Could try these slogans:

Why do conservatives hate god? or

Why do conservatives hate life?

Using them probably won’t help swing those crucial moderate Republican votes in the Senate though.

http://www.facebook.com/ album.php?aid=10798&id=1666320074

I’ve considered taking more because the decline is marching along but then I think, why bother, most people won’t believe it or care until a tree falls on them. Or maybe when they have to dig deep into their wallet to remove all the shrubs and trees around their homes.

PaperTiger I only cited that scientific study because it is the only one I can find that specifically says that a species of tree can die for lack of snow. I didn’t plant a yellow cedar. But the condition of the trees here and the lack of snow cover do corollate. That’s all!

Climate change related damage in the Rockies is already well documented, also causing bark beetle damage, killing trees and leading to large, uncontrollable, wildfires. Warmer summers in Southeast Alaska will make the Tongass a carbon source if the muskeg the forest roots in starts drying out.

Ultimately the problem is that all economic bets are OFF unless the environment can support economic activity sufficient to repay financial obligations. Crops must be available to feed urban populations without undue increases in costs. Businesses must have reasonable and predictable power costs in order to accurately predict pricing. Consumers must be able to have some funds left after food, housing, heat, light, and transportation in order to fund economic activity.

A few more years like 2008 and half the population will be standing in soup lines while the other half scrambles to stay employed by governments with no tax base left. All the kings horses & all the kings men plus Barack Obama are not going to get product out of a planet wracked by ecological shock effects.

Conversion to a highly efficient, sustainable, economic system is an absolute requirement if the network we call the “global economy” is going to shake off the current panic and continue in a forward direction.

b.t.w.- Dianne Feinstein is widely regarded as a D.I.N.O senator who uses social liberalism as a smokescreen to cover economic conservatism and support for foreign wars.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is urging the U.S. Department of Interior to stop processing applications for more than a dozen solar energy projects sought on Mojave Desert land that was donated to the government by a conservation group.

“Unfortunately, many of the sites now being considered for (energy) leases are completely inappropriate and will lead to the wholesale destruction of some of the most pristine areas in the desert,” Feinstein’s letter said.

You’re losing your army Joe.

Could it be embarassment at having planted an Alaskan native in New Jersey and claiming it as a climate change victim?

How are those clown fish you planted in the trout stream doing?

And the flamingos you put in your duck pond, are they enjoying the New Jersey climate?

I have driven through Buck’s County a couple of times or more, these past few months as one of my daughters is a student at UPenn Vet school in Philadelphia.

The trees are NOT healthy, at all. If you think so, I’m sorry, you do not know what to look for.

I’m not trying to be rude or insult you. I just want you to take a fresh approach.

Look at it this way. A cut Christmas tree looks terrific for quite a while, even past New Year’s. But, it’s obviously dead. In other words, when a pine tree or evergreen shrub starts to turn yellow or drop needles or leaves, IT IS ALREADY DEAD.

Take a tour around and make an inventory of shrubs like yew, cypress, rhododendrons, and boxwood. Do they look yellow? Check out the pine trees of any variety. Can you see their trunks? Can you see all the way through them to the other side? If so, they are dying.

We will wait a bit to see what emerges this spring. So far, crocus and snowdrops are emerging at about 50% of their normal size.

oh and where are the birds?

Please keep in mind, I don’t WANT this to be true. I am simply making observations. How I miss this time last spring, when I had my usual seed catalogs spread all over the dining room table and was placing orders for hydrangeas, and roses, and fruit trees.

This year I have only ordered vegetable seeds.

As a neighbor in nearby Bucks County, PA, I have to report our trees seem healthy. A recent (guilty pleasure) drive down Rte 206 and 50 found the NJ farmlands and pine barrens looking good too.

You should go canoeing in the Wharton State Forest some time. Incredible cedars along the creeks. I remember ice fishing in the NJ mountains (hills?). It was as cold as Michigan.

These guys are more interested in the coast and shorebirds, but maybe they have some ideas:

http://www.nature.org/ initiatives/ climatechange/ files/ new_jersey_fact_sheet.pdf