Note how this report of a paleobotanical finding is tinged with modern energy politics.
The State Column reports:
Located near a coal mining facility, a 300 million-year-old forest has been discovered in China, leading some to note it as the equivalent of the infamous Pompeii in Italy.
Scientists in China say they have discovered a forest completely covered in volcanic ash located in what is now Inner Mongolia. The team said the tropical forest suffered a fate much like that of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.
“It’s marvelously preserved,” University of Pennsylvania paleobotanist and study researcher Hermann Pfefferkorn said in a statement. “We can stand there and find a branch with the leaves attached, and then we find the next branch and the next branch and the next branch. And then we find the stump from the same tree. That’s really exciting”…
The discovery comes as China’s environmental policies have come under criticism in recent months from U.S. officials. Speaking in his annual State of the Union address, President Obama said his administration will work to fund and support the growing energy sector.
“Some technologies don’t pan out; some companies fail,” said Mr. Obama at the time. “But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy … I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here.”
That said, it was ultimately China’s reliance on coal that allow researchers to discover the intact forest in the first place…
Officials should be criticizing US environmental policies. It seems ours have gotten out of hand since regulations take presidents over manufacturing, energy supplies and jobs.