Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Climate Change in Snickers Backyard

We have heard quite a lot about climate change recently. Is it happening, isn't it happening, is it the fault of humans, and so on. Climate change is truly a cyclic phenomenon, you need only to look at the history of the planet to know this. But I don't think there is any question that the imprint of humans and their use of carbon based products is having an affect in accelerating the process of climate change. There is so much we could do to minimize the imprint we are making. Do you know that right now in the State of Wisconsin, we have a company that dumps mercury as one of its byproducts in manufacturing. This company wants to convert to a process that does not use mercury. It is asking the state to freeze its electric bill for ten years so they can afford to pay for this conversion. The state "powers that be" are actually arguing about whether or not they should agree to this. Maybe I'm being short sighted, but doesn't it cost the state a whole lot more to pay for mercury cleanup in our soils and streams? What is the cost to the fishing industry, the Great Lakes, tourism? What are the health care costs to children born of mothers who eat mercury polluted food? I could go on.













Anyhow, here we are in the first half of January and we are documenting buds on our maple trees.














We also found buds on our elderberry bushes. There are many new shoots popping out of the ground with fresh leaves. You may need to click on the pictures to enlarge to get a better view.
Snickers and I hope the weather gets much colder to kill some of the bugs that are dormant out there. We hate mosquitos. West Nile Virus has become very deadly for the birds and other animals
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2 comments:

Robert Brinkmann said...

Way to go!!!

Oscar's mummy and daddy said...

Mum says spring seems to get earlier each year here in the UK too. Scary.

Licks
Oscar x