Re: Large reductions in tropical bird abundance attributable to heat extreme intensification | Nature Ecology & Evolution

[Hart Hagan]

Please read this study before taking at face value the claims that human driven climate change is a primary or leading cause of wildlife decline. 

Conservation biologists: An inconvenient misconception: Climate change is not the principal driver of biodiversity loss. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/conl.12868

This article explores the reasons why biodiversity loss might be widely attributed to climate change even while the connection is tenuous at best. 

Also, we are to assume that human driven climate change is caused by greenhouse gases, because no alternative causes are commonly discussed. But there is an increasing body of evidence that weather extremes are caused by the removal of vegetation from the landscape. 

Please see here: The Role of Vegetation in Climate Regulation - Google Docs

On Wed, Aug 13, 2025 at 7:40 AM Philip Bogdonoff <pbogd...@gmail.com> wrote:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-025-02811-7

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BLC Eco-Restoration Science Review" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to blc-eco-sci-r...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/blc-eco-sci-rev/CADBd-rmp00yhUVgVu68v0ALiF7KFRyJ5%2B7B2i%3DDU0pzMvyyNNQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Ragu Bharadwaj]

Thanks for the article Hart. Correct me if I’m wrong but climate change and biodiversity loss are really symptoms of thoughtless terraforming which disrupts terrestrial and atmospheric water cycles and ecosystems. Ecosystem restoration addresses the cause. But a lot of money, attention and research has gone to the symptoms and detecting and addressing correlations between the symptoms.

--
View this message at https://groups.google.com/a/googlegroups.com/d/msg/ecorestoration-alliance/topic-id/message-id
 
Group emails flooding your inbox? Click here: https://groups.google.com/g/ecorestoration-alliance/settings#email
 
Our website is at http://EcorestorationAlliance.org/
Our calendar is at https://tinyurl.com/EcoResCalendar
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "EcoRestoration Alliance" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ecorestoration-al...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ecorestoration-alliance/CAJKDyLAA7ZPcyQaii9NYP1jb2EBT%3DHrNumydaQtF6RtGwbYPRg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Hart Hagan]

Hi, Ragu.

I would agree that both climate change and biodiversity loss are a symptom of our broken relationship with nature. When we don't understand climate change in its proper context, i.e., as a symptom of degraded natural systems, then we tend to misunderstand the problem and also fall for false "solutions."

This document by Dr. Poulomi Chakravarty can give us a vocabulary for understanding the role of vegetation in regulating temperature and precipitation.

 The Role of Vegetation in Climate Regulation - Google Docs

This is not part of the mainstream climate conversation, which is obsessed with greenhouse gases and albedo, but knows nothing about the evaporative fraction or surface roughness or condensation nuclei or the radiation balance equation or sensible heat flux or latent heat flux or ground heat flux. Nor do they talk about the estimated 50% loss of biomass in the last 5,000 years, according to reporting by Canadian scientist Vaclav Smil. 

The entire mainstream climate conversation dwells on a top-down understanding of climate change ... that all climate change is due to greenhouse gases. It doesn't take a whole lot of training in a bottom-up understanding of climate change before we realize that this understanding deserves at least equal time.

And climate change is too often understood in terms of global average temperatures. The understanding is that because of greenhouse gases we have seen an increase in global average temperatures. These average temperatures in turn cause temperature extremes, we are told. No doubt there's some truth in this.

But are heat waves not also caused by the absence of vegetation? 

And when we see reports of floods, are we to understand that flooding is the result of heavy rains, caused by warming temperatures, caused by excess greenhouse gases, caused by fossil fuels? Is it not also true that flooding is a function of runoff, not just rainfall. And the amount of runoff is determined by the condition of the land and the infiltration rates, i.e., the rate at which water soaks into the ground where it falls, which is a function largely of soil health and vegetation. Thus, it is reasonable to suppose that we have flooding because of the condition of the land. But this is NEVER discussed in mainstream coverage of floods. Please share any examples to the contrary.

You could say the same thing about droughts. We are to believe that droughts are caused by dry air, caused by warming temperatures, caused by greenhouse gases, caused by fossil fuels. What never makes it to the mainstream coverage is the extent to which vegetation affects rainfall, making it more consistent and more effective. Effective rainfall refers to the amount of rain that actually soaks into the ground. If 2 inches of rain falls from the sky but only 1/2 inch soaks into the ground, how much rain did you get? You only got 1/2 inch of rain. Only 25% of the rainfall was effective rainfall. This is NEVER discussed in mainstream coverage. Feel free to share examples to the contrary.

As a result, we are poised to change the entire energy system of the entire world. This will not actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but we are told that it will. This project will not be able to support our energy hungry civilization, but we are told that it will. This project requires more mining for metals--by far--than we've ever seen in human history, but that part is downplayed. What they also downplay is that so-called renewable energy takes far more metallic materials per megawatt and far more land per megawatt than the fossil alternatives. 

Some of us think this looks very much like business as usual, posing as revolutionary change. 

Recommended reading:

• Bright Green Lies, by Jensen, Keith and Wilbert.
• Climate: A New Story, by Charles Eisenstein

Videos: 

• Planet of the Humans | Full Scene | How Solar Cells And Wind Turbines Are Made
• Michael Moore Presents: Planet of the Humans | A Film by Jeff Gibbs | Full Documentary

[Michael Pilarski]

Thanks Hart,

Great reply,  I will reference it.  

We need more explanations like this and good to see references.  Keep up the good work.

Michael "Skeeter" Pilarski

Global Earth Repair Foundation

Friends of the Trees Botanicals

Friends of the Trees Society

NW Herbal Fair

Fariy Congress

Permaculture - Agroforestry - Wildcrafting - Medicinal Herbs -

PO Box 1133
Port Hadlock, WA 98339
# (360)-643-9178

https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ecorestoration-alliance/CAJKDyLChdnuWCmHk-0d9vrBGyejpe9F-pWfnMxqU6%3DQ4N%3D%3DxnA%40mail.gmail.com

.

[Hart Hagan]

Thanks, Michael! 

[Ragu Bharadwaj]

Thanks for the well articulated response Hart! Also the books. I’ll check them out. 

Speaking of the context of the ecosystem, I wonder if there is also a role for underground fungi and mycelial networks which keep our soil and vegetation intact, in all this.

Regards

-Ragu