Excerpted:

Most ecologists and conservationists would describe this forest in scientific jargon as ‘degraded’, ‘heavily invaded’ or perhaps ‘anthropogenic’. Less formally, they might term it a ‘trash ecosystem’. After all, what is it but a bunch of weeds, dominated by aggressive invaders, and almost all introduced by humans? It might as well be a city dump.

A few ecologists, however, are taking a second look at such places, trying to see them without the common assumption that pristine ecosystems are ‘good’ and anything else is ‘bad’. The non-judgemental term is ‘novel ecosystem’. A novel ecosystem is one that has been heavily influenced by humans but is not under human management. A working tree plantation doesn’t qualify; one abandoned decades ago would. A forest dominated by non-native species counts… even if humans never cut it down, burned it or even visited it.

No one is sure how much of Earth is covered by novel ecosystems.

The Northwest Passage–the legendary shipping route through ice-choked Canadian waters at the top of the world–melted free of ice last week, and is now open for navigation, according to satellite mosaics available from the National Snow and Ice Data Center and The University of Illinois Cryosphere Today. This summThe Northwest Passage–the legendary shipping route through ice-choked Canadian waters at the top of the world–melted free of ice last week, and is now open for navigation, according to satellite mosaics available from the National Snow and Ice Data Center and The University of Illinois Cryosphere Today. This summer marks the fourth consecutive year–and fourth time in recorded history–that the fabled passage has opened for navigation.er marks the fourth consecutive year–and fourth time in recorded history–that the fabled passage has opened for navigation.

(Reposted from Climate Progress)

The brilliant Veronique Brossier is working with me to create all the new code for this new piece I began in 09/09 at Eyebeam, and it’s in great shape.

Check out the work in progress here.  It’ll probably take a while to load.

Still from The Friend Feeder (Northumberland UK), winter/night

Ecology Without Nature
The Contemporary Condition

Mesocosm (Northumberland), Winter Night 1 and Summer Day 1

White Dragon from Belfast Ireland

Gensou Hyouhon Hakubutsukan (“Museum of Fantastic Specimens”) is an online collection of creatures “curated” by Hajime Emoto. The three-story virtual museum consists of 9 rooms chock full of water- and land-dwelling monstrosities from all corners of the globe.

– http://pinktentacle.com

hottest year on record?

I find it amazing and exhausting that people are surprised about The Weather. But then there are those who make silk purses out of it, like pollution magnate David Koch:

“Global warming could be good for the planet, Koch says. ‘A far greater land area will be available to produce food.’”
– from New York Magazine, via Climate Progress (continued below)

“Lengthened growing seasons in the northern hemisphere, he says, will make up for any trauma caused by the slow migration of people away from disappearing coastlines. “The Earth will be able to support enormously more people because a far greater land area will be available to produce food,” he says.”

Koch is  a major supporter of deregulation and the Tea Party. Koch’s Family Foundation’s philanthropic arm funded a permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History: the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, cancer research, and the arts (Lincoln Center’s State Theater has been renamed after him)…

Rand Paul believes people can do what they want with their mountains. (satellite image of a mountaintop removal site in Mud River, West Virginia from thinkprogress.org)

Words from Mr Paul on Kentucky coal mining:

I think whoever owns the property can do with the property as they wish, and if the coal company buys it from a private property owner and they want to do it, fine. The other thing I think is that I think coal gets a bad name, because I think a lot of the land apparently is quite desirable once it’s been flattened out. As I came over here from Harlan, you’ve got quite a few hills. I don’t think anybody’s going to be missing a hill or two here and there.

And some people like having the flat land. Some of it apparently has become quite valuable when it’s become flattened. And I think they do a good job at reclaiming the land, and you know, adding back in topsoil, bringing in help. So the bottom line is, it’s not just me pandering to coal. It’s me believing in private property.

Video interview here:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/rand-paul-mountaintop-removal-i-don

A study conducted by scientists from the University of California, Berkeley and the U.S. Forest Service projects major vegetation shifts worldwide if greenhouse gas emissions are not brought under control and the Earth continues to rapidly warm. The study forecasts that by 2100 much of Arctic tundra will replaced by boreal forest and that deserts will spread in regions such as North America, Australia, and Central and South Asia. – from environment360