Do Tree Rings Lie?

Everyone who saw the Al Gore Movie is nodding their head like one of those nodding car dash board dogs because of the amazing proof of global warming and climate change certified by the science of reading tree rings. Problem is that very few people doing all the nodding have ever so much as cut a tree let alone actually hugged one. Just go online Google or Yahoo the search terms "tree ring proof of global warming" and there is a lot to read on the subject. You can even find the actual published scientific articles. What you need to do even if you are one of the nodders is find out the researchers reached the conclusion that tree ring analysis somehow proves the earth is warming. Save some petrified wood the oldest trees on earth that can be analyzed are about 4000 years old and they only live in one place on the entire earth. Different kinds of trees live in different places and in different climates and different sub climates. There are lots of kinds of trees. One might also wonder how tree growth might actually measure or record carbon in the atmosphere? There are a number of variables that determine how much a tree grows in a year and how big the tree ring is for that year of growth. People who actually grow trees for a living rarely waste their time pumping carbon dioxide into their fields and forests to grow their trees bigger and faster. I have been in horticulture for years and have never heard of anyone pumping carbon dioxide or any other carbon gas into greenhouse to grow tomatoes or other plants better or faster! The empirical evidence for Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide being the only variable required for more robust plant growth is lacking in trees from the open atmosphere of planet earth.

I have experimented with making trees grow faster in my backyard. All I need to make trees grow amazingly faster than their neighbors water and access to Shadow free sunlight and nutrients like fertilizers. I have learned how to grow trees bigger and faster than they would otherwise grow. There are even more variables than just carbon in the atmosphere for photosynthesis, water, sun exposure, nutrients that can determine how fast trees grow in any year. These include access to trace element nutrients which is the not very secret secret of the Miracle Brand fertilizer. Trace elements are often just pollutants in the environment and can be rare in most locations on the face of the earth. For some reason, and it is one of the not so secret ingredients of fertilizer mixes like Miracle Grow is boron in trace amounts. Trees out in a forest may be growing in soil with very little boron and way more zinc in the soil than they need. It might not be until an animal of some sort dies and decays with a few years of decomposition near the Shadow of the tree canopy or drip line that that tree as a living plant receives some of the rare earth elements vital to faster growth. Other variables are things that happen in nature that help prevent pests and diseases from slowing down tree growth. A Volcanic eruption can put added sulfur in the atmosphere which can have the effect of improving tree growth not just because of nutrient value in the air and soil but because of it's ability to control pests. Forest fire smoke can have the effect of killing damaging insects . Some tree research studies found, contrary to the green movement manifesto, that trees growing in polluted urban areas can actually grow bigger and faster than trees in natural circumstances. This can be because pavement around them gives them added sunlight and less competition for sunlight from other trees and plants. Trees in urban areas also have excess air pollution for trace element nutrients and some find ways to find water with nutrients by tapping into underground sewer lines. Urban pollution can smoke pests like aphid and caterpillars off of these trees and save them from wasting energy regrowing leaves so they can build their tree rings. There are just so many variables that determine tree ring growth that have nothing to do with how much carbon there is in the atmosphere. It is true that trees can grow faster in warmer years than cooler years but the problem with that is it is nonsensical to base that on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

The biggest problem with the tree ring theory is that most of the tree ring growth is actually going to be seasonally determined and not determined on the how warm the entire year is . Trees rings get squished in winter when trees go dormant. In tropical area trees are deciduous , which means they loose their leaves seasonally, not because of freezing winters but because of the dry season that makes being deciduous a means of survival. When you look at an individual tree ring you are not just looking at an entire year of growth but you are looking at the robust growth when the growth happens. That part of the tree remains alive and active for the whole season that the tree is not more dormant than otherwise. In tropical forests the dormant squishing is apt more to be related to dry verses wet and not hot verse cold. In spots of the earth where it remains warm and wet all the time the tree rings still exist with variability on an annual basis. Things are a little more complicated than the hockey stick diagram that is supposed to prove that tree rings tell us everything we need to know about man made climate change. There are lots of trees in too many different forests in too many different corners and pockets of the earth and too many variables to reach some unified theory of tree rings for linking carbon in the atmosphere over less than the past 4000 years to chart global temperature.

I am sure all the dogs on the dash board are still nodding their heads along with Al Gore and friends even after reading this because the tree rings are part of scripture. That is normal for most people. Back in Roman times priests would kill an animal and examine their internal organs to divine the future and usually they would charge a fee for the service. This tree ring science is pretty much the same thing at the cost of billions of research dollars a year going to the cause. It is no wonder they are shredding data and burning email documents to save their scientific conclusions.

If you want to learn about making trees grow faster and better here is what you do . Find a sunny place in your back yard. Plant a tree. Run a hose to the tree and let it drip constantly over the roots. In the second or third year start giving the tree fertilizer. There are three types of plant nutrients you will see listed on a bag of fertilizer. Trees need all three type. You don't want to over fertilize the tree because that will kill it or stunt it's growth. you can shut the hose off in wet weather and during the winter unless it is a very dry winter. Give the tree some trace elements if the soil does not already contain these. You can have your soil tested and then read up on how to maximize the value of nutrients and soil amendments for the type of soil your tree is growing in. Get the tree to grow at a maximum rate and control pests and diseases as necessary or best just start with a type of tree not subject to diseases in your area. Keep doing all of this to maximize growth for 50 years or more till your special fast grow tree is bigger than the rest of the ones in the neighborhood. Then you cut it down to decide if the tree rings tell you that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has made your tree grow bigger and faster. Oh but don't forget to cut down the rest of the trees in the neighborhood to make comparisons of how your tree's tree rings differ from the rest of them. If you want to you can then try to calibrate the rings by going back and checking them all against weather records. Then call a tree astrologer a professional who can decide what elements of the weather contributed to the better growth in the better years. Of course then you have to start over again with a controlled experiment where you inflate a bubble over your tree and pump in carbon dioxide but you don't give it any special nutrients, trace elements or more water than neighborhood trees are getting. I Googled and Yahooed the original controls for the empirical tree ring climate experiments and don't find anything like that in the literature. Excess carbon dioxide in hot greenhouse balloon bag over a living tree could actually stunt it's growth? What would the tree rings look like then? Start nodding your head again when the car is moving.