Today is mild and partly cloudy.

Round One, I fed birds and watered plants.

Round Two, I cut three more water jugs into greenhouses.  Then I planted four wildflowers in the wildflower garden: New Jersey tea, short's aster, and a couple of others. 

EDIT 6/2/19: Round Three, I cut two more water jugs into greenhouses.  I planted two Indian grass and one Ohio spiderwort in the prairie garden.  Some of the grass there is already shoulder high, and I can see a black-eyed Susan from last year.  :D  Then I watered the new plants.

EDIT 6/2/19: Round Four, I cut another water jug into a greenhouse.  I planted a butterfly milkweed beside the barrel garden.  I planted a short's aster and another wildflower in the wildflower garden.

EDIT 6/2/19: Round Five, I trimmed weeds from around the septic garden and sprayed weed killer on the stumps.

EDIT 6/2/19: Round Six, I sprayed weed killer on poison ivy in the prairie garden.

EDIT 6/2/19: Round Seven, I trimmed around the edge of the Goddess garden to make it easier to see.  It is all full of different types of thyme -- silver, lemon, English, creeping, and mother-of-thyme off the top of my head.  As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

Tags: birdfeeding, gardening, illinois, nature, personal, wildlife
Current Mood: busy

 ... drives away more species than it does on land.  A key reason, not mentioned in the article, is that warmer water holds less oxygen.  That's a hard limit on carrying capacity.  Rising air temperature doesn't do the same thing.

Tags: environment, news, science, wildlife
Current Mood: busy

The higher the carbon dioxide content in the air, the worse it affects people -- and it starts causing problems at fairly low levels.  The safe level is far below what is permitted in buildings and condenses around cities. 

On the bright side, plants soak up carbon dioxide and fart oxygen.  I would like to see studies of air quality inside forests.  I would expect them to be much better.  This likely dovetails with separate observations that walking in a forest is good for human health in many ways.

Tags: environment, nature, news, safety, science
Current Mood: busy

 Here's a great visual map, with an article below it, explaining how climate change fucks up each part of America in a different way.  This can help people decide where to go, or how to cope with expected challenges in their part of the world.

Tags: environment, nature, news, safety, science
Current Mood: busy

 Climate change is already affecting crops.  However, the impacts are very uneven.  Some regions and crops are hit much worse.  Soybeans are actually increasing a bit.  

Tags: environment, food, nature, news, science
Current Mood: busy

 ... in California's faultlines is unprecedented.  Thus, not to be relied on to continue.  The longer it lasts, the more likely a major earthquake will occur and the worse it will be, due to escalating pressure.

Tags: nature, news, safety, science
Current Mood: busy

Scientists have discovered a massive deathbed of fossils created by the K-T collision that killed the dinosaurs.  It includes many different species mixed with debris from the comet.

Tags: history, nature, news, science
Current Mood: excited

 Here's a hypothesis for ice ages that I haven't heard before: continental collisions at the equator expose rock that soaks up the carbon dioxide, cooling the atmosphere within a few million years (very vast in geologic time).

Tags: environment, history, nature, news, science
Current Mood: busy