Are we surprised?

#Bellingham #Forestss 2025, Day 275. Pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) usually peck dead trees. But these appear (from their rectangular-ish) shape to be pileated holes in a live western redcedar (Thuya plicata), which the tree has since healed over.

Now that I subscribe to McKibben's newsletter, chances are I'll be reposting it here pretty often. Apologies to others who already get it elsewhere. But the ecumenicism of the headline and the picture is noteworthy. billmckibben.substack.com/p/a-differen...

Worth watching from Pope Bob/Leo. I, a decidedly non-Catholic, was greatly impressed a decade ago by Pope Francisco's "Laudato Si" www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/c...

State capitalism on the march: www.economist.com/business/202...

An amusing but probably insignificant irony: www.eenews.net/articles/shu...

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 274: Black Cottonwood (Populous trichocarpa) in its autumn "colors" on a bright day after a rain.

Hardly had to change anything to parody them, since they were already self-parodies. Still, she nailed it. Opening: PLEASE DROP EVERYTHING YOU ARE DOING TO READ THIS EMAIL AT ATTENTION. THIS IS NOT SPAM AND I AM EXTREMELY SOBER! YOU ARE TOO FAT TO FIGHT WARS! www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

The Crucial Years. McKibben is an inspiration to keep working for climate action and climate justice. So I subscribed. billmckibben.substack.com?r=ehagb&utm_...

🌳 Schatten ist Leben. Ob Mensch oder Tier – in der Hitze schenkt jeder Baum ein Stück Überleben. Lasst uns mehr pflanzen, damit Zukunft möglich bleibt. 🌍💚 #GreenBalance #Bäume #Klimaschutz

Big, log-lived, spiny canaries: "Saguaros, like most desert species, are incredibly resilient, able to withstand years of drought and extreme temperatures. But climate change is pushing even them to their limits, and often past it." mailchi.mp/insideclimat...

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 273: One more vine maple. This one overhanging Whatcom Creek:

This is insane. There's a weakening economic case to be made for fossil gas, and a strong political corruption one to be made for petroleum, but coal??? Expensive and toxic, with a tiny political constituency. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/c...

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 272: Looks like it's going to be maples for a while. Who could resist? These in Whatcom Falls Park yesterday:

"The clean air community has done a fantastic job of reducing industrial emissions of PM 2.5, which has had real public health impacts, but those gains are in danger of vanishing because of the growth of wildfire smoke exposure." heatmap.news/politics/fix...

Iowa, another "red state" that is powered mostly by renewables--wind, actually, the bête noire of the bête orange. insideclimatenews.org/news/1809202...

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 271: Vine maples (Acer circinatum) are showing all sorts of diverse fall colors:

Good summary. But what she omits is that in November 2024, voters overwhelmingly (well, overwhelmingly for the US at present, 57-43) rejected an initiative to repeal the program.

I admire @billmckibben.bsky.social 's ability to seek the bright side and push it, without denying the critical nature of the current moment.

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 270: Interesting how adjacent leaves of osoberry/Indian plum (Oemleria cerasiformis) can be still green and already yellow.

“Maryland led all states with a 49% reduction in per capita CO2 emissions from energy consumption between 2005 and 2023, as the state’s total CO2 emissions fell 43% and population grew 11%.”

Great Basin National Park: The sublime beauty of an aspen stand in autumn; the horror of widespread conifer die-off. The forests are telling us something. Will we listen?

NYT has a talent for ironic understatement: Read next post. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/c... All that, and the cost of electricity is less than a third of what it would be if the island were still running on diesel, according to Jeffrey Wright, the president of the Block Island Utility District.

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 269: This is the season when the evergreen conifer Western Redcedar (Thuya plicata), known locally as "cedar" though it's not closely related to cedar reds and drops its older foliage. Makes great mulch for the forest floor or, if moved, for garden shrubs.

They really are pro global warming-- www.eenews.net/articles/doj...

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 268: Vine maple (Acer circinatum) against the autumn sky.

Some distinguished company, but yep, probably outdid them all. And only 1/5 as long as Fidel's. www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/...

#Bellingham #Foresets 2025, Day 267: Snowberries (Symphiocarpos albus) are at their height right now. Can't eat 'em; just for show.

#Bellingham #Forests 2025. I plum forgot yesterday, even though I had some perfectly serviceable (I almost said "good") photos. So here is yesterday's, day 266: Red osier dogwood (Cornus sericea) leaves sometimes turn almost purple in the early fall.

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 265: Autumn shrubs in front of Bellingham Bay and the San Juan and Gulf Islands.

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 264: Padden Creek headwaters basin is taking on autumn hues.

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 263: How do woodpeckers know that a tree is dead and will thus be good for pecking? However they do it, this shows how standing, dead wood is also important for the ecology of a forest. Here are some representative 'pecker poles from Samish Crest:

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 262 (gone yesterday, catching up) Black cottonwood (Populous trichocarpa) doesn't put on much of an autumn show before it drops its leaves. But it does get kinda yellow-ish:

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 261: Certain bigleaf maples (Acer macrophyllum) have unusually heavy seed loads (left), which are starting to fall to the ground (right).

Not to debunk his knowledge, which might have been considerable, or his commitment, which I presume was genuine. But why was he the one to listen to? Why would he get more attention on this than a scientist or engineer? time.com/4231875/robe...

“Like New York, Vermont is usurping the federal government’s exclusive authority over nationwide and global greenhouse gas emissions” For today’s fed government that presumably means authority to increase GHG emissions. www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justi...

Good, but it’s not forever. Efficiency doesn’t improve indefinitely. But if depopulation happens, the virtuous cycle could go on for a long time.

#Bellingham #Forests 2025， Day 260： Death to life.

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 259: Signs of early fall #1: Vine maples (Acer circinatum) are starting to take on full color. There will be more of these in the following weeks:

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 258: Derby Pond at late-summer low water:

Step forward or step back? heatmap.news/electric-veh...

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 257: Whatcom Creek in an urban forest at late-summer low water:

Schadenfreude: "the best month for EVs in U.S. history was the worst for Tesla ever recorded." heatmap.news/electric-veh...

Trend that might bend the curve "exports of solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, and heat pumps are soaring, particularly to emerging economies, making the possibility of developing nations making possible an “energy leapfrog” over the coal phase of growth." ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

Great idea. It was implemented first in China, which figures. Also, there was a huge one in China that was ordered taken down because it disturbed fish habitat. An interesting demonstration of innovation and lack of accountability in an authoritarian polity. www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...

If you need comic relief in these dark times, read Secretary Wright's X account: heatmap.news/politics/chr...

Ha don't say the renewables industry doesn't create jobs. Solar panels need to be made hail resistant, and these folks are figuring out how to do that. www.vde.com/en/vde-ameri...

They'll do just about anything to bring manufacturing to the US and create jobs for Americans--as long as it doesn't get in the way of global warming. heatmap.news/am/ice-raid-...

#Bellingham #Forests 2025, Day 255: Not sure what kind of woodpecker is at work here in the Doug-fir bark:

When logic and reality point in a direction you don't like, say some random thing: “What’s going to save the planet is winning the A.I. arms race. We need power to do that and we need it now,” Huuuuhhh??? www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/c...