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SFandH
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Is the Baja Peninsula Getting Greener?
I think it is. I've been driving from San Diego to BCS for quite some time and in the past 5 years or so it seems to me that it is getting greener. It
is difficult to know though because I travel at different times of the year, sometimes shortly after several weeks of intermittent rain.
Here is a peer reviewed scientific study that concludes that the atmospheric increase in CO2 is making warm, arid regions greener, backing up my
casual observations.
A positive effect of global warming on a local scale?
link
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Osprey
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Can't argue with science BUT much of the peninsula is just that, a slender peninsula that doesn't make much of it's own weather -- the SOC and the
Pacific bring a great deal of the moisture to make the greenery. As to the CO2, except for the border there is little man made CO2 (I'm guessing). To
be convinced I'd have to see the sat charts of N. Africa and Baja California to throw in 100% on this particular reason for increased greening.
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SFandH
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
Can't argue with science BUT much of the peninsula is just that, a slender peninsula that doesn't make much of it's own weather -- the SOC and the
Pacific bring a great deal of the moisture to make the greenery. |
Good point. Although I might add that the mountains down the middle do cause weather that otherwise would not occur. And, increasing CO2, for whatever
reason, will cause warming of the atmosphere and a warmer atmosphere will hold more water vapor, which probably means more rainfall, someplace.
[Edited on 6-2-2013 by SFandH]
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Osprey
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Better points than mine. Your signature piece about Abe Lincoln struck a chord > don't know about animals rights from Abe; his nickname, Honest
Abe, was earned by him being a very honest and popular judge in c-ckfighting arenas.
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David K
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Air, like the climate, is not static... it moves about this planet pushed by winds and pressure, as well as a rotating earth. CO2 created in one area
does not stay in that area. The same is true of oxygen.
Plants breath in CO2, and breath out oxygen, the opposite of animals... Volcanos and other natural sources also 'breath out' CO2. If CO2 levels rise,
so do the number of oxygen creating plants and trees.
That man thinks he is mightier than Nature and can change the climate is laughable... Nature always wins!
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durrelllrobert
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| Quote: | Originally posted by SFandH
A positive effect of global warming on a local scale?
link |
Bob Durrell
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monoloco
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
Air, like the climate, is not static... it moves about this planet pushed by winds and pressure, as well as a rotating earth. CO2 created in one area
does not stay in that area. The same is true of oxygen.
Plants breath in CO2, and breath out oxygen, the opposite of animals... Volcanos and other natural sources also 'breath out' CO2. If CO2 levels rise,
so do the number of oxygen creating plants and trees.
That man thinks he is mightier than Nature and can change the climate is laughable... Nature always wins! |
What's laughable is the notion that the release of trillions of tons of CO2 and other gasses from the burning of hydrocarbons would
have no effect on our climate. Nature does always win, and will eventually render extinct any species that doesn't live in balance with it's
environment.
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David K
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LOL good one Bob!
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David K
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| Quote: | Originally posted by monoloco
| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
Air, like the climate, is not static... it moves about this planet pushed by winds and pressure, as well as a rotating earth. CO2 created in one area
does not stay in that area. The same is true of oxygen.
Plants breath in CO2, and breath out oxygen, the opposite of animals... Volcanos and other natural sources also 'breath out' CO2. If CO2 levels rise,
so do the number of oxygen creating plants and trees.
That man thinks he is mightier than Nature and can change the climate is laughable... Nature always wins! |
What's laughable is the notion that the release of trillions of tons of CO2 and other gasses from the burning of hydrocarbons would
have no effect on our climate. Nature does always win, and will eventually render extinct any species that doesn't live in balance with it's
environment. |
Sounds about right... everything has cause and effect. But, who controls how many volcanoes erupt in a year? I think man is part of this planet too,
and what we do here is part of the natural order, since we are a nature part of earth. We will do bad, dirty things... then we change and do good and
clean up things. I haven't see a volcano take back all the poisonous gasses and CO2 it has released... so there is a reason for it, and more trees may
be the reason? Soil from volcanoes is some of the richest for growing, as well.
[Edited on 6-2-2013 by David K]
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rts551
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Yes, some people are like volcanoes. spew a lot of stuff that fertilizes plants.
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David K
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Indeed! 
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SFandH
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Hmmmmm,
The original question was:
Is the Baja Peninsula Getting Greener?
Over the past 10 years, I think so and I think that's good.
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Barry A.
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| Quote: | Originally posted by SFandH
Hmmmmm,
The original question was:
Is the Baja Peninsula Getting Greener?
Over the past 10 years, I think so and I think that's good. |
Perhaps it is, and it does look like it, but that does concern me as I always noticed that when the desert turned green in Baja, the no-see-ums drove
us nuts!!!
barry
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BajaBlanca
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How i hate noseeums too
Here in our little village, as the inhabitants invest more and more into their homes and seeing as how we now have much less expensive water, the
number of plants and trees has grown exponentially. We are definitely greener.
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DavidE
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Mood: 'At home we demand facts and get them. In Mexico one subsists on rumor and never demands anything.' Charles Flandrau,
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I try and keep in mind that the great aquifers that fed/feed the San Quintin, Vizcaino and Constitucion areas had to be created somehow. And that
somehow was not the arid climate of today. From the time of the first transplant from the Asia-Alaska land bridge to the present, it is just a blink
of real geological time.
I also keep in mind that a single die-off of the Amazon rain forest will produce more CO2 than man has made since the days of "Lucy". This is a
statement of fact and not a political position.
A Lot To See And A Lot To Do
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windgrrl
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Definitely getting greener from Mulege to the East Cape. This year we travelled with clouds of many different sizes, colours and shapes of butterflies
all the way to the tip of the peninsula. It was wonderful. They didn't thin ranks until January. I thought this might have something to do with extra
rain somewhere. In the East Cape, there hasn't been a lot of rain, but there seems to be a lot of cloud condensation keeping the mountain tops more
lush over the past decade. I think that central Baja is recovering from draught, but overall, it the biomass and roadside cattle looked in better
shape this year in most places.
When the way comes to an end, then change. Having changed, you pass through.
~ I-Ching
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El Jefe
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Interesting stats from my friend Lou for rainfall on near east cape show that last year was unusually wet and therefore green. Prior to that not green
at all down here. All you had to do was look at the cows. Bony as hell. This year they are fat and happy.
YEAR RAINFALL AMT {INCHES}
1998 23.25
1999 1.83
2000 9.08
2001 10.82
2002 4.51
2003 14.4
2004 4.52
2005 4.66
2006 11.41
2007 3.98
2008 4.51
2009 5.81
2010 2.66
2011 4.01
2012 18.07
123.60 ---------- = 8.24 INCHES AVERAGE 15 YRS.
I hope we are in a wetter trend, but one year is no trend. Time will tell.
No b-tchin\' in the Baja.
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Mexitron
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Doesn't seem any greener to me. I don't think you'd notice extra greening from higher CO2 levels in an arid environment-----go watch coastal Oregon
for a few years!
On the volcanoes verses anthropogenic emissions we win hands down on CO2. Volcanoes release more sulphur dioxide and dust particles than carbon
dioxide and tend to cool the climate ( unless its a giant eruption like the one in the Siberian Traps just before the Permian extinction and which may
have contributed to that catastrophic event).
From the U.S Geological Survey:
"Volcanic versus anthropogenic CO2 emissions
Do the Earth’s volcanoes emit more CO2 than human activities? Research findings indicate that the answer to this frequently asked question is a clear
and unequivocal, “No.” Human activities, responsible for a projected 35 billion metric tons (gigatons) of CO2 emissions in 2010 (Friedlingstein et
al., 2010), release an amount of CO2 that dwarfs the annual CO2 emissions of all the world’s degassing subaerial and submarine volcanoes (Gerlach,
2011)."
The rest of the article: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/gas/climate.php
This is not meant as political bait, just trying to sort thru the facts.
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Barry A.
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Mexitron
Doesn't seem any greener to me. I don't think you'd notice extra greening from higher CO2 levels in an arid environment-----go watch coastal Oregon
for a few years!
On the volcanoes verses anthropogenic emissions we win hands down on CO2. Volcanoes release more sulphur dioxide and dust particles than carbon
dioxide and tend to cool the climate ( unless its a giant eruption like the one in the Siberian Traps just before the Permian extinction and which may
have contributed to that catastrophic event).
From the U.S Geological Survey:
"Volcanic versus anthropogenic CO2 emissions
Do the Earth’s volcanoes emit more CO2 than human activities? Research findings indicate that the answer to this frequently asked question is a clear
and unequivocal, “No.” Human activities, responsible for a projected 35 billion metric tons (gigatons) of CO2 emissions in 2010 (Friedlingstein et
al., 2010), release an amount of CO2 that dwarfs the annual CO2 emissions of all the world’s degassing subaerial and submarine volcanoes (Gerlach,
2011)."
The rest of the article: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/gas/climate.php
This is not meant as political bait, just trying to sort thru the facts. |
That's interesting stuff, Mexitron------I did not know that. I have long been spreading the rumor that volcanoes release more CO2 than humans------I
will now have to reset my thinking.
Barry
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rts551
Elite Nomad
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaBlanca
How i hate noseeums too
Here in our little village, as the inhabitants invest more and more into their homes and seeing as how we now have much less expensive water, the
number of plants and trees has grown exponentially. We are definitely greener. |
\
and now we will have more water loving creatures as well!
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