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Leading. Caring. Serving. Ernie Rojo blogs
Leading. Caring. Serving. Ernie Rojo blogs


Found after 300m years: rainforest fossils show how climate change could look
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From The Times

September 9, 2008

Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter

A series of fossilised forests the size of small cities have provided prehistoric evidence of how tropical rainforests are destroyed by global warming.

The fossil remains represent the first rainforests grown on the planet and their demise more than 300million years ago “points to the future” of the modern-day Amazon.

Six petrified forests, dating from 303.9 million to 309 million years ago, have been discovered in coalmines in the United States. Because they straddle a period of intense global warming researchers have been able to see the effects of climate change on an ancient landscape.

One forest that stretched 10,000 hectares (100 sq km) is the largest fossil forest yet found, dwarfing a 1,000ha forest that was announced last year as the biggest.

Howard Falcon-Lang, of the University of Bristol, said that the forests were frozen in time and show changes in the tree cover before and after the global warming began.

Fossils reveal that the landscape now deep beneath Illinois and Kentucky was covered in huge club moss trees, horsetails and ferns 309 million years ago. Once global warming had taken place 306.5 million years ago, the landscape altered enormously and the trees were replaced with “weedy ferns”.

“These are the remains of the first rainforests to evolve on our planet,” Dr Falcon-Lang said at the British Association yesterday. “They had lush rainforest vegetation, not dissimilar to the Amazonian rainforest. These are the largest fossil forests in the world. It's quite extraordinary to find a forest landscape preserved for miles.”

The forests were buried during earthquakes and the vegetation was swiftly preserved as the sea rushed in and buried it under sediment. Proof of their existence can now be seen in more than 50 mines where the coal seams have been dug out.

Walking along the mine tunnels was an extraordinary experience, Dr Falcon-Lang said: “The coal represents the soil on which this rainforest was growing. The trees are on the roof. You can see roots hanging down.”

He said it appeared that the huge trees suffered enormous stress and died out when faced by global warming. “We are beginning to show there appears to be a threshold in ancient rainforest systems beyond which the whole system begins to unravel quite quickly,” he said.

“The rainforest dramatically collapses during this period of warming. This was very, very extreme global warming. Giant club moss trees vanished overnight to be replaced by rather weedy fern vegetation. All this points to the fate of the Amazon.”

(Photo shows ferns that were preserved in the tunnels.)

September 13, 2008 | 6:17 AM Comments  0 comments



What keeps me busy?
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Sorry for not being able to update this blog.

I am now busy coordinating preparations for the 17th Mindanao Business Conference that my office will be hosting next month (August 27-29) here in Dipolog City (Philippines).

We expect around 500 delegates representing the various sectors of business and government in Mindanao (and representatives of the central government, diplomatic corps, trade offices and others).

The conference has become a high-profile event with the confirmed attendance of Ambassador Kristie Kenney (United States) and Ambassador Rod Smith (Australia). Philippine President Gloria M. Arroyo is likewise invited to attend this conference as Guest of Honor.

For info about 17th MinBizCon, please click on www.dipologchamber.org

July 30, 2008 | 11:11 AM Comments  0 comments



Learn new vocabulary... help fight hunger!
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Want a good, fun way of learning new words and sharpening your vocabulary? Want to contribute to alleviating world hunger? You probably want both! Coz you can... try www.freerice.com

By clicking on every correct word meaning, you get to donate 20 grains of rice to the world's poorest of the poor. The website is a project of the UN World Food Program and I personally was introduced to this after reading it on the local news. It's kinda addictive and have actually introduced it to my English Language Proficiency students.

Know what's "tremulous" and gotta have the chance to donate 20 grains to end hunger. www.freerice.com


Here's what they are saying about FreeRice.com:

“What if just knowing what a word meant could help feed hungry people around the world? Well, at FreeRice it does . . . the totals have grown exponentially.” - The Washington Post

“Web game provides rice for hungry . . . FreeRice went online in early October and has now raised 1 billion grains of rice [by November 9].” - BBC News

“Addictive, yes. But . . . each correct answer results in the donation of rice to help feed the hungry around the globe. Perhaps that qualifies the game as a good addiction . . . one with redeeming qualities, something that’s, oh, didactic and edifying.” - Kansas City Star

“People from all walks of life and from around the globe have written in to express their appreciation for the game . . . Secretaries admit to playing it during boring business meetings.”
- Christian Science Monitor

“Every grain of rice is essential in the fight against hunger . . . FreeRice really hits home how the Web can be harnessed to raise awareness and funds for the world’s number one emergency.”
- UN World Food Program

“A teacher of fourth and fifth graders on the Yurok Indian reservation in Klamath, CA, . . . emailed the WFP. ‘My students absolutely LOVE the free rice site. Almost daily they earn several thousand grains of rice!’ she wrote. ‘You cannot imagine the joy in my heart when I look out and see 25 kids doing vocabulary work and enjoying it.’” - School Library Journal

“The Web site offers a greater gift, the gift of awareness about world hunger.”- NPR National Public Radio

“Freerice.com is an international, viral sensation. Folks from Thailand to Germany and India are just as enthusiastic . . . improving thousands of lives, all with a simple, collective, click of a mouse.”
- CBS Evening News


January 6, 2008 | 7:21 AM Comments  2 comments





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