Woodland Caribou, Common Loons, and Lake Sturgeon – what do these three species all have in common? All were once abundant around, on, or in the waters of the Great Lakes Basin. All are also greatly diminished in numbers there today. Yet they curiously persist as iconic images of this region. Scarcely any longer present, the memory of them persists. They are effectively ghosts.
A summer’s day as we may have experienced it in 2021 is not quite the same in regard to weather, plant and animal activity, and a range of other natural phenomena as it was in 2001, or 1961, or 1901. And as Joe Shute, keen observer of weather that he is, discovered in years of research into the subject, it’s becoming more and more different more quickly with each passing year.
Australia’s “black summer” of 2020 – the most devastating wildfire season in the modern recorded history of that continent – was not only responsible for a level of devastation that stunned all who either witnessed it in person or saw the heart-breaking photos of it, it is also thought by many involved in studying global climate change to be a precursor of wildland fire seasons to come.
I’m not entirely sure just what the meaning behind the name of the alternative rock music group Ben Folds Five is (particularly as it was apparently a trio), but in the case of Mark Avery’s most recent Sunday Book Review in which he takes Dieter Helm’s newly published “Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change” from HarperCollins UK, five fold is how Mark describes his reasons for recommending the book.