Hiking and CO2 Levels

Today was a glorious day.  This is why we make the trek to Tucson in the winter.  Blue skies and temperatures in the upper 70s.  We went out to the Tortolitas and hiked the Alamo Springs trail.  It’s very steep with many boulders to step up and down on.

Eventually you reach the top of the hill.  The trail continues on, but we did not.



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This is what you see from the top – it’s another canyon.



It was warmish today.  Two out of shape people were hiking with their out of shape black lab mix.  That dog looked like it was going to stroke out.  I think they turned around and went back down the hill, which would have been really good for the dog.

As I previously reported in an old post, new very attractive housing is going in next to the Mercado San Agustin downtown.  We really really like the houses, but the location not so much.  Now there is even more growth in the area.  This is attached to a construction fence across the street from the Mercado.  It appears that much will be constructed here.  They’re calling it the Mission District.  This is also very close to where the new headquarters for Caterpillar is being built.



Also under construction, or assembly, are these.  They appear to be rusting shipping containers.  Windows as well as electrical and plumbing have been installed, so they’re permanent.  I am really curious to see what these become.




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I found an interesting article on Twitter today.  Here is further evidence that we’re doomed.  Rising CO2 levels are changing the chemical composition of plants.  Although their growth rates are up, their nutritional value is down. 

Across nearly 130 varieties of plants and more than 15,000 samples collected from experiments over the past three decades, the overall concentration of minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc and iron had dropped by 8 percent on average. The ratio of carbohydrates to minerals was going up. The plants, like the algae, were becoming junk food.

Algae is also loosing nutritional value, and the zooplankton that feed on algae are dying.  Reminds me of the R.E.M. song about the end of the world.

So, that’s what I have to report.  A nice hike and a looming nutritional crisis.