Changes In Forest Structure And Tree Species Composition After Logging: Fill & Download for Free

The world now sounds different to how it did a century agoBy Claire Asher - 11 November 2016 - BBC EarthYou can hear the climate changing. As the world warms, the soundtrack of the ocean is shifting.In 2015, a US team of scientists and engineers reported that the loudest sound in some waters now comes from millions of tiny bubbles, which are released by melting glaciers and icebergs. In the fjords of Alaska and Antarctica, the average noise level is now over 100 decibels – louder than any ocean environment recorded before.This is just one example of how Earth's natural soundscape is changing irreversibly, and human activity is driving the process.Our natural spaces are now polluted with human-made noises. As we change forests into farms and drive species to extinction, we are fundamentally changing how our world sounds.The phenomenon has inspired a new field of research, which aims to monitor the changing melody of our natural spaces. These acoustic studies could revolutionize the way we study whole ecosystems, from forests to coral reefs.Melting ice sheets make a lot of noise in the ocean (Credit: Ashley Cooper Pics/Alamy)All the sounds of an ecosystem – from trickling streams to singing birds – add together to form a unique soundscape; a fingerprint of the habitat in its current state. Studying a soundscape is a quick and easy way to get an overview of the health of a habitat.Shrimp snaps are one of the most characteristic sounds of marine ecosystemsBut what scientists are hearing is not good. Some soundscapes are deteriorating in an alarming way.Oceans in particular now sound very different. As the noise from melting glaciers rises, the sound produced by some marine species is falling.For as long as biologists have been studying the seas, snapping shrimps have been creating a din. Each snapping shrimp has an asymmetrical, oversized claw, which it can snap shut at up to 60mph. This temporarily forms an air bubble in the water, and when this pops it forces water out in a high-pressure jet and produces a loud snapping sound.These snaps are thought to be important for communication, as well as to stun prey and scare off predators.Shrimp snaps are one of the most characteristic sounds of marine ecosystems like mangroves and coral reefs. They can travel up to a kilometer through the water. But a study published in March 2016 suggests the shrimp might soon fall silent.Biologists recorded sound at three hydro thermal vents, where carbon dioxide is naturally released into the water. Carbon dioxide forms a weak acid when it reacts with water, lowering ocean pH. This “ocean acidification” is now happening throughout the oceans because of the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The hydro thermal vents give scientists a chance to study what a more acidic ocean might be like.They found it might sound a lot quieter. Shrimp around the vents snap less loudly and less often than expected, drastically changing the overall soundscape of the ocean. When tested in the lab under elevated carbon dioxide levels, individual snapping shrimp produced half as many snaps as those kept at current levels.Although it remains unclear exactly why it silences snapping shrimp, widespread acidification could have a major impact on coral reef species that rely on sound for navigation. As climate change continues to alter marine ecosystems, we might find our oceans go quiet.Striped snapping shrimp (Synalpheus striatus) (Credit: Constantinos Petrinos/naturepl.com)Scientists have divided the acoustic world into two groups. There is "geophony", which comes from natural processes like crashing waterfalls, the movement of the tides and the rumble of earthquakes – and then there is "biophony", which is produced by living things.Human-made noises have become so ubiquitous on Earth that we have come up with a third category just for them: "anthropophony". In many landscapes, anthropophony dominates, drowning out the sounds of nature.Studying a soundscape is a quick and easy way to get an overview of the health of a habitatHuman sounds are now found in almost every ecosystem on Earth, and it is rare to find an area remote enough to avoid human sounds entirely. But Michael Scherer-Lorenzen of the University of Freiberg in Germany says that our indirect effect on soundscapes has been even stronger. Sounds are slowly and subtly being lost as habitats become increasingly fragmented, species become extinct and urban landscapes expand.This is an idea that Scherer-Lorenzen and his colleagues are exploring as part of one of the most ambitious studies in soundscape ecology undertaken to date. Beginning in September 2015, the researchers have left 300 microphones recording in the German countryside. The aim is to find out how different types of land use affect biodiversity, and how this is reflected in the soundscapes of those habitats.Scherer-Lorenzen, who is lead researcher on the project, says that combining data from other research groups with their soundscape recordings allows the team to determine how the sounds of an ecosystem are influenced by human activities."We have a tremendous amount of information about many aspects of those ecosystems, including observations of bats, birds, insects, frogs, mammals, and the vegetation composition and structure," he says.Ultimately, they hope the project will allow them to develop an early-warning system for changes in ecosystems due to human exploitation or climate change.Noisy: the Carajás opencast mine in Brazil (Credit: Tim Graham/Alamy)Already it is clear from studies elsewhere that daily and seasonal rhythms in the soundscape can become disrupted when human sounds begin to encroach. For instance, one study in Brazil found that animal calls were loudest during the day in forests close to opencast mines, whereas wildlife further from mines preferred to call at night.The constant noise from the mines, which is mostly due to the 700 or so trucks that can visit daily, increased sound levels by up to 22dB. This forced species that would usually call at night to become more active in the day.There is often a link between the richness of a soundscape and the diversity and abundance of wildlifeFewer species were recorded at sites closer to the mine, suggesting that, for some species, this noise pollution is too much to bear.Another study, published in June 2016, monitored the annual timing of bird migrations in the soundscape of Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska, and found that it had shifted significantly during the three-year study. For instance, the migration of the varied thrush (Ixoreus naevius) peaked five days earlier in 2014 compared to 2012. Such changes in the timing of events, such as plants flowering and birds migrating, have caused widespread concern because of their potential to disrupt key ecological relationships.Many organisms use sound to navigate, forage and communicate. As a result, there is often a link between the richness of a soundscape and the diversity and abundance of wildlife in the area.For example, in some Costa Rican forests, 85% of variation in the diversity of sounds was explained by the complexity of the forest structure, and the presence of swamps. In eucalypt forests in Australia, the volume of the soundscape is correlated with habitat fragmentation and overall ecological condition.Eucalypt forests sound different when they are degraded (Credit: Ingo Oeland/Alamy)Unsurprisingly, anthropophony dominates our urban environments, and the impact of this extra man-made noise on wildlife has been enormous.Biophony like bird song has been shown to decline as urbanisation increases, linked to lower species richness in urban environments. Even those species that remain may have fundamentally changed the nature of the sounds they make.Killer whales have been found to call 1dB louder for every 1dB increase in background noiseFor instance, one study comparing great tit (Parus major) songs in city and forest environments across Europe, found that the birds tend to sing shorter, faster, higher-pitched songs in urban environments.These behavioural responses have been found to track fluctuating noise levels during a single day. This suggests that behavioural flexibility, rather than genetic changes, are enabling some species to adapt better to increasing anthropophony in their habitats.However, not all animals have the option to change their calls and adapt to noise pollution. One study found that while ash-throated flycatchers (Myiarchus cinerascens) are able to increase their call frequency as background noise increases, the closely-related grey flycatchers (Empidonax wrightii) do not change their calls, while their numbers decline dramatically in urban environments.In marine ecosystems, anthropophony may be having a major impact, too. Shipping noises measured in Falmouth Bay in the UK for a July 2016 study fall within the hearing range of several species of marine mammal such as whales and seals, as well as many fish species, and may be affecting communication and navigation for marine animals.The waters of Falmouth Bay in the UK are rather noisy (Credit: Dan Burton Photo/Alamy)Previous work has shown that right whales can adapt to noise pollution by making higher-pitched calls, and killer whales have been found to call 1dB louder for every 1dB increase in background noise. However, these adaptations come at a cost – increasing noise pollution in our oceans has also been linked to increased stress in marine animals.The effect of global warming and resulting drought has created the first completely silent spring I've ever experiencedBut while some environments are getting louder, the global picture is that our remaining natural spaces are losing sounds – possibly forever. Bernie Krause, one of the pioneers of soundscape ecology, has been recording habitats around the world since 1968.During his 50-year career he has recorded over 5,000 hours of soundscapes, on land and underwater, in 25 different countries. He estimates his archive contains nearly 15,000 different species and over 3,000 distinct habitats, making it one of the largest natural soundscape collections of its kind.His repeated recordings in the same location, year after year, offer an acoustic record of the ecological impacts that climate change brings. From the temperate forests of North America to Alaskan tundra, tropical forests in Brazil and coral reefs in Fiji, Krause has heard dramatic changes to Earth's soundscapes over the last 50 years."Well over 50% of this archive comes from sites now either altogether silent, or so transformed by human endeavour they can no longer be heard in any of their original form," he says.Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in California (Credit: Gary Crabbe/Alamy)Krause describes his long-term recordings in Sugarloaf Ridge State Park; "a site not far from our home in Northern California, where the effect of global warming and resulting drought has created the first completely silent spring I've ever experienced".The biophony, the density and diversity of that biophony, has not yet returned to anything like it was before the operationHis first recordings in the park, made in 2004, included a rich chorus of bird song over the background of a trickling stream. But by 2014, repeated droughts and rising temperatures had stripped the soundscape of almost all biophony, and by 2015 only the stream could be heard.Another example from Krause's collection shows how soundscape ecology has the power to expose environmental destruction that we cannot even see. In 1988 a logging company was given permission to try a new "low-impact" method, known as selective logging, in Lincoln Meadow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.The belief was that by removing the odd tree here and there, rather than cutting down a whole area of forest, damage to the ecosystem would be avoided. And to the human eye, the post-logging forest appeared superficially the same, but Krause's recordings tell a different tale."I've returned to Lincoln Meadow 15 times in the last 25 years, and I can tell you that the biophony, the density and diversity of that biophony, has not yet returned to anything like it was before the operation," Krause explained in a 2013 TED Talk.Many ecosystems would be totally unrecognisable to a person living just a century agoSound is a source of data that scientists are only just starting to exploit to its full potential. The key challenge facing soundscape ecologists is big data, Scherer-Lorenzen says. His Biodiversity Exploratories project in Germany will produce over 15.5 million minutes of sound recordings. That is 125 terabytes of data that need to be stored, processed and analyzed."To listen to all these files, it would take 30 years of uninterrupted listening," he says. Instead, measures of acoustic complexity and diversity are calculated by a computer. Developing better computer algorithms to process and interpret this data is a fast-developing field of research.The cost of technology can be prohibitive to large-scale soundscape studies, but projects like this show that by sharing resources, scientists can make high-resolution studies of soundscape ecology more affordable.We have found all sorts of ways to make noise (Credit: Tetra Images/Alamy)We have already changed Earth's soundscape so fundamentally that many ecosystems would be totally unrecognizable to a person living just a century ago. "There are few other critters whose impact on the environment has been so deeply and profoundly destructive [as humans]," says Krause.One mangrove restoration project was able to restore a healthy soundscape in just three yearsAnd, of course, the rise in anthropophony is as bad for human health as it is for wildlife.Noise pollution can cause hearing loss in extreme cases. More commonly, lower levels of anthropophony can lead to increased stress, disturbed sleep, cognitive impairment and even behavioral changes such as increased aggression. Hearing more natural sounds has also been linked to better mood and improved cognitive abilities in the workplace.However, although extinction means we risk losing some sounds forever, there may still be cause for hope. A study published in March 2016 reported that one mangrove restoration project was able to restore a healthy soundscape in just three years.Mangrove forests can be restored surprisingly quickly (Credit: Kenny Williams/Alamy)Mangroves are home to a rich sponge community, many of which share a cooperative relationship with snapping shrimp. Snapping shrimp are therefore a strong indicator of a healthy mangrove. But when sponges die off due to toxic algal blooms, which are becoming more common due to climate change, the snapping shrimp go too.It may not be too late to save some of the most unique sounds of our planetTo restore heavily-degraded mangrove ecosystems in the Florida Keys, in 2010 scientists cloned sponges from healthy mangrove ecosystems and transported them into the degraded ones. By 2013, the soundscapes of restored mangroves were indistinguishable from those recorded in healthy, untouched mangroves.Soundscapes offer a powerful way to measure the success of restoration projects like this, and can provide a view of the health of an ecosystem not visible to the naked eye.The Earth sounds nothing like it did a century ago, and some of those changes may be irreversible. But there is also hope that it may not be too late to save some of the most unique sounds of our planet.

Yes, wildfires possibly increase global cooling as the aerosol pollutants spewed high by the heat block the sun over a very wide area. The fires add to the complexity of what causes temperatures to change and thus rebut as does cloud research the one trick pony of minuscule amounts of human emitted Co2 at only 0.117 %As wildfires increase in size and frequency in the world's arid regions, more aerosol particles could be injected into the free troposphere where they are slower to oxidize, contributing another important consideration to the study of atmospheric science and climate change.Wildfires have a strong cooling effect on the climate that can last more than 26 years spread across thousands of miles.Research shows the wind moves the aerosols far from the source. Wildfires have little if any effect on global warming as increased Co2 emissions from the fires are irrelevant. Co2 has zero impact on the climate as the SO CALLED GREENHOUSE EFFECT effect is disproven and only a delusion in the minds of lefty alarmists and biased media.You can witness the cooling effect first hand as I did during recent fires in Whistler and Wenatchee. As the fire intensified the temperatures dropped sharply. The pollution blocks the sun making the weather mush colder. These fires mostly add to global cooling when the right data is used.It is essential to accept the research that > 90 % of wildfires are unnatural caussed by human activity not lightning or other natural fire hazards. We are the culprits of almost every fire everywhere.Climate alarmists rush to blame severe wildfires on climate change yet the science is unproven, especially when 90% of US fires are caused by humans! California wildfires in decline over past 40 years.RESEARCH DOCUMENTSNASA Detects Drop in Global FiresBjørn LomborgCould we please stop with the misleading fire stories?The Economist cover story, like so many other stories these last weeks, claim that forest fires are exceptional and record-breaking: "EARTH is smouldering. From Seattle to Siberia this summer, flames have consumed swathes of the northern hemisphere"This is based on anecdotes, not data.Here is the data for area burnt in US forest fires from 1926 up until today. (2018 is estimated on area burnt until August 3, which over the past 10 years was 59.8%, scaling 2018 similarly.)As is evident, US burnt forest area has dramatically *declined* since the 1920s, 1930s and 1940, after which widespread fire suppression was introduced. As more burnable mass is piling up, fire is going up slightly.Now, it appears probable that global warming will lead to somewhat more forest fires.But it is important to get a sense of proportion. US fires were *much* more destructive in the first part of last century.And this is also true globally. Because climate models need estimates for forest fires (because they emit CO₂) there are many and good models going far back. In one recent overview, run with 124 simulations, shows that while global warming will increase fires, we are now at a historic *minimum* of fires. Since 1900, fire activity has decreased about 20%. And even with the most damaging CO₂ increases over this century, “wildfire emissions start to rise again after ca. 2020 but are unlikely to reach the levels of 1900 by the end of the 21st century.” https://www.biogeosciences.net/13/267/2016/Overall, 2018 will likely see burnt area of one-fifth of the average burnt area in the US in the 1930s.The US is smouldering less, not more.Data: https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_stats_totalFires.html, 2018 based on burnt area until August 3: https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/nfn.htmSince 1900 US foreests have remained stable at 745m acres ±5% with a low point in 1920 at 735m acres, https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/slides/major-trends.pdf.Similar stories here: "World on Fire", http://theweek.com/articles/788224/world-fireSee my story on US forest fires last year, https://www.facebook.com/bjornlomborg/photos/fires-in-california-and-elsewhere/10156121084368968/See similar EU data for the last 36 years: https://www.facebook.com/bjornlomborg/photos/a.221758208967.168468.146605843967/10157018315208968/?type=3&theaterhttps://www.facebook.com/bjornlomborg/photos/a.221758208967.168468.146605843967/10157044699208968/?type=3&theaterBjørn LomborgLike This Page · July 26 ·The forest fires in Greece are a tragedy. Yet, everyone seems to suggest that forest fires across Europe are spinning out of control, pushed by climate change.If you look at the data, this is just wrong.The EU has 36 years of data for the EU Southern States (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece), which makes up about 90% of all forest fires measured by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). You can read their latest report (Forest fires in Europe, Middle East and North Africa 2016) which in its conclusion (p69) shows the same data as I'm showing here.Fundamentally, the amount of burnt area has *declined* over the past 36 years from 600,000ha in 1980 to about 300,000 now.There is just no oh-my-god-we're-all-going-to-die here.A large part of this is due to technology: that we're better able to control fire (which is also why we see a large drop in the US burnt area from the early part of last century until today. This is also what studies of global burning shows – that we have seen an incredibly large increase of forest fire in the early part of last century (more people, more fire), then fire suppression that will result in ever fewer fires until around 2050, after which global warming will make the trend go up (but still not reach fire levels from the 1940s by 2100. (www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1003669107)DATA: comes from the European Forest Fire Information System, http://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/media/cms_page_media/54/burnt_area_SSA8Odn.csvForest fires in Europe, Middle East and North Africa 2016 available here: http://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reports-and-publications/annual-fire-reports/There is a legitimate concern about the area burnt in 2017. Reports suggest that the area burnt was very, very large (e.g. http://www.euronews.com/2017/10/16/how-europe-s-wildfires-have-more-than-trebled-in-2017). However, it also seems like these large numbers have been adjusted strongly downwards since: If you look at http://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/static/effis_current_situation/public/index.html# and press seasonal trend, you see the EU 2008-17 average at end-of-year is 312,033ha. Since the csv has the data for EU 2008-16, you can recreate the value for 2017, which is 365,042. Either way, we have to wait to see the new publication of the EU numbers for 2017 – and even the large number will still see the trend line down from 600K to less than 400K.I'm looking at area, since this number indicates the actual damage, and it is hard to fudge. Number of fires depends more on when it is discovered and has less relationship to damages.https://www.facebook.com/bjornlomborg/photos/a.221758208967.168468.146605843967/10157018315208968/?type=3&theaterOver the last 40 years, there is a surprising trend with California wildfires “a decline in wildfires”The Blue Cut Fire burns towards homes south of Hwy 138 and east of Hwy 2, approximately 5 miles from Wrightwood last year. Over the last 40 years, California has seen a decline in wildfires. (Will Lester, INLAND VALLEY DAILY BULLETIN/SCNG)1 COMMENTBy DANIEL TEDFORD | [email protected] | Daily NewsPUBLISHED: September 14, 2017 at 3:41 pm | UPDATED: September 17, 2017 at 9:27 pmIn a year that is already being called one of the worst ever for wildfires in the western United States, there is another fact that some may find remarkable: For nearly 40 years, the number of wildfires in California has been declining.California wildfire data reviewed by a USGS research ecologist shows a trend that many may find hard to believe: Since a peak in 1980, there have been fewer and fewer wildfires in California. This is true across the entire state, according to researcher Jon Keeley, who is also a professor at UCLA.According to his paper, co-authored with Alexandra D. Syphard, we need to rethink our ideas about the frequency of wildfires.“The claim commonly made in research papers and the media that fire activity is increasing throughout the western USA is certainly an over-statement,” wrote the authors.Graphic showing declines in wildfires in Calfire and USFS jurisdictions from “Different historical fire–climate patterns in California” by Jon E. Keeley and Alexandra D. Syphard. (Courtesy Jon E. Keeley)The trend of fewer, but not smaller fires is apparent in recent years. State data regarding large wildfires (300 acres or more) from 2000 to 2015 show total numbers – not fire size – has been in decline, despite a sharp spike in 2008.So, what’s the reason for this decline? Well, they don’t know… yet.“Can’t say at this point what has changed in the last 100 years that has caused this decline… but I am hoping we might find out,” Keeley said.What might be behind a decline in wildfires?Keeley has just begun to analyze the data and look for a reason, but he expects to finish that analysis by the end of September. He is also sending his research to Calfire for review.Keeley is confident the culprits behind the decline can be narrowed down to two options – prevention or climate – but he is reserving his judgment for now.“Maybe fire prevention strategies or could be related to climate,” Keeley said. “My guess is they would probably like to think it is increasing efficiency in fire prevention but remains to be seen if that is the answer at this point.”Keeley is hoping Calfire might be able to point to some specific prevention strategies and dates they were implemented to help him suss out if they had a major impact in wildfire declines.“We definitely have the education side,” Calfire spokesman Scott McLean said. “We spend a lot of money being proactive in trying to educate the public.”While McLean said the organization has adopted social media and other modern tactics in recent years to better reach the public about fire prevention, Calfire’s educations efforts have been happening for decades.“There are some embarrassing programs out there with blue leisure suits and mullets,” he said.McLean said a decline in the amount of wildfires was a win for the agency’s outreach programs since the majority of wildfires are the result of human causes.“I love to see the trend of wildfires going down,” McLean said. “That means we are getting the message out.”While the amount of wildfires has gone down, something else has been happeningDespite the decline in overall fires, the amount of acres burned by The climate scientists are bent to under report because this will over report human emissions as a percentage. We are talking about a very significant gap in the data in both cases. Here is recent research about BC wildfire impacts.The largest B.C. wildfire season on record has emitted an estimated 190 million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — a total that nearly triples B.C.'s annual carbon footprint.According to Natural Resources Canada, the total could grow by another 20 per cent as the wildfire season continues."Certainly these emissions are large — much larger than the emissions in B.C. from all other sectors," said Carolyn Smith, a research scientist at the Pacific Forestry Centre.Since 2005, the province has emitted an average of 65 million tonnes of carbon each year. Smith says the official wildfire emissions total won't be available until next year, when researchers are able to survey all of the damage. To date an estimated one million hectares of forest have been burned by over 1,000 different fires.'It's alarming': Wildfire emissions grow to triple B.C.'s annual carbon footprint | CBC News'It's alarming': Wildfire emissions grow to triple B.C.'s annual carbon footprint | CBC News'It's alarming': Wildfire emissions grow to triple B.C.'s annual carbon footprint | CBC NewsSiberian research snows strong cooling for more than 26 years.Strong cooling induced by stand-replacing fires through albedo in Siberian larch forestsci Rep. 2018; 8: 4821.Published online 2018 Mar 19. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-23253-1PMCID: PMC5859174PMID: 29555985Dong Chen, Tatiana V. Loboda, Tao He, Yi Zhang,and Shunlin LiangThis article has been cited by other articles in PMC.Associated DataSupplementary MaterialsGo to:AbstractThe Siberian larch forests, taking up about a fifth of the global boreal biome, are different from the North American boreal forests in that they generally do not undergo a secondary succession. While wildfires in the boreal forests in North America have been shown to exert a cooling effect on the climate system through a sharp increase in surface albedo associated with canopy removal and species composition change during succession, the magnitude of the surface forcing resulting from fire-induced albedo change and its longevity in Siberia have not been previously quantified. Here we show that in contrast to previous expectations, stand-replacing fires exert a strong cooling effect similar in magnitude to that in North America. This cooling effect is attributable to the increase in surface albedo during snow-on periods. However, the observed earlier snowmelt in the region, and subsequently a longer snow-free season, has resulted in a warming effect which has the potential to offset the fire-induced cooling. The net albedo-induced forcing of the Siberian larch forests in the future would hinge on the interaction between the fire-induced cooling effect and the climate-induced warming effect, both of which will be impacted by the expected further warming in the region…The similarity in the magnitude of the albedo-induced cooling effects of stand-replacing fires between the Siberian larch forests and the North American boreal forests likely reflects a common driver of cooling immediately after fire: forest canopy removal. The post-fire albedo anomalies between 2001 and 2015 (Fig. 5) and the seasonal albedo change patterns (Fig. 2) identify the elevated snow season albedo, which results from canopy removal, as the primary driver of the observed cooling effect within the burned Siberian forests. However, over a longer term the North American and Siberian SF trajectories within burns, which are determined largely by the successional forest recovery and different species composition, are likely to diverge. In most North American boreal forests, there usually is a period of time at the early successional stages when forest stands are dominated by deciduous broadleaf speciesAs a result, forest albedo is typically higher than pre-fire and remains elevated for a considerable amount of time….Our study aims to augment the results of Rogers et al. by offering an isolated evaluation of the albedo-induced forcing of stand-replacing fires within the Siberian larch forests which, in terms of fire ecology, are more compatible with those in the North American boreal forests. The SF and albedo trajectories established for the forests that burned between 2001 and 2012 showed that stand-replacing fires in this region impose a strong cooling effect for at least 26 years after fire and the magnitude is directly comparable to that reported for North America.. According to our results, the peak SF of stand-replacing fires on average exceeds −9 Wm-2Strong cooling induced by stand-replacing fires through albedo in Siberian larch forestsA forest fire in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region.Air pollution over Southeast Asia in October 1997. W.The 1997 Indonesian massive forest fire had an albedo of 0.9 shutting all solar light.Southeast Asia Chokes on Indonesia's Forest FiresBy SETH MYDANSNew York TimesSEPT. 25, 1997On the bad days, a milky twilight settles over the city at noon, tall buildings become ghostly shadows and people hurry along the streets with surgical masks covering their mouths and noses.Newspapers are filled with instructions: stay indoors, drink plenty of fluids, wash often, stop smoking. There is a whiff of wood smoke in the sluggish air.Indeed, vast forest fires are burning out of control. But they are hundreds of miles away in the jungles of Indonesia, mostly on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.In one of the most widespread man-made disasters the region has known, smoke from the fires has blanketed a broad swath of Southeast Asia this month. A choking haze is dimming the sun in Singapore, the Philippines, Brunei and southern Thailand as well as Indonesia and Malaysia.Flights have been canceled around the region, the busy shipping lanes of the Strait of Malacca have been disrupted by low visibility, and millions of people are coughing and wheezing. It is impossible to say how many people have been made sick by the smoke; Indonesia has traced two deaths directly to it, however.The fires are mostly intentionally set. Hundreds of Indonesian and Malaysian companies -- mostly large agricultural concerns, and some with high-placed Government connections -- are using fire as a cheap and illegal means of land-clearing.What is happening in Southeast Asia is different in kind both from the smogs of an earlier time in the industrialized nations of the northern hemisphere and from the forest fires of North America, which seldom have much impact on big population centers. In the deliberate burning of rain forest, it resembles the land-clearing fires that have ravaged large portions of the Amazon, but the pall from those has affected mostly rural areas.In Malaysia and Indonesia, by contrast, urban pollution is combining with smoke from the forest fires and being compounded by yet a third element: El Nino, the powerful ocean current that from time to time upsets weather patterns around the world.El Nino has returned this year in one of its most intense incarnations of the 20th century, and one of its early effects has been a drought in Indonesia that experts expect to spread throughout the region, including Australia. Some scientists suggest that the dryness has made it more likely that spontaneously occurring wildfires might be heightening the misery in Indonesia and Malaysia.Worst-hit so far is the Malaysian state of Sarawak, in northwestern Borneo, where a state of emergency has been declared and schools and businesses have closed as visibility has shrunk to arm's length. If the air does not clear soon, Government officials say they may begin evacuating some of the state's 1.9 million residents.In urban areas, the haze is a combination of smoke from the fires and emissions from factories and vehicles that have become an increasing problem as cities grow in this rapidly developing region.Even without the wildfires, Kuala Lumpur's air quality has been deteriorating as it modernizes, like that of other cities in the region including Bangkok and Jakarta.Gurmit Singh, who heads an environmental lobbying group here, said the current disaster is a reminder that unchecked development carries a cost. ''This has been getting worse and worse for more than 10 years, and this is the worst in memory,'' said Mr. Singh, coughing with what he said was a dry throat.The immediate problem is widespread illegal burning of vast tracts of jungle by agricultural development companies as a cheap way of clearing land. A secondary problem is created by fires set by slash-and-burn farmers, who often travel deep into virgin jungle along roads cut by loggers. The burning began with the onset of the dry season in June and by August Indonesia's neighbors began to feel its effects, as they have for the last half-dozen years.After the worst previous year, in 1994, Indonesia banned forest burning, but its new law has been largely ignored. Now both Indonesia and Malaysia are seeking to identify and prosecute more than 100 companies that are believed to be the worst offenders.Once they are started, the fires have proven remarkably difficult to bring under control, and President Suharto if Indonesia has tendered his ''most sincere apologies'' to his neighbors.An extended dry season caused by the warm ocean currents of El Nino has compounded the problem in several ways. It makes the fires easier to start and harder to put out. And it is delaying the onset -- perhaps for several months -- of the autumn monsoon rains that are the only sure way of dousing the wildfires. Indeed, officials say the hot weather is causing new fires in the peat bogs and barren tracts of logged land in Sumatra and Borneo.The sustained air pollution here in Malaysia is well beyond the experience of even the smoggiest cities in the United States, environmental officials here said.It is, instead, reminiscent of the soot-laden pea-soup fogs that London experienced up through the 1950's, when coal-burning was prevalent there. The worst of the smog seasons in Britain, in 1952, was blamed for 4,000 deaths, and prompted passage of a British Clean Air Act in 1956.A United States Government scientist familiar with the Malaysian situation said the smog-like haze there was not quite so deadly as the infamous killer fog of 1952, but that it nevertheless compared with some of the worst London fogs of that era. In any case, said the scientist, ''this is very bad.''In the United States, warnings are issued when the Pollution Standard Index -- a standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency that measures carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, dust, ash, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide -- rises above 100. Here in Kuala Lumpur, the index has hovered near 200 for weeks and has approached 300, a range that is considered ''very unhealthy,'' according to the Malaysian Government. In Sarawak the index climbed to 839 on Tuesday -- far above the level of 500, at which people are advised to stay inside with doors and windows closed.In Singapore the index reached a record level of 226 on Thursday. People there reported that opera-goers inside the air-conditioned Victoria Concert Hall that night could smell the thick smoke.''You get a headache and you feel very sleepy in class,'' said Khavita Kaur, a Malaysian high school student who wore a surgical mask below her white Islamic head scarf. ''And you can smell the smoke when you breathe, and your eyes smart.''Indonesian television today quoted experts as saying that breathing the haze in badly affected areas was as dangerous as smoking 80 cigarettes a day.The persistent smog has begun to take a political toll here in a country already battered by an economic downturn. Reports about the haze have overshadowed newspaper accounts of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's denunciations of Western currency traders last week.And in an unusual public protest, 100 demonstrators marched in a central square of the capital on Sunday, chanting, ''Immediate action! Immediate action!''On the same day, Mr. Mahathir announced that he was sending 1,200 firefighters to Indonesia to help battle the wildfires.For many people here, none of these measures is enough; their impulse is to flee.Shazman, a waiter who like many Malaysians uses only one name, said he had sent his two small children away from the smoggy city to live with their grandparents.And on weekends, he said, he escapes to the beach. But he conceded that this relief was an illusion. The beaches are smoggy too.Southeast Asia Chokes on Indonesia's Forest Fireshttps://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/45344356/Satellite_and_groundbased_study_of_optic20160504-27728-1ivi67.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DSatellite_and_ground-based_study_of_opti.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20190723%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20190723T000212Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=a03b578031c6497c171875f10a336fc28ed2473fdb1bc25e09447b678b023d07Siberain Wildfires block the sun form more than 26 years with major cooling..90% Of Wildfires Are Caused By People, Not By "Climate Change"by Tyler DurdenFri, 08/03/2018 - 19:45Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,Wildfires have been particularly bad the past few years. It’s part of the reason my family and I moved out of California. (Only part – the laws there are crazy!)And while this year seems worse than ever, the first 6 months are it’s actually not quite as bad as last year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.So far this year, we’ve seen 37591 fires and 4,810,195 acres have burned. By this time last year, there had been 39,227 fires and 5,639,919 acres had been devastated. Of course, this is of little comfort to those dealing with this year’s fires. And right now, wildfires are burning across the nation, from Alaska, all the way to Florida. Here’s the current map from the NOAA that shows where the fires are.So, basically, everywhere west of Chicago with a couple in the east.What’s causing all these fires?Of course, the headlines are all breathlessly claiming that the fires are due to climate change because that’s the current agenda in the straw-seizing, politically correct world.But the fact is, they’re caused by people. 90% of the fires that are burning and have burned in the United States have been caused by the carelessness or deliberate intent of human beings. The US Department of the Interior says:Wildfires can be caused by nature - mostly due to lightning strikes - but the vast majority are caused by humans. Research estimates that 90 percent of wildland fires in the United States are caused by people. Some human-caused fires result from campfires left unattended, the burning of debris, and intentional acts of arson. It can also be caused unintentionally by heat and sparks from vehicles and equipment. Public education and personal responsibility can greatly reduce the number of wildfires each year. (source)Does anyone else remember the Smokey Bear ads? “Only YOU can prevent forest fires?” Something tells me they need to bring Smokey back to teach people how to enjoy nature more responsibly. But human error is only part of the issue.The fires are more intense now because of the increased fuel loads. Dry grass, unchecked forest growth, and brush all add to the intensity and speed at which a fire burns.There are three conditions that need to be present in order for a wildfire to burn, which firefighters refer to as the fire triangle: fuel, oxygen, and a heat source. Fuel is any flammable material surrounding a fire, including trees, grasses, brush, even homes. The greater an area’s fuel load, the more intense the fire. Air supplies the oxygen a fire needs to burn. Heat sources help spark the wildfire and bring fuel to temperatures hot enough to ignite. Lightning, burning campfires or cigarettes, hot winds, and even the sun can all provide sufficient heat to spark a wildfire……Dry weather and drought convert green vegetation into bone-dry, flammable fuel; strong winds spread fire quickly over land; and warm temperatures encourage combustion. (source)PauseEnvironmental policies that were designed in an effort to protect forests are actually responsible for destroying them because it’s increasing the fuel load for wildfires. A lack of forest management and yes, logging, has created forests so dense that it only takes a spark for them to go up in flames, and all of the fuel results in an intense, fast-moving blaze.Obviously, drought conditions make everything worse, and California has been on-and-off in a drought forever – or at least the past hundred years.Wildfires have always happened.Wildfires have long been nature’s method of forest management. The US Department of the Interior explains:Fire has always been a natural process that is essential to healthy ecological systems. In the early 1900s, land management agencies sought to suppress all fires in an effort to preserve the timber supply. Over the decades, fire exclusion led to more living and dead vegetation on the landscape, increasing the fuel and as a result, the risk of large wildfires in our forests, rangelands, and near communities. (source)A report from the Clemson University newspaper said:“Fire has always been a natural occurrence in our ecosystem that has many benefits,” said Derrick Phinney, a Clemson Cooperative Extension natural resources division leader based in Dorchester. “As far back as the American Indians, fire was a main staple of forest management. Whether intentionally set or started by lightning strikes, fire regenerates forests, renews the soil and basically resets the clock. But in more recent times, the number of prescribed burns has greatly decreased because of numerous reasons, such as air-quality issues caused by smoke. When highways, schools and hospitals are built near or even within forests, this limits fire usage.”Because of these limitations, higher-than-normal buildups of undesirable fuel loads, such as invasive undergrowth, brush and ground litter, create conditions that, when combined with drought, low humidity and wind, can result in dire consequences. A fire that would normally flow through a forest doing relatively little harm to the larger trees instead burns so hot that it annihilates everything in its path.“They burn too hot, they burn too fast, they burn uncontrollably, especially in hilly and mountainous areas,” said Phinney, who has been involved in land management and environmental regulations for close to 20 years. “They say that fire runs up a hill and walks down a hill. Fire basically runs up hills because it super-heats the vegetation above where it’s burning. This can cause incredible damage.” (source)This leads us to another factor.Humans live where the fires are.As mentioned previously, poor forest management has led to additional fuel. Humans have carelessly caused fire after fire. And a third of our growing population lives in areas that are much more prone to burn.As our population grows, more and more people – one-third of homes, specifically – live in or near the forests and natural areas, something called Wildland-Urban Interface. According to a report by the USDA, if you are in that interface, sooner or later, you’re going to be at risk of a wildfire. “Homes located anywhere in the WUI will eventually be exposed to wildfire, regardless of vegetation type or potential for large fires.”This isn’t to say that humans all need to live in the city.“People move into areas where fires have always been. But they don’t prepare for them and, in many cases, aren’t even aware of how dangerous they can be,” said Carolyn Dawson, an Extension forestry agent based in the Upstate. “Then they’re shocked when a wildfire comes through and destroys their homes. We need to teach homeowners how to adapt to living with wildfire and encourage neighbors to work together and take action now to prevent losses in the future. There are things residents can do, such as reducing wildland fuels and structure ignitability, to protect their homes during a wildfire. Homes that don’t ignite don’t burn.” (source)It’s very important to know if you live in an area with a high potential for wildfire and if so, to prepare for the possibility.What can you do to protect your home?There are numerous things you can do to protect your home from a wildfire if you live in an area prone to them. The US Forest Service is bursting with information about the topic with their FireWise program. Here are some of their suggestions to prepare your home.Immediate zoneThe home and the area 0-5’ from the furthest attached exterior point of the home; defined as a non-combustible area. Science tells us this is the most important zone to take immediate action on as it is the most vulnerable to embers. START WITH THE HOUSE ITSELF then move into the landscaping section of the Immediate Zone.Clean roofs and gutters of dead leaves, debris and pine needles that could catch embers.Replace or repair any loose or missing shingles or roof tiles to prevent ember penetration.Reduce embers that could pass through vents in the eaves by installing 1/8 inch metal mesh screening.Clean debris from exterior attic vents and install 1/8 inch metal mesh screening to reduce embers.Repair or replace damaged or loose window screens and any broken windows Screen or box-in areas below patios and decks with wire mesh to prevent debris and combustible materials from accumulating.Move any flammable material away from wall exteriors – mulch, flammable plants, leaves and needles, firewood piles – anything that can burn. Remove anything stored underneath decks or porches.Intermediate zone5-30’ from the furthest exterior point of the home. Landscaping/hardscaping- employing careful landscaping or creating breaks that can help influence and decrease fire behaviorClear vegetation from under large stationary propane tanks.Create fuel breaks with driveways, walkways/paths, patios, and decks.Keep lawns and native grasses mowed to a height of four inches.Remove ladder fuels (vegetation under trees) so a surface fire cannot reach the crowns. Prune trees up to six to ten feet from the ground; for shorter trees do not exceed 1/3 of the overall tree height.Space trees to have a minimum of eighteen feet between crowns with the distance increasing with the percentage of slope.Tree placement should be planned to ensure the mature canopy is no closer than ten feet to the edge of the structure.Tree and shrubs in this zone should be limited to small clusters of a few each to break up the continuity of the vegetation across the landscape.Extended zone30-100 feet, out to 200 feet. Landscaping – the goal here is not to eliminate fire but to interrupt fire’s path and keep flames smaller and on the ground.Dispose of heavy accumulations of ground litter/debris.Remove dead plant and tree material.Remove small conifers growing between mature trees.Remove vegetation adjacent to storage sheds or other outbuildings within this area.Trees 30 to 60 feet from the home should have at least 12 feet between canopy tops.*Trees 60 to 100 feet from the home should have at least 6 feet between the canopy tops.*Another thing you can do is proof your roof with a non-flammable material, like asphalt shingles, metal, slate, or tile. That can be incredibly expensive, so another option, although less effective, is treating your existing roof with fire retardant, or install a rooftop sprinkler systemThese steps can be the difference between your home burning during a wildfire or being one of the homes left standing.You need to be ready to evacuate.Despite the best preparations, there are some cases in which you must evacuate. Wildfires can spread rapidly, especially if they ignite things like propane tanks. In 2015, the small town of Middleburg, California was literally burned off the map when this occurred.The videos in this article show the horror of evacuating through a wildfire. We lived on the edge of a wildfire more than once in California, but I’ll never forget the first one. Here’s that story if you want to know what it’s like. My former home of El Dorado County, California is currently under threat again, and all my dear friends and former neighbors are in my thoughts.For evacuation checklists and vehicle emergency kit checklists, you can grab my new PDF, The Prepper’s Book of Lists for $9.49. It contains more than 40 lists to help you get prepped and ready for anything.You should have a kit in your vehicle at all times for a rapid escape:How do CO2 emissions from forest fires compare to those from fossil fuels?Social SharingCBC Radio · Posted: Sep 15, 2018 12:00 PM ET | Last Updated: September 14, 2018Forest fires like this one in BC emit 2 to 3 times the amount of CO2 as the burning of fossil fuels from other sectors. (Getty Images Chris Harris)The fast moving smoke aerosols block out almost all sunlight making the temperatures cooler.This week's question comes from Gary Schajer in Vancouver. He asks:Forest growth is well known to reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuel usage because it fixes carbon and so takes CO2 out of the atmosphere. The recent forest fires in BC and elsewhere have burned a lot of that carbon and returned the CO2 to the atmosphere. What is the relative size of the CO2 emission of the forest fires compared with that from fossil fuel usage?Dr. Werner Kurz has the answer. He is a Senior Research Scientist with Natural Resources Canada, and also leads the team that develops Canada's forest greenhouse gas inventories and the Forest Carbon Management Project of the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS).Dr. Kurz says that in 2017 about 1.2 million hectares of forest burned in British Columbia, and 1.3 million hectares and counting this year. Compared to the average annual area burned in the province between 1990 and 2015, each of the last two years burned 15 times more than the average area. Forest fires like these release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, such as methane into the atmosphere. The initial - albeit unofficial - estimate is that the direct fire emissions in 2017 were about 150 (plus/minus 30) million tons of carbon dioxide.This is two to three times the emissions from fossil fuel burning from all other sectors in B.C.But the impacts on the atmosphere are even greater because the many trees killed by fires will decompose over the next decades, releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Also, trees killed by fires will not be removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as living trees would. Therefore, the combined impact on the greenhouse gas emission balance is larger than just the direct emissions. Fortunately, most forests affected by wildfires will regrow in future decades, and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere again.90% Of Wildfires Are Caused By People, Not By "Climate Change"by Tyler DurdenFri, 08/03/2018 - 19:45Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,Wildfires have been particularly bad the past few years. It’s part of the reason my family and I moved out of California. (Only part – the laws there are crazy!)And while this year seems worse than ever, the first 6 months are it’s actually not quite as bad as last year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.So far this year, we’ve seen 37591 fires and 4,810,195 acres have burned. By this time last year, there had been 39,227 fires and 5,639,919 acres had been devastated. Of course, this is of little comfort to those dealing with this year’s fires. And right now, wildfires are burning across the nation, from Alaska, all the way to Florida. Here’s the current map from the NOAA that shows where the fires are.So, basically, everywhere west of Chicago with a couple in the east.What’s causing all these fires?Of course, the headlines are all breathlessly claiming that the fires are due to climate change because that’s the current agenda in the straw-seizing, politically correct world.But the fact is, they’re caused by people. 90% of the fires that are burning and have burned in the United States have been caused by the carelessness or deliberate intent of human beings. The US Department of the Interior says:Wildfires can be caused by nature - mostly due to lightning strikes - but the vast majority are caused by humans. Research estimates that 90 percent of wildland fires in the United States are caused by people. Some human-caused fires result from campfires left unattended, the burning of debris, and intentional acts of arson. It can also be caused unintentionally by heat and sparks from vehicles and equipment. Public education and personal responsibility can greatly reduce the number of wildfires each year. (source)Does anyone else remember the Smokey Bear ads? “Only YOU can prevent forest fires?” Something tells me they need to bring Smokey back to teach people how to enjoy nature more responsibly. But human error is only part of the issue.The fires are more intense now because of the increased fuel loads. Dry grass, unchecked forest growth, and brush all add to the intensity and speed at which a fire burns.There are three conditions that need to be present in order for a wildfire to burn, which firefighters refer to as the fire triangle: fuel, oxygen, and a heat source. Fuel is any flammable material surrounding a fire, including trees, grasses, brush, even homes. The greater an area’s fuel load, the more intense the fire. Air supplies the oxygen a fire needs to burn. Heat sources help spark the wildfire and bring fuel to temperatures hot enough to ignite. Lightning, burning campfires or cigarettes, hot winds, and even the sun can all provide sufficient heat to spark a wildfire……Dry weather and drought convert green vegetation into bone-dry, flammable fuel; strong winds spread fire quickly over land; and warm temperatures encourage combustion. (source)PauseEnvironmental policies that were designed in an effort to protect forests are actually responsible for destroying them because it’s increasing the fuel load for wildfires. A lack of forest management and yes, logging, has created forests so dense that it only takes a spark for them to go up in flames, and all of the fuel results in an intense, fast-moving blaze.Obviously, drought conditions make everything worse, and California has been on-and-off in a drought forever – or at least the past hundred years.Wildfires have always happened.Wildfires have long been nature’s method of forest management. The US Department of the Interior explains:Fire has always been a natural process that is essential to healthy ecological systems. In the early 1900s, land management agencies sought to suppress all fires in an effort to preserve the timber supply. Over the decades, fire exclusion led to more living and dead vegetation on the landscape, increasing the fuel and as a result, the risk of large wildfires in our forests, rangelands, and near communities. (source)A report from the Clemson University newspaper said:“Fire has always been a natural occurrence in our ecosystem that has many benefits,” said Derrick Phinney, a Clemson Cooperative Extension natural resources division leader based in Dorchester. “As far back as the American Indians, fire was a main staple of forest management. Whether intentionally set or started by lightning strikes, fire regenerates forests, renews the soil and basically resets the clock. But in more recent times, the number of prescribed burns has greatly decreased because of numerous reasons, such as air-quality issues caused by smoke. When highways, schools and hospitals are built near or even within forests, this limits fire usage.”Because of these limitations, higher-than-normal buildups of undesirable fuel loads, such as invasive undergrowth, brush and ground litter, create conditions that, when combined with drought, low humidity and wind, can result in dire consequences. A fire that would normally flow through a forest doing relatively little harm to the larger trees instead burns so hot that it annihilates everything in its path.“They burn too hot, they burn too fast, they burn uncontrollably, especially in hilly and mountainous areas,” said Phinney, who has been involved in land management and environmental regulations for close to 20 years. “They say that fire runs up a hill and walks down a hill. Fire basically runs up hills because it super-heats the vegetation above where it’s burning. This can cause incredible damage.” (source)This leads us to another factor.Humans live where the fires are.As mentioned previously, poor forest management has led to additional fuel. Humans have carelessly caused fire after fire. And a third of our growing population lives in areas that are much more prone to burn.As our population grows, more and more people – one-third of homes, specifically – live in or near the forests and natural areas, something called Wildland-Urban Interface. According to a report by the USDA, if you are in that interface, sooner or later, you’re going to be at risk of a wildfire. “Homes located anywhere in the WUI will eventually be exposed to wildfire, regardless of vegetation type or potential for large fires.”This isn’t to say that humans all need to live in the city.“People move into areas where fires have always been. But they don’t prepare for them and, in many cases, aren’t even aware of how dangerous they can be,” said Carolyn Dawson, an Extension forestry agent based in the Upstate. “Then they’re shocked when a wildfire comes through and destroys their homes. We need to teach homeowners how to adapt to living with wildfire and encourage neighbors to work together and take action now to prevent losses in the future. There are things residents can do, such as reducing wildland fuels and structure ignitability, to protect their homes during a wildfire. Homes that don’t ignite don’t burn.” (source)It’s very important to know if you live in an area with a high potential for wildfire and if so, to prepare for the possibility.What can you do to protect your home?There are numerous things you can do to protect your home from a wildfire if you live in an area prone to them. The US Forest Service is bursting with information about the topic with their FireWise program. Here are some of their suggestions to prepare your home.Immediate zoneThe home and the area 0-5’ from the furthest attached exterior point of the home; defined as a non-combustible area. Science tells us this is the most important zone to take immediate action on as it is the most vulnerable to embers. START WITH THE HOUSE ITSELF then move into the landscaping section of the Immediate Zone.Clean roofs and gutters of dead leaves, debris and pine needles that could catch embers.Replace or repair any loose or missing shingles or roof tiles to prevent ember penetration.Reduce embers that could pass through vents in the eaves by installing 1/8 inch metal mesh screening.Clean debris from exterior attic vents and install 1/8 inch metal mesh screening to reduce embers.Repair or replace damaged or loose window screens and any broken windows Screen or box-in areas below patios and decks with wire mesh to prevent debris and combustible materials from accumulating.Move any flammable material away from wall exteriors – mulch, flammable plants, leaves and needles, firewood piles – anything that can burn. Remove anything stored underneath decks or porches.Intermediate zone5-30’ from the furthest exterior point of the home. Landscaping/hardscaping- employing careful landscaping or creating breaks that can help influence and decrease fire behaviorClear vegetation from under large stationary propane tanks.Create fuel breaks with driveways, walkways/paths, patios, and decks.Keep lawns and native grasses mowed to a height of four inches.Remove ladder fuels (vegetation under trees) so a surface fire cannot reach the crowns. Prune trees up to six to ten feet from the ground; for shorter trees do not exceed 1/3 of the overall tree height.Space trees to have a minimum of eighteen feet between crowns with the distance increasing with the percentage of slope.Tree placement should be planned to ensure the mature canopy is no closer than ten feet to the edge of the structure.Tree and shrubs in this zone should be limited to small clusters of a few each to break up the continuity of the vegetation across the landscape.Extended zone30-100 feet, out to 200 feet. Landscaping – the goal here is not to eliminate fire but to interrupt fire’s path and keep flames smaller and on the ground.Dispose of heavy accumulations of ground litter/debris.Remove dead plant and tree material.Remove small conifers growing between mature trees.Remove vegetation adjacent to storage sheds or other outbuildings within this area.Trees 30 to 60 feet from the home should have at least 12 feet between canopy tops.*Trees 60 to 100 feet from the home should have at least 6 feet between the canopy tops.*Another thing you can do is proof your roof with a non-flammable material, like asphalt shingles, metal, slate, or tile. That can be incredibly expensive, so another option, although less effective, is treating your existing roof with fire retardant, or install a rooftop sprinkler systemThese steps can be the difference between your home burning during a wildfire or being one of the homes left standing.You need to be ready to evacuate.Despite the best preparations, there are some cases in which you must evacuate. Wildfires can spread rapidly, especially if they ignite things like propane tanks. In 2015, the small town of Middleburg, California was literally burned off the map when this occurred.The videos in this article show the horror of evacuating through a wildfire. We lived on the edge of a wildfire more than once in California, but I’ll never forget the first one. Here’s that story if you want to know what it’s like. My former home of El Dorado County, California is currently under threat again, and all my dear friends and former neighbors are in my thoughts.For evacuation checklists and vehicle emergency kit checklists, you can grab my new PDF, The Prepper’s Book of Lists for $9.49. It contains more than 40 lists to help you get prepped and ready for anything.You should have a kit in your vehicle at all times for a rapid escape:Science NewsWildfire aerosols remain longer in atmosphere than expectedDate: October 2, 2018Source: Michigan Technological UniversitySummary:Light-absorbing brown carbon aerosols, emitted by wildfires, remain longer in the atmosphere than expected, which could have implications for climate predictions."Wildfires are such a huge source of aerosol in the atmosphere with a combination of cooling and warming properties, that understanding the delicate balance can have profound consequences on how accurately we can predict future changes," says Claudio Mazzoleni, professor of physics, and one of the authors of the paper.As wildfires increase in size and frequency in the world's arid regions, more aerosol particles could be injected into the free troposphere where they are slower to oxidize, contributing another important consideration to the study of atmospheric science and climate change.Wildfire aerosols remain longer in atmosphere than expectedTHIS PAPER CONFIRMS THAT WILDFIRE AEROSOLS MAKE THE WEATHER COOLER ESPECIALLY IN DROUGT CONDITIONS IN THE SUMMER.The paper errs in its conclusion only because it relies on the false models of the UN alarmists. These models have no credibility shown hindcasting . They use flawed algorithms causing over heating. They also use Co2 rise which has no correlation with temperature.Co2 lags temperature and therefore has no effect.Environmental Research LettersLETTER • THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS OPEN ACCESSImpacts of increasing aridity and wildfires on aerosol loading in the intermountain Western USA Gannet Hallar1,2,3, Noah P Molotch4,5, Jenny L Hand6, Ben Livneh7,8, Ian B McCubbin3,5, Ross Petersen1,3, Joseph Michalsky7,9, Douglas Lowenthal1,2 and Kenneth E Kunkel10Published 6 January 2017 • © 2017 IOP Publishing LtdEnvironmental Research Letters, Volume 12, Number 14. ConclusionsThe Intermountain West will continue to face significant challenges maintaining mandated visibility requirements faced with a drier climate, as there is a broad consensus among climate modeling results that the Intermountain West will become more arid in the 21st century (e.g. Watson 2002, Seager et al 2007, 2013). The results reported here indicate that these changes in climate will have profound impacts on aerosol loading in these pristine places, albeit slightly reduced from prior model estimates. This relative reduction in aerosol loading will diminish the regional cooling effects of aerosols and will lead to a warmer climate than previously predicted.ConclusionIt is well recognized that 90% of wildfires are caused by humans not natural forces. This insight into GHG emissions from wildfires exceeding fossil fuel emission must create major uncertainty about the breakdown of Co2 in the atmosphere. These fires are totally unpredictable and vary considerably from year to year. Sadly BC is a rare jurisdiction with carbon taxes that are useless vis a vis the climate and now even more so with the revelation that wildfires are the dominant source of Co2 in the atmosphere.Wildfires are just as random as black swans and volcano eruptions. It is essential to understand the complexity of measuring human made Co2 emissions and to realize at a detail level the trace amounts are indistinguishable from natural sources of co2. The atmosphere contains approximately 800 Gt of Co2 with 95% coming from natural sources of vegetation, land and ocean and 4% form human fossil fuel emissions. Here is a vital graph sourced from the IPCC and it is only an a rough estimate and far from accurate -June 29, 2017NASA Detects Drop in Global FiresNASA Detects Drop in Global FiresShifting livelihoods across the tropical forest frontiers of South America, the Eurasian Steppe, and the savannas of Africa are altering landscapes and leading to a significant decline in the amount of land burned by fire each year, a trend that NASA satellites have detected from space.The ongoing transition from nomadic cultures to settled lifestyles and intensifying agriculture has led to a steep drop not only in the use of fire on local lands, but in the prevalence of fire worldwide, researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and colleagues found.Globally, the total acreage burned by fires each year declined by 24 percent between 1998 and 2015, according to a new paper in Sciencethat analyzes NASA’s satellite data, as well as population and socioeconomic information. The decline in burned lands was largest in savannas and grasslands, where fires are essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems and habitat conservation.Across Africa, fires typically burn an area about half the size of the continental United States every year, said Niels Andela, a research scientist at Goddard and lead author on the paper. In traditional savanna cultures with common lands, people often set fires to keep grazing lands productive and free of shrubs. As many of these communities have shifted to cultivate more permanent fields and to build more houses, roads and villages, the use of fire declines. As economic development continues, the landscape becomes more fragmented, communities often enact legislation to control fires and the burned area declines even more.By 2015, savanna fires in Africa had declined by 270,000 square miles (700,000 square kilometers) — an area the size of Texas.“When land use intensifies on savannas, fire is used less and less as a tool,” Andela said. “As soon as people invest in houses, crops and livestock, they don’t want these fires close by anymore. The way of doing agriculture changes, the practices change, and fire slowly disappears from the grassland landscape.”Andela and an international team of scientists analyzed the fire data, derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites, as well as other sources. They compared these datasets with trends in population, agriculture, livestock density and gross domestic product.The scientists found a different pattern in the rainforests and other humid regions close to the equator. Natural fires are rare in tropical forests, but as people settle an area they often burn to clear land for cropland and pastures. After the land is first cleared, as more people move into the area and increase the investments in agriculture, they set fewer fires and the burned area declines again.The impact of human-caused changes in savannas, grasslands and tropical forests is so large that it offsets much of the increased risk of fire caused by warming global temperatures, said Doug Morton, a research scientist at Goddard and a co-author of the study. Still, the impact of a warming and drying climate is seen at higher latitudes, where fire has increased in parts of Canada and the American west. Regions of China, India, Brazil and southern Africa also show an increase in burned area. But the expansiveness of savannas and grasslands puts the global trend in decline.“Climate change has increased fire risk in many regions, but satellite burned area data show that human activity has effectively counterbalanced that climate risk, especially across the global tropics,” Morton said. “We’ve seen a substantial global decline over the satellite record, and the loss of fire has some really important implications for the Earth system.”Fewer and smaller fires on the savanna favors trees and shrubs instead of open grasslands, altering habitat for the region’s iconic mammals, like elephants, rhinoceroses and lions.“Humans are interrupting the ancient, natural cycle of burning and regrowth in these areas,” senior author Jim Randerson, a professor of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine, said of the African savannas. “Fire had been instrumental for millennia in maintaining healthy savannas, keeping shrubs and trees at bay and eliminating dead vegetation.”There are benefits to fewer fires as well. Regions with less fire also saw a drop in carbon monoxide emissions and an improvement in air quality during the peak of the fire season, confirming the burned area trends using data from other NASA satellites. With less fire, the vegetation in savannas is also able to build up — taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, instead of releasing it into the atmosphere during fires. The 24 percent decline in burned area may have contributed about 7 percent to the ability of global vegetation to absorb the increase in carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and land use change.The decline in burned area from human activity raises some difficult questions, Morton said: “For fire-dependent ecosystems like savannas, the challenge is to balance the need for frequent burning to maintain habitat for large mammals and biodiversity, while reducing fire on the landscape to improve air quality and protect people’s property and agriculture.”As these savannas and grasslands continue to develop and agriculture intensifies, however, the researchers expect the global decline in fires to continue. It’s a trend that should be incorporated into computer models that forecast climate and carbon dynamics, Morton said.“The loss of fire from agricultural landscapes has a big impact on communities and ecosystems. Looking ahead, models that account for changes in fire activity from human management will help us understand the feedbacks from fewer fires on vegetation, air quality and climate,” he said.For more information and to explore the data:Global Fire Emissions DatabaseTo read the paper, visit:A human-driven decline in global burned areaBanner Image: Fires in the savanna, like this one in South Africa, burn quickly through grasses, and help prevent trees and larger shrubs from taking root.Banner Image Credits: Guido van der Werf / Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the NetherlandsCanadian wildfires data is consistent with global decline in wildfires detected by NASA.Canadian National Fire DatabasePredictions of hotter weather in the future from Co2 emissions is false science —-Dr. Willie Soon versus the Climate ApocalypseMore honesty and less hubris, more evidence and less dogmatism, would do a world of goodDr. Jeffrey Foss“What can I do to correct these crazy, super wrong errors?” Willie Soon asked plaintively in a recent e-chat. “What errors, Willie?” I asked.“Errors in Total Solar Irradiance,” he replied. “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change keeps using the wrong numbers! It’s making me feel sick to keep seeing this error. I keep telling them – but they keep ignoring their mistake.”Astrophysicist Dr. Willie Soon really does get sick when he sees scientists veering off their mission: to discover the truth. I’ve seen his face flush with shock and shame for science when scientists cherry-pick data. It ruins his appetite – a real downer for someone who loves his food as much as Willie does.You have got to love a guy like that, if you love science – and I do. I’m a philosopher of science, not a scientist, but my love for science runs deep – as does my faith. So I cannot help but admire Willie and his good old-fashioned passion for science.Willie Soon may one day be a household name. More and more he appears at the pointy end of scientific criticism of Climate Apocalypse. In two recent lawsuits against Big Oil, one by New York City and the other by San Francisco and Oakland, Dr. Soon is named as the “paid agent” of “climate change denialism.” As the man who – Gasp! – single handedly convinced Big Oil to continue business as usual.Can you even imagine that? I can’t: Big Oil couldn’t turn off its taps in big cities even if it wanted to.Putting such silly lawsuits aside, it is a big honor, historically speaking, for Dr. Soon to be the face of scientific rebuttal of Climate Apocalypse, since feeding the developed world’s apocalypse addiction is the main tool of a powerful global political agenda.The IPCC – along with the United Nations and many environmentalist organizations, politicians, bureaucrats and their followers – desperately want to halt and even roll back development in the industrialized world, and keep Africa and other poor countries permanently undeveloped, while China races ahead. They want Willie silenced. We the people need to make sure he is heard.Dr. Soon never sought the job of defending us against the slick, computer model-driven, anti-fossil fuel certainties of Climate Apocalypse. Willie just happened to choose solar science as a career and, like many solar scientists, after nearly three decades of scientific research in his case, came to believe that changes in the sun’s brightness, sunspots and energy output, changes in the orbital position of the Earth relative to the sun, and other powerful natural forces drive climate change. In brief, our sun controls our climate.Even the IPCC initially indicated agreement with him, citing his work approvingly in its second (1996) and third (2001) Assessment Reports. That later changed, significantly. Sure, everyone agrees that the sun caused the waxing and waning of the ice ages, just as solar scientists say. However, the sun had to be played down if carbon dioxide (CO2) was to be played up – an abuse of science that makes Willie sick.Unfortunately for the IPCC, solar scientists think solar changes also explain Earth’s most recent warming period which, they point out, began way back in the 1830s – long before we burned enough fossil fuels to make any difference. They also observed the shrinking of the Martian ice-caps in the 1990s, and their return in the last few years – in perfect time with the waning and waxing of Arctic ice caps here on Earth.Only the sun – not the CO2 from our fires – could cause that Earth-Mars synchronicity. And surely it is no mere coincidence that a grand maximum in solar brightness (Total Solar Irradiance or TSI) took place in the 1990s as both planets’ ice caps shrank, or that the sun cooled (TSI decreased) as both planets’ ice caps grew once again. All that brings us back to Dr. Soon’s disagreements with the IPCC.The IPCC now insists that solar variability is so tiny that they can just ignore it, and proclaim CO2 emissions as the driving force behind climate change. But solar researchers long ago discovered unexpected variability in the sun’s brightness – variability that is confirmed in other stars of the sun’s type. Why does the IPCC ignore these facts? Why does it insist on spoiling Willie’s appetite?It sure looks like the IPCC is hiding the best findings of solar science so that it can trumpet the decreases in planetary warming (the so-called “greenhouse effect”) that they embed in the “scenarios” (as they call them) emanating from their computer models. Ignoring the increase in solar brightness over the 80s and 90s, they instead enthusiastically blame the warmth of the 1990s on human production of CO2.In just such ways they sell us their Climate Apocalypse – along with the roll-back of human energy use, comfort, living standards and progress: sacrifices that the great green gods of Gaia demand of us if we are to avoid existential cataclysms. Thankfully, virgins are still safe – for now.Surely Willie and solar scientists are right about the primacy of the sun. Why? Because the observable real world is the final test of science. And the data – actual evidence – shows that global temperatures follow changes in solar brightness on all time-scales, from decades to millions of years. On the other hand, CO2 and temperature have generally gone their own separate ways on these time scales.Global temperatures stopped going up in the first two decades of this century, even though CO2 has steadily risen. The IPCC blames this global warming “hiatus” on “natural climate variability,” meaning something random, something not included in their models, something the IPCC didn’t see coming.This confirms the fact that their models do not add up to a real theory of climate. Otherwise the theory would be falsified by their incorrect predictions. They predicted a continuous increase in temperature, locked to a continuous increase in CO2. But instead, temperature has remained steady over the last two decades, while CO2 climbed even faster than before.IPCC modelers still insist that the models are nevertheless correct, somehow – that the world would be even colder now if it weren’t for this pesky hiatus in CO2-driven warming. Of course, they have to say that – even though they previously insisted the Earth would not be as cool as it is right now.Still, their politically correct commands stridently persist: stay colder in winter, stay hotter in summer, take cold showers, drive less, make fewer trips, fly less, don’t eat foods that aren’t “local,” bury your loved ones in cardboard boxes, turn off the lights. Their list of diktats is big and continuously growing.Unlike the IPCC, Willie and I cannot simply ignore the fact that there were multiple ice ages millions of years ago, when CO2 levels were four times higher than now. And even when CO2 and temperature do trend in tandem, as in the famous gigantic graph in Al Gore’s movie, the CO2 rises followed temperature increases by a few centuries. That means rising CO2 could not possibly have caused the temperature increases – an inconvenient truth that Gore doesn’t care about and studiously ignores.Unfortunately, through their powerful political and media cadres, the IPCC has created a highly effective propaganda and war-on-fossil-fuels vehicle, to herd public opinion – and marginalize or silence any scientist who dares to disagree with it. For better or worse, richer or poorer, my dear, passionate Dr. Soon is one scientist who is always ready to stand in the path of that tank and face it down: anytime, anywhere.I’m frightened by the dangers to Willie, his family and his career, due to his daily battles with the Climate Apocalypse industry. I can’t get it out of my mind that the university office building of climatologist John Christy – who shares Willie’s skepticism of Climate Apocalypse – was shot full of bullet holes last year. But let’s not let a spattering of gunfire spoil a friendly scientific debate. Right?Willie’s courage makes me proud to know him, and to be an aficionado of science like he is. When it comes to the long game, my money is on Dr. Willie Soon. We the people hunger for truth, as does science itself. And that hunger will inevitably eclipse our romantic dalliance with the Climate Apocalypse.Dr. Jeffrey Foss is a philosopher of science and Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, CanadaDr. Willie Soon versus the Climate Apocalypse“In fact global warming has stopped and a cooling is beginning. No climate model has predicted a cooling of the Earth – quite the contrary. And this means that the projections of future climate are unreliable,” writes Henrik Svensmark.A brilliant Danish scientist PROF HENRIK SVENSMARK explained this reality as follows:Svensmark: “global warming stopped and a cooling is beginning” – “enjoy global warming while it lasts”Anthony Watts / September 10, 2009UPDATED: This opinion piece from Professor Henrik Svensmark was published September 9th in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Originally the translation was from Google translation with some post translation cleanup of jumbled words or phrases by myself. Now as of Sept 12, the translation is by Nigel Calder. Hat tip to Carsten Arnholm of Norway for bringing this to my attention and especially for translation facilitation by Ágúst H Bjarnason – AnthonyWhile the sun sleepsTranslation approved by Henrik SvensmarkWhile the Sun sleepsHenrik Svensmark, Professor, Technical University of Denmark, CopenhagenThe amounts are measured in Gt and obviously the are just estimates. There is no actual observation of the three primary different sources of Co2. Numbers are simply statistical estimates from data. This is a significant problem for the alarmist theory of human caused global warming.“For example, until recently estimates of the carbon dioxide yield of one of the world’s best known land volcanoes, Kilauea Volcano (Hawaii), was 2,800 tonnes/Co2/day. In 2001, Gerlach and co-authors established by measurement a more accurate figure of 8,800 tonnes/day. which is over three times as great. If such uncertainty attends to well-studied subaerial volcanoes, the estimates of carbon dioxide emissions from submarine volcanoes, the majority, are obviously little better than guesses.” Robert M. Carter, CLIMATE: THE COUNTER CONSENSUS.NO DOUBT THE 2001 ESTIMATE IS WRONG AFTER RECENT HAWAII VOLCANIC EXPLOSIONSKilauea is one of the most active volcanoes on earth and has been in a state of constant eruption since 1983, turning explosive this month after a magnitude 6.9 volcano rocked the area.So far, at least 47 homes and other structures have been destroyed by lava from 23 open fissures, forcing thousands from their homes.This means the human contributions in context are not well understood because no one, including the IPCC, can satisfactorily account for the observed levels in detail. There is no doubt carbon dioxide sources and sinks have large DATA ERRORS. Even with guesses the IPCC admits man’s carbon dioxide contribution is small, but the IPCC argues that, nonetheless, anthropogenic emissions will ‘tip’ the natural balance of the planet causing dangerous climate change and acidification of the ocean. In exactly the same way the emission from wildfires are not well understood.Like underestimating the impact of major Volcanoes underestimating wildfires adds artificial fudged support to the alarmist narrative that fossil fuel emissions are the control knob of the climate. Covering up the real impact of fires is not much different than the IPCC trick of erasing the proven climate history of both the Medieval Warming period and the Little Ice Age to make recent warming seem unprecedented when actually it was not.One expert climatologist Tim Ball estimates that human production of carbon dioxide is more than four times less than the combined statistical error (32Gt) on the estimated carbon dioxide production from all other sources. IBID, page 74 Carter.This means that human emission of Co2 - the great bogeyman of the alarmists are no more than the statistical error of the estimates.Why I’m Skeptical of ‘Man Made’ Global WarmingWhen I see that ‘climate scientists’ have been lying to me, cooking the data, hiding and cherry picking data, and issue statements admitting they have an agenda which is NOT about the environment, I tend to discount ANYTHING they claim in the future, and only believe what I can verify through independent sources.In the world of law these climate scientists would long ago have been defrocked for bias, misleading and contradictory testimony.A Democratic professor explains what his party gets wrong about climateby Caleb Rossiter| July 18, 2019 11:00 PMWhere I’m coming from is academia, where defining the scientific terms we discuss is elemental. (Photo by Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner)Sign up for News from Washington ExaminerSUBMITAs the Republican-called witness at a recent hearing, I was denounced by the Democrats for denying a fossil-fueled “climate crisis” that, as their witnesses testified, results in violence against women, asthma and obesity in children, and deadly storms. But few actually questioned me. After all, “the debate is over.”So instead, the latest belle of my party’s ball, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, left the dais to urge protestors outside to drown me out. She’d previously written Google and Facebook, asking them to block me and the CO2 Coalition of 50 unalarmed scientists I direct from speaking at conferences they sponsor.Watch Full Screen to Skip AdsA Democratic professor explains what his party gets wrong about climate

Let’s get the list. If you want more, check this out.Lists of legendary creatures - WikipediaAnyway, here are some of those.Abaasy, Shaman mythology, huge humanoids with one two or three heads, and two, four or six arms. Thought to be spirits of the dead, can be apeaced by blood sacrifices. In some depictions, dragon riders..Adlet, Inuit, violent weak fast humans with dog-like lower half of the body..Adroanzi, African, big spirits of specific trees and rivers, protectors of good humans, but kill anyone who looks at them. They eat what they kill. In some accounts, associated to snakes..Ahuizotl, Aztec, dog monkey hybrid with hand on tail end (sometimes used to pull people into the water) and waterproof fur that can clump into hard spikes..Aitvaras, Lithuanian, black or white rooster with firey tail, in some cases looks like a dragon when it goes outside, born of a 15 year old rooster, steals gold and grain and brings it home. Can bring good luck or bad luck, stays home for life, when it dies, turns into a spark. Some people got them through selling their soul to the devil..Akhlut, Inuit, orca that can turn into a huge wolf.Arion, Greek, immortal horse faster than all mortal horses, with green mane and power of speech. Qianlima in Chinese, no talk, no green mane, no immortal, could run 400km in a day..Astomi, Greek, people who survived on good fragances instead of food..Bas Celik, I’m just gonna say, the inspiration for Griffith in the anime Berserk..Baykok, Native American, flying shrieking skeleton-like skinny humanoid which kills warriors with arrows or a club and eats their liver. Also can cut open a sleeping warrior, and cut out a piece of their organs to eat, with such delicacy that the warrior doesn't even notice until he wakes up..Brownie, Scottish, tiny hairy people like 10 inches tall, that help around the house when nobody is looking..Byangoma, Bengali, wise fortune-telling birds that help the deserving..Caladrius, Medieval Bestiaries, white bird that lives in the king's home, and can take sickness out of a person and into itself, and then heal itself by flying high outside for a while..Campe, Greek, being with the head and upper body of a beautiful woman, the lower body of a dragon, a massive scorpion's tail full of venom, snakes around her ankles, and 50 grisly heads of various creatures (wolves, snakes, bears, lions...) bubbling around her waist. Her fingernails were curved like a sickle, and she had black wings on her back. In some accounts, holding scimitars, having snake hair, holding a scythe etc..Ceryneian Hind, Greek, antelope with gold antlers and bronze hooves, could outrun an arrow..Chitauri, African myth, reptile people, disguise themselves as normal humans. Conspiracy theory says they control society, politics..Chupacabra, Caribean, kangaroo with no ears, no tail, iguana skin, and a proboscis, around 5 ft tall which sucks the blood from goats and other livestock leaving them drained of blood..Cuegle, Celt, short black skinned gray haired bearded humanoid with three arms, five rows of teeth, no hands, one horn and three eyes (red, blue and green). It is very strong, attacks people and livestock. Steals infants. Weak to oak or holly leaves..Demon cat, bakeneko in Japanese myth. Sometimes they're ghosts. They have mental powers over people and animals, and can shapeshift. One killed and replaced a man's mother. For months, nobody knew (although the cat had "gone missing", and the "mother" was "acting strange"), then one day, the man looked into his mother's room, there was a cat-like humanoid biting a carcass. The man killed the monster, and it turned into the cat, and under the floor was the mother's skeleton. Nekomata, a smarter and more powerful species of demon cat. The difference being it has two tails, powers of necromancy, better shapeshifting that can turn into any form of human, and can turn into a big cat. The older, the bigger it can turn. And the older, the more powerful it gets..Dhampire, Albanian, offspring of human and vampire. Have no shadow, some of them could see invisible vampires and were good at witchcraft. So they became vampire hunters...Pita-skog in Native American, giant or titanic horned serpent, had horns similar to the stag, could control the weather, lured prey (and even people) with its forehead diamond-like crest, could breathe poison. If spotted, thought to cause bad luck by seeing it. Weak spot, 7th head spot. They were killed by the thunderbirds...Drop bear, Australian, arborean animal similar to a koala but 1.5 meters long, and hunts people by dropping on them from trees...Eldjötnar, Norse mythology, powerful fire deities that lived in a firey kingdom underground. Cherufe in Chile, made of rock and lava, demand human sacrifices, preferably young beautiful women thrown live into volcanoes or can cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions...Emela-ntouka, African, quadrupedal large animal with a long tail and a long horn (similar to a rhino), which can kill elephants. Also similar in aspect to a crocodile..Erchitu, Italian, some men who did serious fault turn into bulls/ox during full moon. They knock on someone's door, roar three times, that person will die within a year. Curse can be broken by cutting the horns..Ethiopian Bull, Medieval Bestiaries, red colored wild cattle twice as large as regular cattle..Fairies, people (or animals) who do not live in human civilizations and have magic or supernatural powers or physical attributes. Adhene in Manx myth, fallen angels not too evil, but mischievous, could be good, kidnap babies or women sometimes. Weakness, errand of mercy. Atomy in English myth, fairy the size of a pebble. Yokai in Japanese, Yaoguai in Chinese..Fafnir, Norse, dwarf who turned into a poison-breathing dragon...Glaistig in Scottish, beautiful female fauns with blonde hair and grey skin (and green clothes) who took care of the house. When she passed by, some of the fresh milk from the cow had to be left for her every morning. Otherwise she would punish the person magically. She could be heard for miles if she wanted to. And if the person complimented her work or tried to pay her for it, she would leave...Longana in Italian, fauns with only had goat legs, from half the lower leg down..Fenghuang, Chinese, king of birds, associated with the sun. Beak of a rooster, the face of a swallow, the forehead of a fowl, the neck of a snake, the breast of a goose, the back of a tortoise, the hindquarters of a stag and the tail of a fish. Today, however, it is often described as a composite of many birds including the head of a golden pheasant, the body of a mandarin duck, the tail of a peacock, the legs of a crane, the mouth of a parrot, and the wings of a swallow. Its body is black, white, red, yellow, and green. Only appears in areas or places that are blessed with utmost peace and prosperity or happiness. Ho-o in Japanese..Fext, Slavic, people who could take a lot of damage before dying, seemed like bullets had no effect, except for glass bullets..Fire bird, Zhu Que China, Suzaku Japan, Jujok Korea, Chu Tuoc Vietnam, five colored pheasant perpetually involved in flames..Fucanglong, Chinese dragon of the underworld which creates an erupting volcano when it goes to report to heaven. Dragon of burried treasures, both natural, and man made..Futakuchi-Onna, Japan, woman who grows a second mouth that harrasses her talking to her. Eventually is able to use the hair as tentacles to bring food to it. It happens to women who don't eat, even when they are very hungry and weak, for no good reason. In which case, she doesn't eat through her normal mouth, but eats twice as much as she would through the second mouth. Also, who let their kids starve, in which case it makes her feel bad. Or who get a big wound behind the head. In which case, is just creepy...Gaasyendietha, Canadian Native American, snake that lives in deep areas of rivers and lakes of Canada, especially Lake Ontario. Could fly on a trail of fire, and spew fire...Galtxagorriak, Basque, extremely efficient and workoholic goblins that will cause mayhem if they run out of chores. To stop them, put them in a box...Gandaberunda, Hindu, two headed peacock-like bird with magic strength which defeats an animal bigger and mightier than a giant lion bigger than an elephant...Garmr, Norse, sometimes described as dog, sometimes as wolf. King of canines, sometimes arguable that it might be Fernir..Gargoyle or grotesque (original name from french), winged rock monster with similarities to animals...Girtablilu, Akkadian, centaur, but scorpion instead of horse..Ghoul, humanoid that eats humans or carrion. Aswang in Philipine, substitutes corpses with logs..Griffin, lion with eagle head, wings, and eagle feet instead of front paws. All proportionate. Alce in Heraldic, doesn't have wings. Axex and keythong in Egyptian myth, hawk head. Chamrosh in persian myth, dog instead of lion, dog front paws instead of talons. Hieradosphinx in Egypt, hawk head, has no wings. Hippogriph in Medieval Bestiaries, horse instead of lion. Opinicus, has lion forelimbs..Guardian lion (Shishi), Chinese, lion two or three times the size of a normal lion, more buff, and that kind of resembles a dog and a dragon. Komainu in Japan and Korea..Haietlik, Native American, snake between the feathers of a thunderbird which had a sharp head and could shoot lightning from its tongue. It was used by thunderbirds as harpoons to hunt whales, that the thunderbird would then carry away..Haltijas, magical gnome-like spirits, which have magical powers which can help create, destroy, make ill or heal. They have different groups (called vaki) with different powers, such as forest (metsan), water (veden), women (naisen), death (kalman), fire (tulen), mountain (vuoren), wood (puun), iron (raudan), and more. So, iron haltijas would be raudan vaki..Harionago, Japan, beautiful young woman who grows and controls her hair as tentacles and her hair forms barbs at the tips. She sees a young attractive man and laughs. If he laughs too, she uses her hair to attack, kill, and eat him..Cu sith in scottish, hellhound with shaggy dark green or white fur, the size of a young bull, can take souls to the afterlife, can kill with three houls the people who hear it. They also sometimes take nursing women to breastfeed supernatural beings. Cŵn Annwn in Celt, supernatural dog that could kill a stag. Growls loud at far, becomes more silent as it approaches. It hunts evildoers making them suffer as they did their victims..Hihi, Chinese, monstruous mountain baboon..Hippocampus, Greek, merfolk horse, front half horse, hind half, 3 to 4 meter long fish tail. Leocampus, same, but lion instead of horse..Hobs, British, small people that help around the house and are stronger and faster than normal people. If offended can cause some trouble, but will go away if gifted a piece of clothing. And will never return..Hombre Gato, Argentina, nocturnal humanoid with cat-like features that preys on people and animals...Ichneumon, Medieval Bestiaries, animal that fights dragons wrapping its tail around their muzzles. Does the same to crocodiles and asps. Thought to be a mongoose...Incubus, Medieval Bestiaries, The male counterpart of Succubus..Jiangshi, Chinese, undead that feed on life force or blood, created by taoist priests by sticking an encantation on their forehead at night, to move corpses when families couldn't afford otherwise. Different stages, each stage is decades of feeding. 1. White hair. Only move hopping slowly, covered in thin white fuzz. Weak to: sunlight, fire, water, rooster's call, dogs, people, peach tree wood (or the fruit), mirrors, bagua, taoist paper encantations, thread stained with black ink, sticky rice, blood of black dog, sword made of ancient coins (for some reason), handbells, brooms, dropping coins, and holding your breath makes you sort of undetectable to them. Stage 2. Black hair. White fuzz turns black. No longer weak to chickens, dogs or people. Might attack human from behind. 3. Jumping. Jump far and fast. No fuzz. Not weak to sunlight. Dogs quiet scared, cats hiss. 4. Flying. Very fast, very agile, feed without leaving mark. 5. Ba. Centuries old, can shapeshift, cause droughts and plagues. 6. Demon king. Basically unstopable..Jorogumo, Japan, humanoid spider that can trabsform into a beautiful woman to lure people to her and then eat them..Jötnar, Norse, beings called giants, although not necessarily being large, but which had supernatural powers. Gigantes in greek, humans with super strength who fought the Olympians. Although it is the spanish word for giants….Khalkotauroi, Greek, two large bulls with bronze hooves and mouths through which they breathed fire..Kitsune-tsuki, Japan, person possessed by a fox...Kiyohime, Japan, woman who turned into a firebreathing serpent. Every year, a very handsome priest named Anchin made a pilgrimage from Mutsu to Kumano, and he would lodge at the manor of the Masago no Shōji family. The manor lord’s daughter, Kiyohime, liked him. She was a troublesome young girl. Anchin joked to her that if she were a good girl and behaved herself, he would marry her and take her back to Mutsu. Every year Kiyo hime waited for Anchin to come again for his pilgrimage. When she came of age arrived, she asked him to marry her. Anchin lied that he would come for her as soon as he finished his pilgrimage. On his return, he avoided the place and headed straight for Mutsu. When Kiyo hime found out, she ran after him, barefoot, determined to marry him. Anchin fled as fast as he could, but Kiyo hime caught him on the road to the temple Dōjō-ji. There, Achin said to not know her and protested that he was late. Kiyo hime’s grief turned into rage. She attacked, and Anchin prayed to Kumano Gongen to save him. A divine light dazzled Kiyo hime’s eyes and paralyzed her body, giving Anchin just enough time to escape. Kiyo hime’s rage exploded, she transformed into a giant, fire-breathing serpent. At the river, he paid the boatman and begged him to not let her cross. Then, he ran to Dojō-ji for safety. Ignoring the boatman entirely, Kiyo hime swam across the river. Seeing the monstrous serpent, the priests hid Anchin in the large, bronze temple bell. Kiyo hime smelled Anchin. She wrapped herself around the bell, hitting it with her tail. and breathed fire until the bronze became white hot. She roasted Anchin alive inside the bell, then threw herself in the river...Kuchisake-onna, Japan, either crazy woman with scars or wounds from corber of mouth to ear both sides of the face, escaped from mental hospital or something like that, or ghost of a woman who's face was cut from mouth to ear on both sides of the face by her samurai husband when he suspected she was having an affair, and afterwards he said "who will think you are beautiful now?". She is holding scissors in her hand and wearing a mask that covers her scars/wounds, and asks "am I pretty?". Answer no, she stalks you and kills you. Answer yes, she takes of the mask and asks "how about now?". Answer no, she stalks you and kills you. Answer yes, she cuts your face from corner of mouth to ear in both sides of the face. Some people saved themselves by giving confusing answers, or throwing money or fruits or candy at her and running away. Legend has it, she used to dance around asking people "Am I pretty?". So one time, she slept with a poor and unfortunate soldier. The husband, after asking him why, and him saying she was the most beautiful woman, had compassion of the soldier, but not of her. After he cut her with his sword, she killed herself and was banished to avenge her pain..Kuda-gitsune, Japanese, small fox spirit, sometimes small enough to fit into a bamboo pipe..Leanan Sidhe, Celt, woman seeking love of mortal men. Inspires artists, but they die young. If they do not love her, she is their slave, but if they do, she is their mistress. It is thought that "death is no escape from her"..Light bird, bird that emits light through it's eyes and feathers. Alicanto in Chilean myth, eats gold and silver, lives in a cave full of precious metals, if it sees someone following it, instead of going home, it goes to a cliff, leaving people uncertain if it lives in or near the cliff. Many people die climbing down the cliff thinking the bird lives there, which it might or might not. Hercinia in Medieval Bestiaries..Long ma, Chinese, dragon horse..Lu duan, Chinese, deer with green coat, horse tail and single antler which speaks all languages, is very wise, and can tell truth and lie...Maero, Maori myth, arborean humanoids with long boney fingers, sharp nails and dirty hair that hunt killing orey with its nails. Legend says one man once cut the arms, legs and head off of one of them but it was still alive and called for reinforcements. The man ran away and when came back with more people, the maero was gone, supposedly pulled itself back together...Metal birds, birds made of metals or alloys, or with parts made of metals or alloys. Gagana in Russian, beak of iron, and claws of copper...Mula sem cabeca, Brazil, woman cursed (by grave sin) to turn into a fire-spewing headless mule every Thursday night from sundown to sunrise. It will gallop few parishes starting by the one where she was cursed. The curse can be broken if a man spilling the mule's blood with the prick of a needle in the same parish in which he lives, in which case she will turn human (naked at the moment) and will have a normal life. The curse will go away for as long as the man lives. The transformayion can be repressed sometimes by tying the woman to a cross...Onoskelis, Greek (or Abrahamic), female satyr. She says to Solomon "men worship my star not knowing. They deceive themselves. They seek gold, but I give little to those who seriously worship me"..Orang bunian, Indonesia, like elves, except they are invisible except to those who have spiritual sight, or who they reveal themselves to..Orang minyak, Malay, a man covered in black oil who climbs walls and steals or “ropes” virgins..Orc, ugly humanoid stronger than human..Orthrus, greek, two headed dog, brother of cerberus.Peri, Persian, beautiful people with wings..Peryton, Medieval, Atlantis deer with back legs of bird. Has wings to fly and is covered in colorful feathers. Survived Atlantis by flying away. Human shadow until they kill a man, then they cast their own shadow...Scythian Dracaena, greek, huge snake with a female nymph's hips and top half of the body where the head would be. She was queen of Scythia and when Hercules passed by, they liked each other, had sex, he moved on, and she had kids...Ahkiyyini in Inuit myth, human skeletons that make earth or water shake when playing their bones as instruments. And sink ships doing so..Vampires, Asanbosan in African myth, have hooks instead of feet to swing from trees. Baobhan sith in Scottish myth, beautiful women, but with deer hooves instead of feet. Weak to sunlight, iron, and big dogs. Lugat in Albanian, can fly, inhabits in the dark, lures people to itself in the dark...Now part 2:..Aatxe, Basque mythology, spirit that lives in a cave, turns into a man, or red bull, protector of good people, fights bad guys..Abada, Tatar myth, horned blue skin green hair old people that are really forest spirits and forest protectors (with wooden club), and can turn into many different things, including normal humans (but with shoes on the wrong feet). Weak to people wearing inside out clothes and shoes on the opposite feet..Apsara, Hindu myth, supernatural beautiful women which seduce gods and men..Brag, English, shapeshifter goblin that likes to play pranks (such as turning into a horse and letting someone ride it just to throw them into a bush), and sometimes make loud noises..Bunyip, Australian, water dwelling shapeshifter. However, common features in many 19th-century newspaper accounts include a dog-like face, a crocodile like head, dark fur, a horse-like tail, flippers, and walrus-like tusks or horns or a duck-like bill..Bush Dai Dai, African, beautiful woman that seduces men and when they least expect it (for example, after “six”), she turns into a monster and devours them..Huay Chivo, Mayan, sorcerer that turns into a dog, goat or deer, to cause nuisance and eat livestock..Iniraq, inuit, likes to kidnap kids, hide them and abandon them. Stone structures helps the kids find their way back..Impundulu, African, lightning bird. Produces its own lightning through a special fat it has (which can be used in witch medicine). Sometimes there is an egg burried deep in that spot. It is as big as a giant teratorn, not bigger, and is black and white. It can shapeshift. It rurns into a man to seduce women. But can turn into basically anything that isn't bigger, but yes the same size or smaller. It obeys a witch which can turn herself into a hyena (upon which the bird stands sometimes), and her descendence. It attacks the witch's enemies and drinks their blood. The only way to kill it is with fire, and if the witch dies with no progeny that are witches themselves, the bird is free to do whatever it wants..Water horse, Kelpie in Scottish, shapeshifting aquatic monster that can turn into a horse or man. Boobrie in Scottish, turns into a horse that can gallop on the surface of water and drinks horse blood. Ceffyl Dwr in Welsh myth, turns into a horse and either leaps out of the water to trample people, or lets people ride it, starts flying by galloping in mid air, then evaporates so the person falls and dies. Each-usige in Scottish, type of Kelpie, turns into a horse, waits for people to get on, and then becomes strongly addhesive and runs to the water to drown its victim (though safe to ride if no body of water nearby, and though strongly addhesive, one can tear oneself off the horse, but requires a lot of force). Then eats the victim, but not the liver, which floats to surface. Also likes to turn into a handsome young man to seduce beautiful women. And then eats them. But can use other strategies to eat women and men alike. Has self healing powers, but limited without water. Gets stronger and more powerful (all its powers) in water. Weak to silver. In times of hunger, sometimes eat each other if they smell like human strong enough. Water bull, same as Each Usige, except doesn't eat people, in fact, can be friendly. And turns into a bull instead of a horse. And into a handsome man of Black race. They can breed with cows, which gives birth to a calf with small ears that is stronger than regular cattle (because it is a water bull). And will fight a water horse..Archeri, Hindu myth, little girl with black eyes that makes sick the people with weak immune systems. Weakness, wearing a red ribbon around the neck..Adze, African myth, blood-sucking firefly can walk through closed doors, makes gravely ill who's blood it drinks, if captured, turns into human form, and can possess people (who would then act a bit more evil)..Agloolik, Inuit myth, spirit that lives under the ice and gives aid to fishermen and hunters..Ashi-magari, soft invisible thing that wraps around you, not letting you move..Bozaloshtsh, Slavic, bush of elderberry in the shape of a woman dressing white and braided hair who cries near a window when someone is about to die..Buckriders, Dutch, ghosts or demons that ride flying goats..Cadejo, Central America, animal similar to a dog or bull, the size of a bull and with split hooves, which has red eyes, is either black or white, and appears either to help you and defend you, or to lure you to bad decisions or kill you. Though, the one bound in red hot chains is the Devil and most likely will only watch you, not attack you, but if ut attacks, a good cadejo can buy you time, but not stop it..Caoineag, Scottish, invisible woman that cries, grunts or moans when someone will die. Cyhyraeth in Welsh..Cat sith, black cat that could steal the soul of dead people by passing over them before they were burried. They could bless houses that left a bowl with milk for it to drink, and curse houses that did not that their cows would not give milk. They were thought by some to be witches that could turn into cats nine times, but if they did more than eight times, they could not turn back to human form..Daemon, Greek, benevolent spirits..Dullahan in Irish, headless rider on a horse or charriot decorated with bones. They appear to take a person's soul to the afterlife. Jhinjhar in hindu, is instead a hero, helps and defends people. The spirit of a good person who died doing a heroic deed..Ikiryo, Japan, person who's spirit/ghost comes out of the body, sometimes to haunt, possess or curse someone..Kanaima, Colombian, spirit that possesses a human and usually turns them into a deadly animal to kill someone for a grave injustice they have done..Lady Midday, Greek, demon that appears from a cloud if dust during noon to people as either a child, an adult, or an old person, always feminine. Asks hard questions. Answer wrong, and either die with head cut off by huge scissors or scythe, strong neck pain, heatstroke, or insanity..Preta, Asian, ghosts that feel pain from hunger and thirst for being greedy, selfish, bad, in their life..Spirit flame, Akurojin-no-hi, Japanese myth, spirit flame that makes sick whoever doesn't keep a distance. Aleya in Bengalic myth, ghosts of fishermen who died, appear in form of lights. Some are good, some are bad. Ask-wee-da-eed in Abenaki myth, causes bad luck and death. Bluecap, English, in some accounts is a fairy, lives in caves and makes deals with miners helping them find gems and precious metals for a small part of it. Just leaving it in a solitary part of the cave. Some of them move the small wagons on the rails. Some cut the ropes being troublesome. Hitodama, Japan, ghosts..Tsukumogami, Japan, either objects possessed by spitits, or spirits that are all about objects. Not sure..Abaia, Melanesian myth, giant eel that protects living beings of its lake causing waves and can summon flooding rains as an act of revenge for fishing, and the flood would not harm those who did not eat the fish..Basajaun, Basque myth, hairy giants that taught humans agriculture and ironsmithing..Blue crow, brazilian myth, giant blue crow..Gashadokuro, Japan (1960s), many ghosts of people that died of starvation, or in battle, and were not properly buried, come together and turn into a giant skeleton, like 30 meters tall. It has the power of invisibility. Weakness, Shinto charms..Gegenees, Greek, six armed giants..Giant wolf, Amarok in inuit, large enough than the tail alone is stronger than 3 large bears. Also can pull a person's soul out biting water instead of a person, and pulling the soul out in the form of the person, killing the person..Indrik, Russian, animal bigger than an elephant with body similar to deer, body similar to bull, head similar to horse, but has a horn on its muzzle, similar to a rhino..Jenu, Native American, cannibalistic hairy giant..Leshy, nature giants with some magical powers..Peuchen, Mapuche, giant flying serpent with a paralizing stare, that sucks blood..Stone giants, A-senee-ki-wakw in Abenaki myth,.Thunderbird, huge powerful bird that controls lightning, wind, and storms with a Haietlik (lightning snake) living between its feathers. And delight in fighting and deeds of greatness. Enemies of the underwater panther and giant underwater snakes. Associated with the giant teratorn (prehistoric eagle with a wingspan of 6 meters, possibly 8, 2m tall). Nevermind, they would carry away the whales they would hunt using Haietlik as a harpoon. Impundulu in African, produces its own lightning through a special fat it has (which can be used in witch medicine). Sometimes there is an egg burried deep in that spot. It is as big as a giant teratorn, not bigger, and is black and white. It can shapeshift. It rurns into a man to seduce women. But can turn into basically anything that isn't bigger, but yes the same size or smaller. It obeys a witch which can turn himself or herself into a hyena (upon which the bird stands sometimes), and her descendence. It attacks the witch's enemies and drinks their blood. The only way to kill it is with fire, and if the witch dies with no progeny that are witches themselves, the bird is free to do whatever it wants..Underwater Panther, Native American, called Mishipeshu, huge amphibious animal covered in scales; the body of a wild feline, often a cougar or lynx; the horns of deer or bison; upright dagger-like scales on its back and tail; parts from other animals as well, depending on the particular myth. Has a long strong flexible tail. It can control bodies of water, cause storms, and command all animals in the water..Bashe, snake (python) big enough to swallow elephants. Imugi in Korean, proto-dragons that become dragons by getting a heavenly orb called Yeouiju..Dragon turtle, Chinese, turtle with dragon' like head, neck, hands, feet, and tail..Lambton worm, English, a young rebellious guy named John Lambton goes fishing instead of going to church, is warned by an old person to not do it. One day catches a strange worm, throws it in the well, and forgets about it. After, he joins the crusaders. The worm grows and starts eating livestock, then wraps itself around a hill. The king is forced to give it buckets of milk every day to keep it peaceful. Many knights try kill it but when it gets cut, it joins back together and heals. When it is angry, it wraps its end around a tree, unearths it and swings it around like a club, causing mayhem. John Lambton returns and seeks advice from the old person, who tells him to put spearheads on his armor abd fight the worm by the river. Also, to kill the first thing he sees after the worm so no curse of nine generations not dying in their beds. He tells his father that when he kills the worm, he will sound his horn three times and to release the dog which will run to him and he kill it. With his armor ready, each time the worm loses a part, it gets washed away by the river before healing. It tries wrap around John, but gets cut by the spearheads. After killing the worm, the father got too excited and ran to congratulate him first. He couldn't kill his father so the generations were cursed. They killed the dog later, but it was too late..Amala, Tsimshian myth, humanoid titan who holds up the world..Cirein croin, scottish, sea serpent that could eat seven whales..Fernir, Norse, son of Loki, god that can turn into a wolf, and can change in size from normal person or normal wolf, to the size of an island at least. Supposedly was going to devour the world..Island fish, fish the size of an island. Aspidochelone in medieval bestiaries, could be a turtle or whale..Jormungandr, Norse, snake wrapped around the world. Son of Loki, trickster god..Labbu, Babylonian/Akkadian, snake (possibly with lion head) that is 50 leagues long (1 league=5.556km). If it has a snake head, it's head from under its jaw to the top of its head, would be like 1km..Leviathan, giant firebreathing sea serpent, possibly with multiple heads. Its body heat can make water boil, it can breathe fire underwater, it has scales together like sea snakes, but has the belly of a land snake. The Bible, book of Job 41. Job 41:18..Lou Carcolh, French, snake mollusk hybrid with tentackes in its mouth that can extend for miles and drag food back to the mouth and it eats it whole..Maha-pudma, Hindu, elephants that carry the world, standing on Akupara..Minokawa, Philipine, dragon-like metalic bird the size of an island with sharp feathers..Namazu, Japan, giant catfish that lives in the mud under the islands and its thrashing causes earthquakes..Omukade, Japan, centipede wrapped around a mountain (seven and a half times), even chinese dragons were afraid of it..World turtle, titanic turtle that carries the world on its back. Akupara in Hindu. Also Chukua..Peng, Chinese, bird thousands of miles long that flies to heaven long distances, and the small birds mock it because they travel short distances so they think peng can’t fly ling distances..Kun, Chinese, fish thousands of miles long which turns into Peng.