Big Trees, Big Trouble by Scott LaFee - Eureka! on Creators.com

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Big Trees, Big Trouble

The famous big trees of Yosemite National Park declined 24 percent during the 20th century, and not just because of insanely stupid acts like cutting tunnels through their bases. The giant sequoia "Wawona" tree in Mariposa grove was 227 feet tall, with a 90-foot circumference at its base. The tunnel through it was finished in 1881; the tree fell down in 1969.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and University of Washington say climate change appears to have measurably impacted the number of large-diameter trees in the park. Warmer weather has increased the length of the dry season and reduced the local snowpack, which provides much of the water during the trees' growing season.

The scientists also found a local shift to fire-intolerant trees in some forests that had not experienced blazes for nearly a century, meaning that more frequent and severe wildfires are possible in these areas and may put more big trees at risk.

VERBATIM

"Pangolins save us millions of dollars a year in pest destruction. We cannot afford to overlook their ecological role as controllers of termites and ants."

— Simon Smart of the International Union for Conservation of Nature on how Chinese demand for pangolin meat is driving the scaly anteaters to extinction

BRAIN SWEAT

You're taking a long drink of water. Which happens first: The glass is 5/16ths empty or the glass is 5/8ths full?

PRIME NUMBERS

90 — Estimated barrels of oil, in billions, believed to exist within the Arctic region

3 — Number of years that amount would satisfy current global demand

1,670 — Estimated amount of natural gas, in trillions of cubic feet, beneath Arctic

15 — Number of years that amount would satisfy current global demand

Source: Scientific American

BRAIN SWEAT ANSWER

The glass becomes 5/16ths empty first.

Five-eighths equals to 10/16ths, which means that if the glass were 10/16ths full, you would have emptied 6/16ths. You empty 5/16ths of the glass first.

'TRUE FACTS'

More than 60,000 metric tons of nuclear waste are in temporary storage at 131 civilian and military sites around the country.

WHAT IS IT ANSWER

Folks living around Mount Laguna, east of San Diego, have been asking themselves this very question for weeks: What is this little beetle? The bug has appeared in large numbers on parts of the mountain. Some locals insist they've never seen it before. Some fear it might be another invasive, destructive pest like an oak borer beetle.

Fear not. According to entomologists questioned, the tiny (smaller than a ladybug) iridescent green insect is a common flea beetle of the genus Altica. It is harmless (to trees and people) and abundantly common. The swarms of beetles seen at some Laguna campsites recently were probably just congregations of this year's hatched generation.

ANTHROPOLOGY 101

A Slavic love charm required a girl to dig up the footprint of the man she loved, place the dirt in a pot, then grow a marigold in that pot. It was believed that a marigold never faded and, in the same way, the man's love would last forever.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.