying Marshall Islands, prompting warnings by the nation that its future is under threat from rising sea levels.
...
The nation’s 1,000-plus islands are only about six feet above sea level – and scientists are predicting a three- to six-foot rise in sea levels by the end of the century.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -seas.html
.

[_moksha]

Have you forgotten "Greenland" used to be GREEN and full of trees?

Excellent point. The ancient Nephites referred to Greenland as the land of lush shrubbery and coco butter, hence the name "Green" meaning green and "land" meaning a place not covered by water.

You should point out the drama queen nature of these so called "Joshua Trees" which were bound to retreat from the Earth due to their liberal nature in the Pre-Existence. They crave too much semi-arid attention.

[_ldsfaqs]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland#Etymology Eric the Red did not give Greenland that name because it was actually green and full of trees. He gave it that name for PR purposes to entice prospective colonists and subjects that he could rule over to settle there.

Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for manslaughter. Along with his extended family and his thralls, he set out in ships to explore icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding a habitable area and settling there, he named it Grœnland (translated as "Greenland"), supposedly in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers.[12][13][14]

Admittedly, as the world continues to warm, Greenland may yet be able to live up to its name, but the one of the most undesirable tradeoffs is sea level rising enough to force abandonment of presently coastal communities everywhere, which include many of the most populous cities on earth.

Greenland was relatively warm between about 800-1300 AD due to the well-defined 1500 year solar cycle, as detailed by Singer and Avery in:

"Unstoppable global warming every 1500 years".

We are currently in another upswing in the solar cycle, which started about 1750, and which will probably rise about another 0.5-1 degree C over the next few hundred years. Current T to the 21st century is entirely in line with this solar cyle trend. C02 is irrelevant to this cycle,it has been traced 600 times over the last 1 million years in ice cores, and is a result of an overlap between the 87 and 210 year solar cycles.

It is well documented, world wide, and climatologists have conveniently forgotten about it (see reference given above).

Greenland was settled by vikings during the last solar warming period, which is also why they travelled so far in general during this time period-the northern world was warm. They grew crops, and there were lots of trees. Even today on the borders of greenland there is still tree vegitation.

Anyway, I never claimed it was "entirely" green, nor was I addressing the epidimiology of the name, simply that it used to be much warmer and greener.

[_Falcon A]

"Green" means ice and "full" means sparce in ldsfaqsville.

I'd visit but what's it like in ldsfaqsville when he says it's sunny and warm?


Lol. Idiots.

[_EmilyAnn]

For various business reasons, my nuclear--plus my maternal--family spent a great deal of time in the desert areas when I was growing up, and Joshua trees were (to me) important parts of those trips.

Some of them, as individuals, became like friends to me, and I would "visit" them when we were anywhere near to them on those particular trips.

I didn't pay attention (or maybe I didn't see) the moths--I don't ever remember seeing a moth around a Joshua tree. (I did see birds, and snakes, and reptiles like horned toads--all of which became part of my perceived "family" to me.)

This is sad to read.

[_Quasimodo]

For various business reasons, my nuclear--plus my maternal--family spent a great deal of time in the desert areas when I was growing up, and Joshua trees were (to me) important parts of those trips.

Some of them, as individuals, became like friends to me, and I would "visit" them when we were anywhere near to them on those particular trips.

I didn't pay attention (or maybe I didn't see) the moths--I don't ever remember seeing a moth around a Joshua tree. (I did see birds, and snakes, and reptiles like horned toads--all of which became part of my perceived "family" to me.)

This is sad to read.

I lived for a few years in the Antelope Valley and used to run my dog through the Joshua Trees. I love them.

Did you know that they commit suicide?

Rain is rare where they grow so they suck up as much moisture as possible when it's available. The very large old ones will suck up so much water after a heavy rain that they collapse under their own weight.