Author Archives: Norm Benson

Weekend Postcard from Lake County – Mt. Konocti

This is Mount Konocti in the morning last week after a cold front blew through. ============================== Here’s an update from our National Weather Service for today. Looks like we’ll get more frosting on Mount Konocti, elev. 4305 ft (1312.2 m): THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SACRAMENTO HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING ABOVE 2000 FEETContinue reading “Weekend Postcard from Lake County – Mt. Konocti”

Postcard from Lake County – Mt. Konocti

This is Mount Konocti in the morning last week after a cold front blew through. ============================== Here’s an update from our National Weather Service for today. Looks like we’ll get more frosting on Mount Konocti, elev. 4305 ft (1312.2 m): THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SACRAMENTO HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING ABOVE 2000 FEETContinue reading “Postcard from Lake County – Mt. Konocti”

Have one-half of the world’s forests been converted to non-forest use?

I posted recently “You’re pulling my Yang. Ten reasons to use dead tree stuff,” the Yang being half of the Taoist Yin-Yang concept of male/female, light/dark/ ebb/flow, action/reaction. The post’s message was that we can’t look at only one side of an issue as a Yahoo Green blog had done (10 big reasons to stopContinue reading “Have one-half of the world’s forests been converted to non-forest use?”

You’re pulling my Yang. Ten dead-on reasons for using dead tree stuff.

Some anti-logging activists have latched onto a fact like mistletoe on a branch; it looks green but it’s hurting the trees rather than helping. The fact: Trees remove carbon dioxide from the air, and via photosynthesis combine the CO2 with hydrogen to make wood, and expel oxygen. This process pulls CO2 , a greenhouse gas,Continue reading “You’re pulling my Yang. Ten dead-on reasons for using dead tree stuff.”

Postcard from Berkeley

Last Saturday, Mary and I were going to meet with the daughter of Walter Lowdermilk–a Rhodes scholar, forester, and soil scientist–and were too early. So we wandered off to toward Tilden Regional Park and happened across the Berkeley Rose Garden. It’s on a hillside in a shallow draw that looks perfect for a concert. WeContinue reading “Postcard from Berkeley”

California’s Deforestation Due to Wildfire

This is a map of the National Forests in California. These forests comprise about half of the forestland in California. The Forest Service graphic below shows the results of the 2000-2009 fire season in California. About 1% of California’s fires chalk up 90% of the total acreage burned. Half a million acres that had theContinue reading “California’s Deforestation Due to Wildfire”

How much deforestation is there?

I mentioned the other day in “What Killed the environmental Movement, that generally environmental organizations tell you how bad things are but will never say anything improved? Check this out: [Illegal logging and unsustainable forest practices] lead to the loss of nearly 36 million acres of natural forests each year, an area roughly the sizeContinue reading “How much deforestation is there?”

Who Killed the Environmental Movement ?

“When the search for truth is confused with political advocacy, the pursuit of knowledge is reduced to the quest for power.” – Alston Chase Tales of doom and gloom are wildly exaggerated by many environmental organizations as a way to get you to care, At the very least, they emphasize the bad and ignore theContinue reading “Who Killed the Environmental Movement ?”