Clipping Board » Environmental Pollution & Change ─ How dirty the human heart is, how dirty the environment will be...
Update Date: 2009/07/13 12:38 Jian Dacheng, Gu Shouchang, Su Taiying
This year's abnormal climate has been extremely severe, causing chaos for crops! The fruiting rate of mangoes in Tainan is very poor, longan flowers cannot secrete nectar, honey harvests are down to just 1/4, and the Shangjiang pears in Yilan are not as plentiful as before, with noticeably smaller fruits. Even the bitter flower fish inhabiting mountain streams are affected by warming, migrating to higher elevations.
Small fish swimming upstream is no longer just a scene from textbooks. The bitter flower fish living in the deep mountains of Kaohsiung are also clearly moving toward higher upstream areas, a direct result of global warming.
Former director of the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Fang Lixing: "Typhoons are becoming increasingly intense, destroying the habitats of bitter flower fish. At the same time, rising temperatures are causing high-mountain fish to migrate upward, further shrinking the living space of bitter flower fish."
Scholars have found that rising temperatures are altering the atmosphere, increasing typhoon activity and damaging biological habitats. Freshwater bitter flower fish, originally living in streams, are now "vertically migrating" to higher altitudes. The dangers of warming are evident, and mangoes are also suffering.
Farmer Hong Changji: "Look, none of these have been pollinated, no fruit has formed, so they all fall off."
Mango trees that should be laden with fruit have become miniature versions! In February, mango flowers bloomed, but scorching temperatures and dry southern winds without rain burned the flowers. A heavy rain in early March left only flowers but no fruit, most becoming "empty shells" that fall to the ground with a shake of the branches, reducing yields by 50%.
Farmer: "Due to the weather, the rain prevented nectar secretion. Without nectar, bees couldn't gather honey."
Besides mangoes, longan flowers fared even worse. Low temperatures and heavy rain prevented longan trees from flowering, leaving bees with no honey to collect—honey harvests are down to just 1/4! Yilan's Shangjiang pears also suffered. Unusually cold weather in April disrupted the flowering period, resulting in smaller and fewer pears. It's clear that global warming is no longer a future threat—it's happening now.
Source: http://tw. news. yahoo. com/ article/ url/ d/ a/ 090713/ 8/ 1mz12. html
Climate Oddities: No Mangoes, Honey-less Longans, Upstream Bitterlings
This year's abnormal climate has been extremely severe, causing chaos for crops! The fruiting rate of mangoes in Tainan is very poor, longan flowers cannot secrete nectar, honey harvests are down to just 1/4, and the Shangjiang pears in Yilan are not as plentiful as before, with noticeably smaller fruits. Even the bitter flower fish inhabiting mountain streams are affected by warming, migrating to higher elevations.
Small fish swimming upstream is no longer just a scene from textbooks. The bitter flower fish living in the deep mountains of Kaohsiung are also clearly moving toward higher upstream areas, a direct result of global warming.
Former director of the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Fang Lixing: "Typhoons are becoming increasingly intense, destroying the habitats of bitter flower fish. At the same time, rising temperatures are causing high-mountain fish to migrate upward, further shrinking the living space of bitter flower fish."
Scholars have found that rising temperatures are altering the atmosphere, increasing typhoon activity and damaging biological habitats. Freshwater bitter flower fish, originally living in streams, are now "vertically migrating" to higher altitudes. The dangers of warming are evident, and mangoes are also suffering.
Farmer Hong Changji: "Look, none of these have been pollinated, no fruit has formed, so they all fall off."
Mango trees that should be laden with fruit have become miniature versions! In February, mango flowers bloomed, but scorching temperatures and dry southern winds without rain burned the flowers. A heavy rain in early March left only flowers but no fruit, most becoming "empty shells" that fall to the ground with a shake of the branches, reducing yields by 50%.
Farmer: "Due to the weather, the rain prevented nectar secretion. Without nectar, bees couldn't gather honey."
Besides mangoes, longan flowers fared even worse. Low temperatures and heavy rain prevented longan trees from flowering, leaving bees with no honey to collect—honey harvests are down to just 1/4! Yilan's Shangjiang pears also suffered. Unusually cold weather in April disrupted the flowering period, resulting in smaller and fewer pears. It's clear that global warming is no longer a future threat—it's happening now.
Source: http://tw. news. yahoo. com/ article/ url/ d/ a/ 090713/ 8/ 1mz12. html