Yes, Redwood and Sequoias only spread out after a fire has toasted away the underbrush and dried out the cones. Otherwise the seeds rot .
Global doom and gloom.
- Thread starter esoxlucius
- Start date
The ground rods had nothing to do with our forest fires. That was from power lines breaking in the wind. (Way Up North it can happen from ice. )
Mainly the rods were recommended due to issues with swimming pools, spas, metal buildings, and animal housing. Unfortunately this can and did make some things worse. The reasons are usually due to circuits/situations that were compromised elsewhere.
Hello; I understand the feeling. Saw another burden for some homeowners in your area in the news. That being insurance companies are starting to refuse to write or to renew policies for some areas.
The fires and earthquakes make me think of the problems faced on the east coast. Back in 1998 to 1999 I was working near Wilmington NC. A big issue for that area was hurricane damage. Seems people would rebuild back on the ocean front areas and the insurance costs were becoming a sticking point for non-beach front residents. Best I can recall is rates were going up for all in the area even tho the majority of claims from storm damage was in places close to the ocean. I understood both sides. People on the beach liked living there and wanted insurance while people living far enough inland who did not get anywhere near as much storm damage were upset about their rates going up. I am not sure what, if anything, was ever done.
There was one other issue along the beach fronts. That being the density of new housing which was becoming too much for the ground to handle in terms of the septic load. That is another one I did not stay around long enough to follow up. Last I knew there were proposals to limit new construction. In the neighborhood where I rented a room new houses were being built at a very fast rate. In the two years I worked there I saw new construction a lot. The fellow I rented the room from told me recently that the entire area is now packed with homes. One thing puzzled me at first. The land was sandy soil all over the area. I would see trucks of sand being hauled in specifically to make the septic beds. I asked about it. Seems there are several sorts of sand and one is favored for making a septic bed. I also noticed the septic beds were not buried as deep like they are in my current area. More like a thick layer of the septic sand close to the surface with the field pipes in that layer. I did not get the answer to this but figured such was to keep the septic field above the water table.
The area reacted to rain much different than here in TN. It could rain very heavy enough to fill the deep ditches which lined every road and lane and even flood a bit, but within an hour after the sandy ground surface would be back to normal. Here in north east TN the exposed clay soil turns into a thick sticky mud after a rain. Without grass the ground would be a sticky mass after every rain. I find that working in the exposed soil here after a rain the sticky clay mud builds up on my boots and makes them weigh several times heavier. The red clay mud also leaves boot prints on my blacktop driveway if I am stupid enough to walk on it. Those boot prints will stay for weeks or months even with heavy rain.
I also ramble.
Earthquakes worry me far less than the fires. Fires, after an earthquake, in a city . . . now that is scary.
As a youth, I lived close to the wilderness, in New York, Arizona, Washington, Minnesota, and Utah. It was lovely and uncomplicated by the issues of population. We suffered all the inconveniences of weather, distance, expense & scarcity of everything "imported" from the cities. I ate a lot of frozen veggies. Shoveled snow like a machine.
After moving to the edge of farm country I was much happier. The city is both close enough and far enough. The weather here in citrusland, along the blossom trail, is rarely foul.
I was so used to "routinely foul" that I consider it a great reward to retire here. Now if the taxes all go up as promised I will feel less so, but I don't truly credit those as more than dubious predictions. Because of the crisis, there's enough deferred maintenance in CA to fund a lot of manhours. Many thousands of houses and other structures must be rebuilt. Construction, repair, rehab, and cleanup outfits will be earning big $ and paying big taxes. Big money will be made in standalone power systems and off-grid products. Mobility will become more crucial.
Invest wisely and you can thank me later.
BTW, while I am on probation, I cannot "like" anybody's photos or words.
I am allowed to secretly report on people, however.
?
I am allowed to secretly report on people, however.
?
Hello; I was browsing the stuff which comes up when I log on to the internet. Saw an article about arctic methane. Was going to link it here but could not find it when I went back. Anyway just do a search using the two terms artic methane . When I did so a slew of stories came up. I have known of methane hydrate for a long time. The sleeping giant of greenhouse gases so to speak.
Back in the days when it looked like fuel for our cars was about to run low I had wondered if some how that methane could be captured and used. My thinking being since methane is a many times worse greenhouse gas than co2 if just released into the air, that burning it and converting it to co2 might be a wiser choice. You still get some greenhouse gas, but a less intense one and also some useful energy. Of course back then it was a "one of these day in the future" thought problem. Funny how the future always seems to show up as now.
My mind keeps drifting back to the 1960's and 70's. Winters back then were often very harsh in this same are where I still live. The winter of 1977 was an especially bad one, but not the only one. I seem to recall the experts thinking we might be at the end of an interglacial period and heading into another glacial advance time. It was known there had been several advances of the ice sheets over time with interglacial times of warming. I guess the thinking was we may have reached a tipping point for a somewhat quick, in geological terms, into another cold period.
Well that scenario does not seem to have played out, at least for a while. While I can buy into our human activities adding a layer of impact onto natural climate forces, I just do not see our stuff overcoming natural forces over time. May be we have thrown an extra blanket (analogy for greenhouse gas) around the earth and added a bit to things. However that methane hydrate was and has been around for a very long time and my guess could dwarf our activities.
Here is my take on natural methane. There are in swamps and some lakes places where layers of mud form which trap organic stuff. The mud layers can create an anaerobic zone (no oxygen) where types of bacteria feed and release methane (swamp gas). I have see it.
A fellow I know ran a store in Harlan County KY. One day he asked me to look at his store toilet. He flushed it and threw in a lit match at the same time. It briefly flared in flame. We suspect that being in the coal and natural gas zone of the mountains it was from the then new processes of tricking more gas out of the rocks. Must have been the methane getting into the water table and into some well water. I don't know how that played out as i moved about 50 miles away and have not been back in over ten years.
So the same natural forces that made coal beds and natural gas deposits millions of years ago and over time have trapped methane hydrate. That hydrate is the things to look out for more than co2.
Back in the days when it looked like fuel for our cars was about to run low I had wondered if some how that methane could be captured and used. My thinking being since methane is a many times worse greenhouse gas than co2 if just released into the air, that burning it and converting it to co2 might be a wiser choice. You still get some greenhouse gas, but a less intense one and also some useful energy. Of course back then it was a "one of these day in the future" thought problem. Funny how the future always seems to show up as now.
My mind keeps drifting back to the 1960's and 70's. Winters back then were often very harsh in this same are where I still live. The winter of 1977 was an especially bad one, but not the only one. I seem to recall the experts thinking we might be at the end of an interglacial period and heading into another glacial advance time. It was known there had been several advances of the ice sheets over time with interglacial times of warming. I guess the thinking was we may have reached a tipping point for a somewhat quick, in geological terms, into another cold period.
Well that scenario does not seem to have played out, at least for a while. While I can buy into our human activities adding a layer of impact onto natural climate forces, I just do not see our stuff overcoming natural forces over time. May be we have thrown an extra blanket (analogy for greenhouse gas) around the earth and added a bit to things. However that methane hydrate was and has been around for a very long time and my guess could dwarf our activities.
Here is my take on natural methane. There are in swamps and some lakes places where layers of mud form which trap organic stuff. The mud layers can create an anaerobic zone (no oxygen) where types of bacteria feed and release methane (swamp gas). I have see it.
A fellow I know ran a store in Harlan County KY. One day he asked me to look at his store toilet. He flushed it and threw in a lit match at the same time. It briefly flared in flame. We suspect that being in the coal and natural gas zone of the mountains it was from the then new processes of tricking more gas out of the rocks. Must have been the methane getting into the water table and into some well water. I don't know how that played out as i moved about 50 miles away and have not been back in over ten years.
So the same natural forces that made coal beds and natural gas deposits millions of years ago and over time have trapped methane hydrate. That hydrate is the things to look out for more than co2.
Arctic methane is an interesting and unique case. It is obviously a major player in the global weather game, but it will never be a Big Name Headliner simply because no one can figure out a way to blame its existence on human activity. We didn't create it, we don't exploit it as a resource and we aren't directly doing anything to exacerbate its effects...it just is. This means that it isn't sexy and cool and trendy to talk about. If it could somehow be made to appear as though it's our fault, the league of social justice warriors would jump on it immediately; but right now, they have other greener pastures to graze.
But don't worry. The finest spin doctors in the world are probably working on the problem, and it may be the Next Big Thing for vegan soccer moms everywhere to fret over.
But don't worry. The finest spin doctors in the world are probably working on the problem, and it may be the Next Big Thing for vegan soccer moms everywhere to fret over.
This is one of those reasons I'm sad the biosphere project was a bust on so many levels.
We learned what we can't do, but not what we should or can.
While Musk dreams of domes on other worlds, we will likely need them here for a while.
If not to escape our own effluvium (which I know is a minor thing by comparison)
Then to escape the hiccups of Earth itself.
If our O2 level drifts much, life here will change a lot.
Where people of the 50's & 60's imagined and built bomb shelters
We may well be building "air shelters".
Places where you can go inside and take off your mask.
Did anybody else's head just spin about 12 degres?
We learned what we can't do, but not what we should or can.
While Musk dreams of domes on other worlds, we will likely need them here for a while.
If not to escape our own effluvium (which I know is a minor thing by comparison)
Then to escape the hiccups of Earth itself.
If our O2 level drifts much, life here will change a lot.
Where people of the 50's & 60's imagined and built bomb shelters
We may well be building "air shelters".
Places where you can go inside and take off your mask.
Did anybody else's head just spin about 12 degres?
I have watched survival type nature programmes from very cold climates where they go fishing. They drill holes in the ice in frozen lakes and before they can start fishing they have to burn the methane gas that comes out of the hole, and lots if it. The methane, as you say, is built up in the lake bed, released, but cannot escape into the atmosphere due to the very thick and sometimes year round ice. Apparently climate change is eventually going to melt all this ice and scientists predict that extremely bad things are going to happen due to these enormous methane gas reserves. It will enter the atmosphere and turn us into Venus!!!
I also once watched a documentary regarding the "cycles" which the earth goes through as it hurtles through the solar system/milky way/universe. There are some "nasty" areas that cause havoc with the earth's climate. Such things as ice ages and the likes. We know they come around in cycles, the evidence can be found in deep core permafrost that scientists have analysed. Although humans do contribute to a certain degree I believe that people who think humans are solely to blame for climate change are extremely blinkered. We keep going on about temperatures rising but yet just round the corner is the next ice age! Go figure that one.
