Globally we are losing ground. As of January 1, 2020, it will be 10 years and counting.

At a time when alternative energy is seen as Africa's hope, northeast Nigeria is becoming Easter Island with no hope for the future.

October 18, 2019
By Alicia Prager and Simpsa Samson

For all his adult life, (click here) Mohammed Haruna has worked as an accountant at a local bank. But with the escalation of the Boko Haram conflict in Nigeria’s Northeast, investors shied away. Five years ago, Haruna lost his job. To sustain his four kids and wife, the 49-year-old has desperately been looking for a way to make money.

He points at the big pile of wood behind him—it’s what he is offering clients today. As soon as everything is sold, he will go back into the bush to cut further trees.

The demand is high because firewood has become the number one source of energy in Nigeria’s conflict-ridden Northeast.

One loaded pick-up truck after another is leaving the market on the way to the customers’ homes. Five years ago, one load cost around 12,000 naira, today the price has more than doubled to roughly 25,000 naira ($70). And with every year that the conflict with Boko Haram persists, both demand and price are rising—and simultaneously the number of people looking for an income in the wood business....

This is a paper from the US Forest Service from 2011. Insect populations can effect the outcomes of wildlife.

Insects are not mammals with internal temperature regulation. Their temperature regulation is dependent on the climate and environmental temperatures. If insects are displaced or extinct because of climate and/or temperature, the bird populations will definitely be affected. Insect population will cause issues with the food chain.

Liebhold, A., Bentz, B. 2011. Insect Disturbance and Climate Change. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Climate Change Resource 

Center. www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/topics/insect-disturbance/insect-disturbance

Since forest insect populations (click here) are influenced by environmental conditions, future changes in climate can be expected to significantly alter the outbreak dynamics of certain forest insect species. In some cases, larger and more frequent insect outbreaks may occur, but in other cases recurring outbreaks may be disrupted or diminished. Shifts in temperatures that directly influence insects, as well as reduced host tree resistance caused by changes in precipitation can contribute to forest insect population growth. Alternatively, disruption of local adaptation to climate could result in localized population extirpation. Much is known about the influence of biotic and abiotic factors on some forest insect population eruptions. From this research it is clear that the effects of climate change on outbreaks will vary regionally as well as among different insect/host associations. Due to the complexity of the food webs and host tree dynamics that most forest insects are part of, in addition to the uncertainty of climate forecasts, predicting the effects of future climate change on insect-caused forest impacts will be challenging. Current research is aimed at increasing our understanding of the complexity of forest insect dynamics and enhancement of models for predicting forest impacts associated with future changes in climate. Options for applied forest management to mitigate the associated impacts can then be addressed.        

Do not plant Eastern Red Cedar near apple trees.

Pests and problems    (click here)                                                                                    =

Environmental Damage

• Drought
• Drowning and Edema
• Snow & Ice

Fungal Disease

Fungal Disease

Cedar-Apple Rust (click here)

Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae

• Cedar Rust Diseases (several)
• Cedar-Apple Rust (Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae)
• Cedar-Hawthorn Rust (Gymnosporangium globosum)
• Cedar-Quince Rust (Gymnosporangium clavipes)
• Gray Mold [Trees and Shrubs] (Botrytis cinerea and other species)
• Kabatina Blight (Kabatina juniperi)
• Pestalotiopsis Blight (Pestalotiopsis sp.)
• Phomopsis Tip Blight of Juniper (Phomopsis juniperovora)

Insect Damage

• Bagworm
• Juniper Webworm (Daeborneris marginella)
• Leaf Miner on Arborvitae and Junipers (Argyresthia cupressella)

Additional pests and problems that may affect this plant:
Rust diseases, twig blight.

The heritage of America's children are not just print in their history books.

Protecting habitat is vital. It is vital for the climate and it is vital for wildlife like this beautiful oriole (click here). The oriole, no different than the robin or bluejay are very hearty birds. When they start to flounder in numbers we are all in trouble.

10 October 2019

By Emily Holden

If the world experiences 3C warming, the Baltimore oriole is predicted to lose 57% of its wintering habitat range, while also facing threats from fire weather, spring heat, heavy rain and urbanization.

Two-thirds of bird species in North America (click here) are at risk of extinction because of the climate crisis, according to a new report from researchers at the Audubon Society, a leading US conservation group.

The continent could lose 389 of the 604 types of birds studied. The species face threats to their habitats from rising temperatures, higher seas, heavy rains and urbanization.

Those at risk include the wood thrush, a well-known songbird, and the Baltimore oriole, the mascot of Maryland’s baseball team. The recognizable common loon could disappear, as could the vibrant mountain bluebird.

Bird extinctions are yet another face of the human-caused biodiversity crisis threatening up to a million animal and plant species. A related study from Cornell University last month found the US and Canada lost one in four birds – or 3 billion total – since 1970.

“Birds are indicators of the health of our environment, so if they disappear, we’re certainly going to see a lot of changes in the landscape,” said Brooke Bateman, the senior researcher who wrote the report. “If there are things changing with birds we have to understand that the environment is changing for us as well.”

The berries of the Eastern Red Cedar is some of the most important aspects of this tree. There are no cones per se of these conifers.

The berries are 1/4 to 3/8 inch in diameter, sky blue in color, are soft, juicy, sweet and resinous. There are 1 to 2 seeds inside. 

These berries are consumed by all kinds of wildlife besides the Cedar Waxwings, there are Robins, mockingbirds, bluebirds, ruffed grouse, wild turkeys, goldfinches, flickers, and grosbeaks all like the berries, as do a long list of mammals: meadow mice,  rabbits, foxes, raccoons, skunks, possums, coyotes, bears, and deer.

The larger mammals do like these berries and include them in their diets, however, these mammals are somewhat limited in number in a coastal forest. 

For two decades I have been stating to put the power lines underground, it will pay for itself.

When the climate crisis is neglected by the federal leaders and not a national priority, it causes extreme economic damage and loss. Decades, it has been decades of repeated warnings. Decades of time that amounts to extreme neglect. The neglect of infrastructure investments over those decades has resulted in these ongoing tragedies. Neglect because of political dogma has to stop.

The installation of underground transmission (click here) lines costs more per foot than most overhead lines. Costs of underground construction can range from four to ten times as much as an equivalent length of overhead line. However, generalized cost ratios of underground to overhead options should not be used because costs are site-specific.

A typical new 69 kV overhead single-circuit transmission line costs approximately $285,000 per mile as opposed to $1.5 million per mile (without the terminals) for a new 69 kV underground line. A new 138 kV overhead line costs approximately $390,000 per mile as opposed to $2 million per mile (without the terminals).

A 2006 Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report estimated that constructing underground transmission lines ranges 4 to 10 times more expensive when compared to overhead lines of the same voltage.

The economic losses due to electrical wires above ground will compensate for an underground alternative.          

Obviously, (click here) I am all for any initiative that has the potential to reduce outages and improve emergency preparedness for electric utilities.  Let’s take a look at the advantages of underground power lines:

• Reduces outages because buried lines are not susceptible to damage from high winds or falling trees
• Looks better aesthetically
• Generates a positive economic impact by reducing outage-caused downtime for local businesses
• Can be coordinated with road repair activity to reduce excavation costs

And here are the disadvantages that come to mind:

• Installing underground lines can cost 7-10 times more than overhead lines, a cost that would likely be paid by customers in the form of higher rates
• Buried lines must be protected by conduit, otherwise they are susceptible to shortages from groundwater infiltration
• Buried lines can take longer to repair because the damaged area is usually more difficult to locate
• Undergrounding can be risky due to the presence of underground obstacles or other utility lines like gas, water or telecommunication lines.
• Underground power lines would not prevent outages caused by damage to high-voltage lines or tower.

As you can see, there is no clear answer here.  For a local community flavor to this argument, read this article about the strife over this topic in Stroudsburg, PA.

The ultimate question is this: how much are people willing to pay for increased reliability?  And the only way to find out is to crunch the numbers, make the pitch, and gauge the public’s reaction.  And get ready for a fight.                 

The leaves of this evergreen occur opposite on the branch and each leaf has four rows. Each tiny branch is actually the leaf. The leaf has at least four rows, but usually not more than five on mature trees, of scale-like needles. Each needle can be 1/16th and up to 3/8 inch long at the tip. 

Add caption

Wind and fire, does California ever get a break? They are the most climate conscience people in the country and they are punished the most.

Incident Information System (click here)

Los Angeles Times (click here)

The bark of the Eastern Red Cedar is red to reddish-brown. The bark is thin, fibrous and shreddy. It is chronically shedding it's' bark in fibrous strands.

The Eastern Red Cedar was used for furniture, rail fences and log cabins as early as the colonists of Roanoke Island, Virginia.

The more modern use of the tree is for cedar chests cabinets, carvings and pencils. It is no longer used for pencils but was in the earliest manufacturer.

Cedar oil is obtained from the wood and leaves and is used for medicines and perfumes. 

When Massachusetts lost power it was because of wind, but, there were fires set by dry air.

October 17, 2019

By Emily Shapiro, Max Golembo and Dan Peck

Over half a million people (click here) were in the dark across New England Thursday after a powerful nor'easter struck overnight, bringing violent winds that toppled trees and power lines.

In the coastal Massachusetts town of Duxbury, where wind gusts reached 80 mph, Fire Capt. Rob Reardon told ABC News: "This whole town got hit pretty hard. You can tell by just the amount of trees, the wires, the damage to houses."...

Juniperus virginiana L.

The coastal Northern Pine Oak Forest includes a native pine tree called the "Eastern Red Cedar Pine Tree."

It is an aromatic Evergreen. An evergreen is a plant, tree or bush, that has green leaves throughout the year. It contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.

It has an angled trunk that tends to have a thicker base than the rest of the trunk. It has a narrow, compact crown becoming somewhat broad and irregular in the body of the tree. It can grow to 40 to 60 feet with a diameter of 1 to 2 feet. 

The Eastern Red Cedar is a prolific tree. It can be found in areas where it is also unwanted which brings to mind the ability to control the expanse of it's territory by controlled burns. It grows in abandoned fields, along fence rows, in dry limestone uplands to flood plains and swamps.

It can be found in southern Ontario, along the eastern USA from Maine to northern Florida, as far west as Texas and as north as North Dakota. 

April 12, 2017
By Steve Nix

Eastern redcedar (click here) is not a true cedar. It is a juniper and the most widely distributed native conifer in the Eastern United States. It is found in every state east of the 100th meridian. This hardy tree is often among the first trees to occupy cleared areas, where its seeds are spread by cedar waxwings and other birds that enjoy the fleshy, bluish seed cones....

A Cedar Waxwing with one of it's favorite food, the berries from the Eastern Red Cedar.

It's Sunday Night

WINDRUNNER - Cedar (Re-imagined) (click here for interview with the band - thank you)

"Cedar" by Windrunner (click here for Facebook site - thank you)

It's been months since the last time I felt right
Drowning in this mess
How I long for a glance of your eyes
Green satin silk in a misty scent

Surrounded by a hundred empty hands
Waiting to be enlightened
All eyes to the figure of tense strings
Lavish feather flying in the air
Follow the way, for it is the compass you’ve always searched for
These burning candles light the way for the infelicitous
Choking breath, as the heart's beating faster
This regime must not be moldered

And I know that time has come for us to separate
From everything we've built together all this time
Promise me that you’ll stay this way forever
Even if we never meet again
I know you're always in my heart
You'll always be in my heart

Stainless mind
It is the only anchor
Keeping you alive
Clear as ice
That is the only way to survive
This fruit can't be stolen
Every action is a reflection
And future is the mirror
Sinful bodies
Claim your prize
This is the price you have to pay

And I know that time has come for us to separate
From everything we've built together all this time
Promise me that you'll stay this way forever
Even if we never meet again
I know you're always in my heart
You'll always be in my heart

Cecil and David Rosenthal. Bernice and Sylvan Simon. Daniel Stein, Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried and Melvin Wax. Irving Younger and Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz. Rose Mallinger.

October 27, 2019
By Mallory Simon and Sara Sidner

Pittsburgh - Some things are very clear to Joe Charny (click here) -- remembering the dead is the right thing to do. Other things are not so clear -- why a gunman spared him but killed 11 mostly elderly worshippers at prayer on a fall morning in Pittsburgh a year ago.

The gunman intent on killing Jews pointed his weapon at Charny inside the Tree of Life sanctuary, but then turned and chose to fire at others, he says. His friends, seated at the back of the sanctuary, were killed. Charny was able to escape.

And so he takes it upon himself to remember.

Every weekday he goes to a synagogue and sits in the same place as he did at the Tree of Life on the day of the massacre and for decades before. The fourth row, first seat on the right. He stands as part of the minyan, 10 adult males required to be present for a communal prayer service.

This day, he also leads the service. He stands at the front of the room, looking out at his fellow worshippers. It's just days shy of a year since people like them were slaughtered for being Jewish. Along with saying the Mourner's Kaddish, the names of those who died on this day in the Hebrew calendar are read as is Jewish tradition. But in this temple, and many across Pittsburgh, they do more. Every single day since the shooting -- the deadliest attack against Jews in American history -- the names of the 11 dead are recited....

The gunman was sick with hatred, who knows why he acted the way he did.

Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was banned from preventing Trump's blackmail of the Ukrainian president.

This is the way the US House Impeachment Inquiry rolls. This is not a Special Prosecutor as with Clinton. The US House does not want witnesses corroborating their testimony and that is why the committee is meeting in a SCIF (Secret Compartmented Information Facility). There is no covert anything going on in that SCIF. There are Republicans in attendance. The show of force by Republicans that compromised the SCIF was all fictitious spin produced by Fox News.

I am proud of our career diplomats. They are strong. They love their country.

I would think the US House would be praised for holding confidential committee meetings to get to the truth for the benefit of the country and quite possibly the president. Trump should be happy everything is confidential. It protects whatever reputation he may have. I guess he and Guilliani know the truth and are afraid of it.

October 26, 2019
By Bobby Allyn

Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of state for Europe, leaves the Capitol in Washington after a closed-door interview Saturday about President Donald Trump's ouster of the ambassador of Ukraine.

Philip Reeker, (click here) a U.S. diplomat who oversees European affairs, told House members he had plans of defending former Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in the face of a smear campaign against her, but Reeker was overruled by top State Department officials, according to a person familiar with Reeker's testimony.

In a rare Saturday hearing, Reeker sat for more than eight hours of questions from lawmakers running the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Reeker appeared under a subpoena issued by House lawmakers, despite being ordered not to cooperate by Trump.

Reeker, a career foreign servicer officer, was named the acting assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian affairs in March, a few months before Yovanovitch became a political target and was removed from her post.

Just before her ouster, however, Reeker wanted to draft a strongly-worded statement from State Department officials to strike back at the attacks she was enduring in conservative media and by allies of Trump. But that letter was scotched by David Hale, the No. 3 official in the State Department, according to the person familar with Reeker's testimony....

This is who I call an ally. We trained them. The USA should offer refugee status to the displaced Kurds.

He never left Syria. There is a good chance where the USA backed rebels were fighting was his hiding place. It was another bin Laden raid.

...A U.S. Army official (click here) briefed on the results of the operation told Newsweek that Baghdadi was killed in the raid, and the Defense Department told the White House they have "high confidence" that the high-value target killed was Baghdadi, but further verification is pending DNA and biometric testing. The senior Pentagon official said there was a brief firefight when U.S. forces entered the compound in Idlib's Barisha village and that Baghdadi then killed himself by detonating a suicide vest. Family members were present. According to Pentagon sources, no children were harmed in the raid but two Baghdadi wives were killed after detonating their own explosive vests....

They tried to kill anyone in the area, including the soldiers.

October 27, 2019
By James Doubek

Updated at 8:21 a.m. ET

A Syrian Kurdish general (click here) says ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was "eliminated" in a joint operation with the U.S.

Mazloum Abdi, the Kurdish commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, tweeted the message Sunday amid reports that Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. attack in northwest Syria.

War monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says U.S. forces attacked ISIS targets overnight in northwest Syria, leaving at least nine people dead.

An Iraqi security official tells NPR that U.S. military commanders told him they believe ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead but are waiting for DNA tests for confirmation. The official asked to remain anonymous because he did not have authorization to speak publicly....

His entire career was extreme and aspired to be a despot. He made overtures about New York to US soldiers when he was released from prison. He was nothing but evil. He thought nothing but evil thoughts empowered by falsehoods about his personal power. He never cared about a society of benevolence so much as power. People, as a society, fail to thrive under power, but, succeed with benevolence. He was doomed from the beginning.

October 27, 2019

By Daniella Peled

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (click here) has only appeared in public once since he declared himself emir (leader) of the Islamic State in June 2014. But this reclusive figure has long been among the most feared terrorist leaders in the world.

Born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri al-Samarrai in 1971 in the Iraqi city of Samarra, he grew up in a devout, lower-middle-class family that claimed to be able to trace its lineage back to the Prophet Mohammed....