Polar Bears are Not fish

Just 2 or 3 degrees increase in the temperature of the arctic waters is causing ice to melt, just like the scientists said it would (and the US gov’t world turned a blind eye). This is becoming a big problem for polar bears. These creatures are mammals and cannot breathe under water. When they come up for air they must tread water to keep their head up until they get to ice or land. If the ice can no longer support their weight because it has melted or if it melts altogether there is no rest for the polar bears to rest and they die of exhaustion – they drown.

There are only about 25,000 polar bears on the planet and Wrangel Island, north of the Bering Strait, is the main place they can be found because this is their breeding ground. To learn more, go to:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/polar-bear-global-warming.htm/printable

I also found a student YouTube that gets right to the point, though I'm not sure there numbers are quit right. Still that doesn't change the fact that poalr bears have got a problem. You can find there video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edQmaOa-TPg

OK, now for my stupid solution (cuz I can’t turn off all the other people’s bad habits): Let’s gather up several thousand old surf boards and drop them into the water near the island. The bears can use them to rest on when the ice is too thin to stand on, or too far away. This is temporary, but maybe the bears could survive this way until we figure out what else to do.

Whadaya think?

California Burns Every Year

It's true. But it wasn't always this way. I read in a recent newspaper that California used to burn only every 50 years. It seems to burn every year, now. In fact this summer (2008) I thought we were through with the "Summer of a Thousand Fires" but it's November 2008, just a few months later, and air is full of smoke again.

Why?

Plants, heat, wind, carelessness and arson. We can't change the weather (yet) and that takes heat and wind are out of our control. Carelessness is something that will happen, can be minimized with education, but 'accidents will happen. I'm pretty sure accidents don't happen thousands of times a year that cause brush fires. Arson is a serious problem because 1 sick person is hard to find, then you gotta cure them. Don't know if there is a cure...

That leaves plants. I say a news report on TV about a lady that saved her house by planting succulents around her yard. Large aloe, mostly, I think. So I got to thinking: if acres of land burn because it is covered with dry grasses, why not plant succulants there, instead? I know... too much labor.

image from http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/succulent_lands.php

I have jade plants in my yard and they are hard to kill. Even when they shrivel up from lack of water, they come back as soon as they get wet. If they break or I cut them, each little piece grows into a whole plant. I don't plant them - they just fall on the ground and voila! New plant.

Why not tear up a bunch of jade plants, fly over a grassland and toss them out just before the rainy season? Better still, get some careless people, give them the jade plant bits and let them walk all over California. Same difference.

Whadaya think?