Posted on 07/29/2006 7:54:52 AM PDT by TankerKC
Vegetation die-off (areas of reddish-brown) in New England observed by NASA satellite, revealing the negative influence of heating oil use on normally healthy vegetation.
(Greenbelt, Maryland) A new sensor on a NASA Earth-orbiting satellite has for the first time observed a global-scale die off of vegetation, a new article in Science magazine reports this week.
"We were amazed at the continental scale that this die off occupied", said Dr. John Jorgenson of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The relatively rapid change in vegetation characteristics was observed from late summer through the fall, when the multi-million dollar NASA instrument recorded a distinct change in vegetation color from green to various shades of yellow, brown, orange, and red.
"While there have been anecdotal reports for many years of this die-off phenomenon, those reports have been restricted to local regions. We have, for the first time, documented the global scale of the event, which covers much of the Northern Hemisphere during the months of September and October", said Dr. Jorgenson.
While the exact mechanism for the phenomenon is unclear, the researchers believe that it is related to increasing fossil fuel use, especially home heating oil, during the fall when temperatures turn cooler. "We know that particulate pollution from the burning of fuel oil can have a negative effect on healthy vegetation, and so the correlation between heating fuel use and vegetation die-off constitutes 'smoking gun' evidence for this association", Jorgenson said.
Bolstering this theory, Jorgenson claimed, is the observed return of vegetation health in the spring as temperatures warm and heating oil use drops to near zero.
The new findings will likely help fuel increasing calls for restrictions on the widespread and indiscriminant use of fossil fuels, due to their proven connection to uncontrollable climate changes, such as tsunamis and killer hurricanes.
When contacted for comment on the new results, discredited global warming skeptic Dr. John Michaels told this reporter, "I think the NASA scientists should investigate the possibility that this die-off is directly related to decreasing levels of sunlight and the resulting cold temperatures as winter approachers". When told of Dr. Michaels' theory, Jorgeson replied, "Well of course he would say that…everyone knows he is in the pocket of 'big oil'. Besides, how else would you explain the fact that the die-off does not occur in tropical locations, where heating oil use is virtually unheard of?"
You have been spoofed. The newest article is about a union pay scale for dogs.
This may be connected with that white organic coating that occurs in the region each winter. More studies are called for
Yeah...in a school funed by taxes from Exxon-Mobile!
The more scientists observe global warming, the more they cause it!
Sure, attacke the evidcne. Karl, is that you?
And it's already ten degrees warmer here in Texas than it was just a few hours ago. At this rate the temperature is going to be 200 degrees at the end of the day. Global warming is real, I tell you.
Worse yet, Bush has no evacuation plan.
Creepy. Have you told anyone about this?
I've read the same thing happened in Siberia back in the late sixties. Of course, I blamed it on Nixon at the time....but now, I don't know.
This is just more proof of Bush's incompetence; if John Kerry (who, by the way, won the war in Vietnam)then I'm sure this never would have happened. Just ask him.
Are you sure?
Yep. Autumn. Never happened in the tropics that I'm aware of.
About as much as heating oil use has to do with fall foliage.
I prefer to think of it as well crafted.
Oh wow, had me going for a while. Very well done parody!
<< The relatively rapid change in vegetation characteristics was observed from late summer through the fall, when the multi-million dollar NASA instrument recorded a distinct change in vegetation color from green to various shades of yellow, brown, orange, and red. >>
Sure sounds like a pretty fall was had by all!
Especially by the public-trough-snorting NASA hoggs as they madly scrambled about in their ceaseless attempt to rationalize and justify that boondoggle agency's status as having squandered more than any other organization in all of recorded history, of the confiscated wealth of the world's most innovative, creative, productive and industrious men (IE: Americans) -- in the achievement of Absolutely Nothing!
(Why, next thing you know they'll all be on TV leaping about like kindergarteners at the site of some of their actually-functioning contractors, at the cost of only Twenty Billion or so, having landed a dinky toy on Mars!)
Notice the large 'brown streaks' here in Penna? That's from all of us Conservatives realizing that we're gonna be stuck with that fat, bloated, corrupt, criminal, lib-dem dirtbag "Fat Eddie" Rendell, for another 4 years. Yikes!
"Which which"?
Geeze. What I get for letting spellcheck do all the work. Dummie.
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