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TREES FEARED

The latest environmental catastrophe: trees might grow!

Trees could be growing in the Antarctic within a century because of global warming, an international scientific conference heard.

Trees vanish from the Amazon: bad news. Trees grow in the Antarctic: bad news. Why can’t trees get it right?

With carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere set to double in the next 100 years, the icy continent could revert to how it looked about 40 million years ago, said Professor Robert Dunbar of Stanford University.

So we’re returning that blasted wasteland to its previously verdant, unmolested-by-humankind state. If you’re not contributing to global warming, you’re part of the problem.

"It was warm and there were bushes and there were trees,” he told some 850 delegates in the Tasmanian capital Hobart ...

... who shuddered with terror.

Dunbar said climate experts were predicting a doubling of the levels of carbon dioxide by 2100, “but it actually looks like it’s going to come sooner unfortunately."

Tree-hating brutes. It’s all about the ice with these people.

Posted by Tim B. on 07/13/2006 at 11:08 AM
  1. I know it’s just a small detail, but isn’t the central ice cap in Antarctica growing?

    Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2006 07 13 at 11:16 AM • permalink

  2. I think that I shall never see
    An Antarctic so lovely as one with trees

    Posted by paulris on 2006 07 13 at 11:22 AM • permalink

  3. If trees start growing in Antarctica, then next we’ll have developers moving in to clear them out.

    “But look, you found the notice didn’t you?”

    “Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard Seal.”

    Posted by The Sanity Inspector on 2006 07 13 at 11:23 AM • permalink

  4. From the article linked by Bruce:

    “As glaciers from Greenland to Kilimanjaro recede at record rates, the central ice cap of Antarctica has steadily grown for the past 11 years, partially offsetting rising seas due to the melt waters of global warming, researchers said yesterday.”

    I remember a science quiz show that explained why a glass filled with water and ice would not overflow as the ice that stuck up above the rim melted. I can understand why there isn’t a direct correlation to rising seas/ice cap melt, but I’d bet global warming scare mongers are, well, trying to scare us with predictions of ocean front property in Arizona.

    Posted by Retread on 2006 07 13 at 11:26 AM • permalink

  5. Of course there’s a problem with Antarctica losing ice! 

    How will we make a decent martini without any ice?  Or do you think ice grows on trees?

    Geez, people, get a clue!

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 07 13 at 11:31 AM • permalink

  6. Just think!  Antarctica will become the new Land of Opportunity.  Condos, theme parks, golf courses, shopping malls.  Of course the trees will have to mostly go to accommodate all that.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 07 13 at 11:39 AM • permalink

  7. Don’t let your guard down, people.  It’s us or the trees.  Us or the trees.

    Posted by withcheese on 2006 07 13 at 11:40 AM • permalink

  8. Since Polar bears do not exist in Antarctica, there are no land mammals living in Antarctica from what I’ve read, except for those that freeze their asses off doing scientific studies, of whatever nature.

    I guess if this occurs Trees could grow in Antarctica within century , there would still be no bears that shit it the woods.

    Posted by El Cid on 2006 07 13 at 11:42 AM • permalink

  9. Oh, fortunate Australia.  ‘Coz you know the fair land of Oz owns (or at least, claims) about 1/3 of Antarctica?  Gunns will be rubbing their hands in glee.

    Posted by Olrence on 2006 07 13 at 11:52 AM • permalink

  10. Change is bad, ‘mmmkay?

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 07 13 at 12:01 PM • permalink

  11. Antarctica. Covered with trees. Perhaps with American Chestnut trees. A vision that only a green could hate.

    Antarctica will become the new Land of Opportunity.  Condos, theme parks, golf courses, shopping malls. Psssst! El Cid. You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’? We really ought to cut rebecca in, though; it was her idea.

    Posted by paco on 2006 07 13 at 12:51 PM • permalink

  12. #11.
    Could still sell you jokers some shares in Gunns.  Before it’s too late.

    Posted by Olrence on 2006 07 13 at 12:54 PM • permalink

  13. paco

    Antarctica will become the new Land of Opportunity.  Condos, theme parks, golf courses, shopping malls. Psssst! El Cid. You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’? We really ought to cut rebecca in, though; it was her idea.

    Hell ya, just the thought makes me dizzy...Bears Don’t Shit In Our Woods Estates, Strap Your Ass In, Cause This Sumbitch Goes World, Sink This Asshole Golf And Country Club, Leave Your Money At Our Maul Mall Mall.

    WOW!

    Well whatever, the names can be worked out.

    Posted by El Cid on 2006 07 13 at 01:29 PM • permalink

  14. Perhaps we can start a vineyard once we clear the tress.

    url=http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/flavia/archives/003582.html]null[/url]

    Posted by smiller on 2006 07 13 at 01:43 PM • permalink

  15. trees
    not
    tress
    . Damn bush.

    And here’s the link (sorry, new to posting to blogs, and ummm, didn’t read the FAQ)I blanked

    Posted by smiller on 2006 07 13 at 01:51 PM • permalink

  16. Paco:  Are there no penguins, sir?  Have you no decency?

    Posted by ushie on 2006 07 13 at 02:02 PM • permalink

  17. ushie

    Are there no penguins

    Had one once, damn near shot my finger off.

    Oh, you said guins.

    Posted by El Cid on 2006 07 13 at 02:09 PM • permalink

  18. Did someone mention penguins?

    Mmmm!

    Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2006 07 13 at 02:11 PM • permalink

  19. Fucking NazTrees at it again.

    Posted by SoberHT on 2006 07 13 at 02:18 PM • permalink

  20. #16 Ushie: Not only will there be penguins, but they will soar through the air like eagles (albeit chubby eagles decked out in formal evening attire).

    Posted by paco on 2006 07 13 at 02:23 PM • permalink

  21. I’ve been hering about these rising seas for a couple of decades now, but so far I can’t tell the difference. You’d think by now we’d have lost Miami or that the Statue of Liberty would be getting her toes wet by now.

    Posted by Merlin on 2006 07 13 at 02:43 PM • permalink

  22. I, for one, am signing up to protect the trees of Antarctica.

    I’ll be tying myself to an Antarctic beech, now only found in Tasmania, but which once flourished on the, until recently, frozen continent.

    Posted by jlc on 2006 07 13 at 02:58 PM • permalink

  23. Olrence.  Silly idea re Antartic’s trees & Gunns (a large Tasmanian lumber company for o/s readers - Chief Hate Corporation for the tree huggers).  We (Gunns) won’t be finished in Tasmania for ages, so no need to worry about Artartica.  Too far from markets (hmmm, unless those condos need wooden frames.  Ker-ching!!).

    I think the “Gunns 12” look very appealing with their mouths taped over, don’t you?  Especially Bob Brown.  Why doesn’t brown-eye have the guts to keep his mouth taped all the time?

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 07 13 at 03:00 PM • permalink

  24. Antartic Beech’s scientific name is Nothofagus gunii

    Gunii - ROFL !

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 07 13 at 03:02 PM • permalink

  25. Dunbar said climate experts were predicting a doubling of the levels of carbon dioxide by 2100

    I wear trifocals.  When I looked at that sentence the first time, I though it said, “Dumfart said....”

    Even when I’m wrong, I’m right.  ;-p

    Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2006 07 13 at 03:20 PM • permalink

  26. #11 We really ought to cut rebecca in, though; it was her idea.

    Damn straight.  And I want the Humvee franchise.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 07 13 at 03:57 PM • permalink

  27. Oh for heaven’s sake.  Just when I think you people have sunk to the lowest level just to become rich ...

    Um, might I remind everyone about the super secret neocon submarine base on the north shore of Antartica.  I for one don’t want condos built beside our base.  Wouldn’t remain secret would it?

    Posted by wronwright on 2006 07 13 at 04:20 PM • permalink

  28. All this time I have been blaming bush, when I should have been blaming tree.

    Posted by Latino on 2006 07 13 at 04:39 PM • permalink

  29. If a tree falls in Antartica and no-one is there to hear it…

    Posted by AlburyShifton on 2006 07 13 at 04:45 PM • permalink

  30. THe Antarctic Beech (Nothofagus g.) is also found in sunny Queensland grwoing ever slowly in the subtropical jungle of the Lamington Plateau.
    It’s a rainforest out there!

    Posted by 81Alpha on 2006 07 13 at 04:48 PM • permalink

  31. #27: Um, might I remind everyone about the super secret neocon submarine base on the north shore of Antartica.  I for one don’t want condos built beside our base.  Wouldn’t remain secret would it?

    Quite right. Ok, everybody, listen up! Proceed immediately to forget about the secret neocon base (and that inckudes any New York Times reporters out there).

    Posted by paco on 2006 07 13 at 04:54 PM • permalink

  32. wronwright
    super secret neocon submarine base on the north shore of Antartica

    ROFL!  I’ll credit you with the deliberate ill-definition.

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 07 13 at 04:56 PM • permalink

  33. 81Alpha: - fair dinkum?  How on earth did it get there (let alone survive)?

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 07 13 at 04:57 PM • permalink

  34. Wouldn’t remain secret would it?

    But it would make for a helluva lot easier commute.

    Posted by Achillea on 2006 07 13 at 05:57 PM • permalink

  35. I have seashells from our property in Montana - about 20 miles south of the Alberta (Canada) border, way out on the prairie...I guess this climate change thing is cyclical, eh?

    NOt far from there are the Cypress Hills, a small mountain range that rises suddenly out of the grasslands, which I was told occurred when a glacier split while moving through the area (hey, I was 15 when I was told this, it was a long time ago so details are hazy at best)

    Don’t know that the gophers & rattlers will mind much…

    Posted by KC on 2006 07 13 at 06:06 PM • permalink

  36. Oh, DAMN, Paco, them penguins in full dress better be on the whaling terror-squashing cruise.  I need dance partners!

    Posted by ushie on 2006 07 13 at 06:24 PM • permalink

  37. Global Warming Horror - Latest

    An entry from a very well known and universally accepted text says for Dunwich (England), that “it was one of the largest ports on the east coast, with a thriving fishing industry and around 3,000 residents. The .... tax it paid that year - 68,000 herrings - was more than that of any other Suffolk port. However, this entry also warns that Dunwich lost half of its farmland to erosion along the coast.”

    Lost half its farmland due to erosion! Gotta be due to global warming climate change, right?  Is there no end to the horrors that AlGoreIthm can screech at us?

    Um, well, that quote is from the Doomsday Book and the erosion occurred between between 1066 and 1086.

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 07 13 at 06:33 PM • permalink

  38. Katrina predicted by the Doomsday Book!

    In the next century, Dunwich became one of the most important towns in England. Its yearly payment to the Crown rose to £120 13s 4d and 24,000 herrings. By the 13th century, its international status as a trading centre was fading a bit. In the 14th century, the old port had to be abandoned. Over 400 houses were swept away in a single storm. In the 17th century, the sea washed out the high street and reached the market place.

    I blame Bush - actually George W Bushe III, Earl of Northumberland - who, in 1350 encouraged the peasants to chop down trees and burn the wood for heating and cooking thus contributing to greenhouse gasses and who also ruthlessly increased the chain mail budget to invade neighbouring Dorset.  The dark Prince Algernon Goremless II preached against the ruination of the forests and the environment but when no-one listened, went back to burning environmentally-friendly witches.

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 07 13 at 06:40 PM • permalink

  39. None of us will be here to collect, however, I would be willing to bet $10,000 that this will not happen. None of the things that the climate changemongers are warning about will happen. The earth has compensated for all this continuously for tens of millions of years. Suddenly humans are going to change that? Yeah. Famous bridge, me, you, sell…

    Posted by ekw on 2006 07 13 at 06:46 PM • permalink

  40. Antarctica—will be the new California!  Sunny beaches and skiing a quick bus trip inland!  Paco, I’m surprised you haven’t got your development company incorporated yet…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 07 13 at 06:53 PM • permalink

  41. Ah, the foresight of our Aussie forebears who grabbed claimed over 1/3 of Antartica for Australia.

    I knew it wasn’t for the fucking penguins.

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 07 13 at 07:14 PM • permalink

  42. SCD, the Qld Nothofagus (moorei) are ancient remnants of when Oz and the Antarctic were part of Gondwanaland. That is before continental drift stole them away!
    There is a walking track from O’Reilly’s Guesthouse that takes you to the Antarctic Beech. They are so old, gnarled, moss and lichen laden that they make Treebeard look young.LOL.

    I believe there are also a handful of these living fossils scattered over the border in the jungles of Nth NSW. Damn tectonic plates!

    Posted by 81Alpha on 2006 07 13 at 07:34 PM • permalink

  43. None of us will be here to collect, however, I would be willing to bet $10,000 that this will not happen. None of the things that the climate changemongers are warning about will happen.

    Hell, global warming’s been allegedly going on for 30 years, right? And rising sea levels are one of the things they’re warning us about, right? Sooooooo - in the past 30 years, sea levels must have risen.

    Now, I don’t know about the rest of you near-the-ocean dwellers, but the shoreline here in Maine hasn’t moved. So there’s really no need to wait, since the rising-seas bullshit is already demonstrably false.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 07 13 at 07:39 PM • permalink

  44. Dave S.—The water is secretly gathering its forces offshore, waiting for the right moment to strike.  It’s like Gaia’s Tet!

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 07 13 at 07:52 PM • permalink

  45. wronwright—I for one find the idea of condos next to our sub base rather appealing.  Just imagine the looks on the yuppie scums’ faces when the Tridents launch up through their hot tubs…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 07 13 at 07:54 PM • permalink

  46. GW kills Australian Wine Industry

    Posted by smiller on 2006 07 13 at 08:33 PM • permalink

  47. #39 None of the things that the climate changemongers are warning about will happen.

    Oh sure.  Rain on our parade.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 07 13 at 09:30 PM • permalink

  48. So there’s really no need to wait, since the rising-seas bullshit is already demonstrably false.

    But, but...any minute now! Honestly!

    Posted by PW on 2006 07 13 at 09:34 PM • permalink

  49. No ice for cellulose!

    Posted by Merlin on 2006 07 13 at 10:37 PM • permalink

  50. The sea is higher here in Maui, Dave, but that’s because the new lava on the Big Island is weighing us down.

    On the other hand, the descent of the Big Island is levering up Oahu and, especially, Kauai, so Waikiki is safe.

    Posted by Harry Eagar on 2006 07 13 at 11:20 PM • permalink

  51. 81Alpha.  Hmmm Queenslad didn’t actually separate from Antartica in the Gondwana break-up - it was a long way away (and the eastern bits of Queensland and NSW came a bit later, if I recall.)

    But no doubt it is a remnant enclave of the gondwana forests.  Can you let me know where they are exactly?  Gunns Forest Products are always looking for new sources for woodchips.

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 07 13 at 11:26 PM • permalink

  52. #47:

    Or to make it more apropos to the topic...acid rain on our parade.

    Posted by PW on 2006 07 14 at 04:48 AM • permalink

  53. Not to dredge up ancient history, or add insilt to injury, but leave us not forget the fate of Bruges, once the international financial and trading center of the Hanseatic League.

    Its fate came not from the sea, but was water-borne nonetheless.

    Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 07 14 at 05:07 AM • permalink

  54. The sea is higher here in Maui, Dave, but that’s because the new lava on the Big Island is weighing us down.

    I blame global warming for the volcanos. Ironic, really.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 07 14 at 08:58 AM • permalink

  55. #40: Papers are still being drawn up in the Mercantile Registry of Paraguay.

    Posted by paco on 2006 07 14 at 09:22 AM • permalink

  56. The sea is higher here in Maui, Dave, but that’s because the new lava on the Big Island is weighing us down.

    Forgive me if you were being serious Harry E, but that’s exactly what does happen on volcanic islands - and its the reason why those nice coral reefs grow there.

    Volcanic island sitting in middle of ocean.  Coral - which can mostly only grow in very shallow water - springs up in the shallows.

    Volcano erupts, bringing rock to surface and possibly a bit of a void below (which will get re-filled over time).  Island sinks a bit (over time), taking coral reef with it.  New coral grows on top of old coral, keeping in the shallows.

    Repeat.  Constant impression of rising sea levels, with coral getting higher & higher off the sea floor - now forming a fringing reef.

    Sometimes the void of the empty magma chamber below causes the island to sink altogether, leaving just a circular reef with a shallow lagoon.

    Again, sorry if I’m telling you how to suck eggs!

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 07 14 at 12:01 PM • permalink

  57. #53 Not to dredge up ancient history, or add insilt to injury, but leave us not forget the fate of Bruges, once the international financial and trading center of the Hanseatic League.

    Its fate came not from the sea, but was water-borne nonetheless.

    -- Posted by MentalFloss

    It’s hard to forget something one hasn’t a clue what it is.  Of course, I’m talking about other people who comment here.  Not me.  Burgers.  Hanselgretel League.  Yes.  Point well taken.

    Posted by wronwright on 2006 07 14 at 01:10 PM • permalink

  58. wronwright — I think he’s referring either to Vikings or British package tours with their Watney’s bleeeeeeding Red Barrel…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 07 15 at 01:24 AM • permalink

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