Apparently having solved all its real problems, Massachusetts has developed its first climate change adaptation report. After all, sea level is rising (or the land is sinking) by an inch per decade.
Here are some notes from the report.
- Worried about warming helping the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid destroying hemlock trees, Massachusetts bought $60,000 worth of ladybugs to eat the adelgid. Then a cold winter devastated the agelgid population — and the ladybugs are gone, too.
- Massachusetts is also worried about its lobster population migrating northward because of climate change. Or is this just an excuse to get federal aid because Massachusetts lobsterman overharvest? In 2008, 10 million pounds of lobster were harvested.
- Do trees and wetlands really “migrate”?
- The report recommends the “planting of hypoallergenic trees in communities with high rates of asthma and lung dysfunction.” Hmmm… rather than so-called cross-state air pollution, perhaps the EPA should be cracking down on pollen?
I’m sure there’s much more in this report, but you get the idea.
What is a hypoallergenic tree? Something deep in the fossil record I presume!
Hypoallergenic trees? Are these the same people who complain about GM crops?
Just another jobs program for people that like to “work at nothin all day”, to quote BTO.