Althouse: The view from the forest floor.

May 24, 2008

The view from the forest floor.

12 comments:

rhhardin said...: Compound curve in emerging corn from the road.; 5/24/08, 6:57 PM
Bob said...: Be sure to check for ticks!; 5/24/08, 7:23 PM
Padre Steve said...: Beautiful pictures... yet creepy at the same time! Padre Steve; 5/24/08, 7:58 PM
Meade said...: Garlic mustard - bah - Euroweed.

Bob said...
"Be sure to check for ticks!"

*raises hand to be volunteer checker*; 5/24/08, 9:03 PM
Eli Blake said...: I am reminded of how back in the late 1970's and early 1980's, many northern and especially Canadian forests were being destroyed by acid rain. So a campaign was launched to put in scrubbers in the smokestacks of power plants to sharply curtail emissions of sulfuric and nitric acid caused by the burning of sulfur-containing coal.

And opponents of the plan howled about how doing that would ruin the economy, and how all the power plants would go out of business, and how electricity would become so expensive that nobody could turn on their lights for more than a couple hours per day, and how America would lose out to the Soviet Union because the Russians cared nothing for the environment and somehow allowing our coal-fired plants continue to be inefficient was supposed to put us at a competitive advantage. They called it all a matter of bad science and said that it was something else that was killing the forest and reducing power plant emissions of sulfuric and nitric acid would not change that.

Well, the opponents of the plan lost. The environmentalists won that battle. The new emissions standards were passed by Congress and mandated by law, and the scrubbers were installed by the local utilities.

And let's take a moment to look back at the results. The world didn't end. The economy did quite well during the rest of the 1980's and for most of the 1990's, thank you. The power plants did not go out of business. Electricity did not become unaffordable. The Soviet Union continued to be inefficient until it died and America prospered.

And the northern U.S. and Canadian forests are much healthier today than they were then.

Success is having the vision to think about what the future could look like, and then the persistence to make it so.; 5/24/08, 10:26 PM
vbspurs said...: Gorgeous, especially the first photo.

Makes up for the slow day on Althouse, as we're all busy enjoying Memorial Day weekend.

Still, miss you guys.

Cheers,
Victoria; 5/25/08, 1:20 AM
blake said...: Electricity did not become unaffordable.

Have you seen my power bill?; 5/25/08, 3:00 AM
Bissage said...: *looks at photos*

*decides prefers first photo and appreciates same some more*

*considers making clever joke about inventor of fishye lens while alluding to Flannery O’Connor and “Everything That Rises Must Converge”*

*checks comments to see if anyone’s done that yet*

*reads Bob and Meade’s comments and wishes had thought of making tick joke*

*feels daunted but resolves to make Flannery O’Connor joke anyway*

*realizes never ever read any Flannery O’Connor*

*consults wikipedia to see if knowledge of Flannery O’Connor can be faked*

*is surprized to learn Flannery O’Connor was a woman*

*feels stupid for not knowing that and for misspelling surprised*

*feels completely discouraged and makes only half-assed attempt to see who invented fisheye lens*

*gives up*

*looks again at first photo and now imagines it as close-up macro shot of cat’s eye*

*feels burst of inspiration and goes to YouTube to find video of “Green Eyed Lady”*

*Finds all videos suck and song way too long and tedious anyway*

*realizes never ever actually heard song all the way through*

*gives up*

*wonders where this whole asterisk inner dialogue/present action thing came from in the first place*

*links to amusingly incongruous yet still kind of related photo of comfort fit jodhpurs*

*wishes everyone at Althouse a happy memorial day*

*realizes it’s not memorial day and that it’s kind of weird to say “happy” together with “memorial”*

*posts comment against better judgment*

*breathes sigh of relief and is glad that’s over with*; 5/25/08, 8:40 AM
Bissage said...: *re-reads Victoria's comment and remembers memorial day should be capitalized*

*hangs head in shame*

*perks up after linking to this*; 5/25/08, 8:46 AM
Bissage said...: *wonders why links are grey on main comment page but blue on comment-input page*

*goes figure*; 5/25/08, 8:53 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Bissage, I was fooling with the template this morning. But I've gone back to normal.; 5/25/08, 11:11 AM
vbspurs said...: Hiya Bissage! Long time, darling. :)

*hugs*

Cheers,
Victoria; 5/26/08, 1:23 AM