Considering how old science dates the earth, the tree is still a baby. Interesting though, the correlation between the age of the tree and the creation event in Genesis. If only the tree could talk!

A very interseting topic to write and share about.
Wish I could see the tree sometime!
I am surprised that the tree hasen’t turned into paper or anything else.

I am hoping that the tree can be used to help recalibrate Carbon 14 dates.

Stephen: they can’t “recalibrate Carbon 14 dates” using the tree. They used radiocarbon dating to determine its age in the first place.

Also, it is important to note that the tree in the image isn’t actually 9550 years old. Since it reproduces using a mechanism similar to cloning the copse in which it grows has been genetically continuous for ~10k years but the tree shown in the image can’t be more than several hundred years old at most.

The original article by the Leif Kullman, Professor of Physical Geography at Umeå University, says nothing about the Global Warming. In fact the original article says”The average increase in temperature during the summers over the past hundred years has risen one degree in the mountain areas”. Elizabeth Landau is twisting the scientific truth to push the Global Warming agenda. I wish the CNN associate producers would present the facts in the science section and leave the lying for the elections coverage.

It’s funny that some people actually believe this science mumbo jumbo! How could a tree be 10,000 years old when the earth was created 3,000 years ago. Some people, especially in the science community, are just ignorant.

From the Editor:

Bob,

There’s no more serious charge to a journalist than the one you’ve made toward the reporter in this piece. Liz Landau interviewed Dr. Kullman by email, and he is quoted directly and accurately in the piece. He is similarly quoted in other news stories. There’s no “lying” , “twisting the truth,” or “global warming agenda” here, just good, accurate reporting.

I will send Dr. Kullman’s original email and contact info to your email so you can contact him for yourself. After you do so, feel free to post an apology here.

Peter Dykstra

The earth 3000 years old. Good one. Thanks I needed a laugh today Steve, and if I need more then a laugh can you give me your supplier because I need some of that stuff so I can avoid reality and live in a fantasy world.

While this Swedish tree is certainly old, how do we really know it is the oldest? Aren’t there hundreds of billions of trees in the world? As for global warming, yes it is happening, but people need to be convinced that it indeed is happening, and showing changes in the environment will help illustrate what is going on.

Steve, very funny.

What they are saying is that the root structure of that tree has been alive for 10,000 years. I have trouble believing that it is the oldest root structure on earth because we have a 2,000 year old redwood at the edge of our driveway. Yes, the tree itself has been estimated to be 2,000 years old by forest arborists, and since redwoods are suckering trees, regrowing clones from the roots, like spruce, I believe there are likely older root structures to be found in old growth forests in California.

I find the aspect of the trees growing further into the tundra facinating!
I’ve read where many studies have shown the increase in Co2 in the atmosphere have had very good effects on the growth of plants world wide… not all things are bad I guess.

Da Captain, just because something has a few “good” side effects doesn’t mean it’s good overall. Thalidomide anyone?

It will be hard to celebrate trees growing in the tundra if all the coastal regions have flooded, disease becomes rampant, and we experience severe species die off.

I thought the tree would be bigger by now

lets chop it down and count the rings to verify its age…the tree portion started growing in the 1940s, most of it is a bush…shouldn’t it be the worlds oldest “bush”…

I wonder if John McCain remembers when he planted it?

Maybe I missed something, but specifying “earlier generations” implies that they no longer survive. The tree in the picture clearly is not 9550 years old. And claiming genetic equivalence is hardly valid; there’s a program to propagate famous trees through cuttings. You too can have one of George Washington’s Mount Vernon trees. Or is it the same tree? Is your identical Mt Vernon tree older than mine?

You might make the claim that you have the world’s oldest root system, but carbon dating the debris around it is a weak claim.

By the way, quaking aspen propagates in the same manner, and one colony is claimed to be 80,000 years old.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspen

SPOT…
Several studies show the increased C02 has had many good effects along the line of plant growth… and considering this may be a natural cycle (warming) that man can’t control I feel it’s important to find the positives.

There have been several instances over history where climate change has been evident… long before man and I would guess long after.

As far as the trees in the tundra… it might be a nice place to move should all the coastal regions flood (as you said)… although I should remind you there will still be coastal regions… just in new places. As far a species go… if warming is a natural state… then it’s a natural death… which man couldn’t control anyway.

OH… I agree with the statement about the negative side effects of Thalidomide…. however… Viagra had a good side effect didn’t it? (Smile)

Any one looking for some ocean front in Ohio? I got some for sale. Someone once said, there is a sucker born every minute.

It seems, some people have a great belief in some ideas……

Of course according to my religion Godde created the world 89 years ago. If only all of you could save your eternal souls from that damnation. I shal praye for youwe.

Didn’t Dr. Charlie Brown discover this tree 30 or so years ago???
Just kidding…great work Leif…seriously.
How plant and animal species respond to weather changes due to climate change is an important piece of the puzzle.
Cheers
Mike

There’s so much evidence against his religious position that it’s pointless to even give Steve’s ironic inanity any consideration.

Same goes for Johnny Appleseed’s hyperbole. While oceanfront property in Ohio may not manifest in our lifetime, spearfishing around Houston foundations looks probable.

Anyway, cool article about this tree. I’d like to see more like this– are there any others we know of that are older than, say, 3000 years?

To Peter Dykstra:

“Bob” was pointing out that the link in the article to the story from Umeå University (where Leif Kullman serves as a professor) makes no mention whatsoever of climate change implications.

Clearly, the main scientific point of this story is the discovery of “the world’s oldest tree” and more importantly how it got there and how spruce trees adapt to changing climatic conditions.

This story has next to nothing to do with global warming, and yet it’s in the headline. It is VERY clear that this author is using this story to push an unrelated global warming activist agenda.

Nobody is claiming libel here, but the headline is clearly intentionally misleading.

Barbara is right, the Redwoods reproduce when they fall over even, not only do they have successional clonal generations but they can spread geographically. We need serious DNA profiling of redwood stands, the oldest redwoods may be genetically identical individuals some distance apart. This distance is an indication of trees that have fallen and regenerated.

And global warming is a fact. The polar ice caps have been melting for 19,000 years. This is why we no longer have a Bering land bridge.

I agree with Steve.

The world is 3,000 years old (proof: religious doctrine). Why are thse so-called “scientists” trying to pull a fast one on us. Heretics.

As I recall, for many recent years, the oldest tree was considered to be in a remote area of California. They refused to disclose the actual location assuming the part of our culture that needs to “have things” would either take it or cut so much off it would die. I really hope this does not happen to this one. Is it the oldest? Maybe it should have be worded as the oldest yet found.

3000 year old creation? sorry, find another website to bother.

Global warming….we are using a very small sample of years over the age of the earth (ignore the 3000 one) and really do have little accurate data. Yes, tests in Antartica, the Artic, and Greenland can provide information but the world changes with continental drift. Who can say for sure that we are causing this? Sure we are not helping but over the millions of years, things change. Is this just a cycle? Afraid we will not be around to know for sure.

The oldest living trees are found in the desert of Arizona, Mexico, and Texas. They are called the Shegoi plant named by the American Indians and are the oldest living plants on the face of the earth. They range in age from 11,000 years to 18,000 years. Tell the Swedes to get their facts straight.

        
Ancient forest discovered in Hungary; (8 million years old)
‘They neither turned into coal nor were petrified’

In addition to isotope proxies, stomata on leaves are a CO2 proxy:
http://www.mineralogie.uni-wuerzburg.de/palbot/climate/density.html

Da Captain;
Water and CO2, but also need mean temperature of 6°C
Roots are inactive if colder.
We could change the incoming rediation by reflectors in space,
Or change the albedo; absorb short waves and keep the long waves.
Doubling CO2 will only give us 0.25 °C

Warm is better, alarmism is barking up the incorrect Milne solution.

So - Global warming has increased the amount of arable land by moving the alpine zone up 850 meters - In Canada & Russia thousands of acres of new farmland are being released into agriculture because the frost line is moving North. The Northern Boreal Forests of Northern Hemisphere countries are increasing in size as the the growing season becomes extended. The Norther Ice shields are still less than they were in the 1800’s when the British Navy patrolled the Northwest passage in wooden ships and the 1941 - 1944 era when the R.C.M.P. crossed the passage from West to East, then back again in a converted wooden fish boat called the St. Roche. Beats living under an ice sheet a continent wide and half a continent long and a mile deep as it was in the past I’d say. Oh yes, the co2 reading at that time was 10 times higher than today’s readings if you believe the Ice cores. Fricken Dinosaurs and their SUV’s - no wonder they are all extinct.

Franko and G Greene

I agree!

The alarmist attitude to global warming will cause more harm than good… over a process that’s likely natural and man will have zero control over!

        
Look at the choke points to ocean circulation
http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sst.html

How could we enhance circulation and warm up the North ?
(and cool down the tropics)

Why did you leave out information!!!?? You just twisting the story to fit your agenda. ITS PROOF THERE IS A CYCLE OF WARMING AND COOLING, you have completely ignored that fact. I wonder why

And now current.com used the story and watered it down even more…

        
For the Public, fear of catastrophe, and fear of change.
For the Scientist, fear of loosing grants and being dismissed.

What motivation for the Journalist ?

==========================

Some complain it is too hot, others complain it too cold.
http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sst.html

If the ocean currents were allowed to flow through the Isthmus of Panama, we could eliminate ice ages. Strait of Gibraltar, Suez Canal, Bering Straight are also choke points.

Yes, we can say the Shegoi plant is older but the issue was a tree.

As I said in my previous entry, continental drift affects a lot of things. The Isthmus of Panama has not been there for that long. As all the world drifts around, things change. There are probably many downloadable programs that will show how currents and winds have changed. Still don’t think we have enough historical data to make them perfect but the scientists that write them do a great job of trying.

But what do we do? An old saying is some things you can change, some you cannot, and wisdom is knowing the difference.

        
Nuke the Isthmus of Panama (bigger version of the Panatomic Canal)
Eliminate the coming Ice Age
http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/home95/nov95/iceage.html

Not only even out temperatures, but also raise the average.

Even without nuclear, humans are already moving more than natural processes.

WHAT is the University of Umea point in studing the tree soil that data back 375, 5,660 9,000 and 9550 years if the extreme numeral and zero link to data that has trace to daily regular climate and season changes, are ignored.
Beneath the years are zero levels with mass virgin data link to zero levels of 375 5,660 9,000 and 9,550.Yet go un-studied.

Before we get back to trees, the Toronto zoo just killed two reindeer babies because they were male. Public outcry prevented a third.

So, would they have perished in the north? Who knows but they would have had their natural fighting chance if born there.

Back to the tree. Jerry seems to me fixated on his extreme numeral and zero link to data. Would really like to know the data he is talking about. A link would be nice. Been in the computer business 30 years and makes little sense to me. However, always nice to learn something.

Who cares how old the tree is? It’s still alive, it’s growing, and it hasn’t become a victim of the land developers yet.

The Earth goes through climate change all the time. It’s billions of years old, and whether or not we impact it, the Earth will do as she wishes with her climate, whether it be an Ice Age or another collision of our Continents to form another Pangea… we can’t alter it any more than we are masters of climate.

The best thing you can do now is brace for the impact, because I don’t see how all of us suddenly driving Hybrid Cars will put back glaciers the size of Rhode Island back onto Antarctica.

How narrow of you to believe that this would mean I think we should pollute. Don’t use the bathroom where you eat and live, I always say. Keeping our environment clean is common sense, but “saving the Earth?” Bah! The Earth is just fine, believe me. Long after you and I are gone, the Earth will be just fine. Just ask the Dinosaurs. I think the “Environmentalists” mean “Save Mankind,” if only they weren’t so narrow-minded to starve millions of people by offsetting the supply of grain for Ethanol rather than food for Third World People.

At least that will solve the “over-population” problem, huh? Kill two birds with one stone? Ugh… even I cringed at that last remark, but it almost sounds like a “Final Solution” to me.

I’ve been wondering about the relationship between continental drift, rising sea levels and the increase in obesity of certain world populations. I am postulating that there are too many obese people living in coastal regions. All that extra weight is causing the tectonic plates to tilt, thereby causing various plates to tilt and kind of surf through the magma (earths core), thereby causing a shift in continental drifting. Also, all those obese folks are causing their respective plates to sink a little, thereby creating the illusion that sea levels are rising, thus fueling the idea that global warming is indeed happening.

Just a thought to get you smirking a little.

I really could use some paper from a 9,550 year old tree. Write my mom a nice mother’s day note or something. Somebody get on that.

You folks can argue all you want about the age of the Earth but it actually came into existence on November 28, 1953. Before that date, all was void and then at about 11:07 pm, it all started.

Interesting how these conversations go. We started about a tree. Now, the future of the world. And can anyone change it. One gunshot started WW 1 and one man created WW2. Starting something is much easier than stopping something.

It has always amazed me that some countries produce babies as fast as 1 year olds die. But men in those countries are rated by their families on how “productive” they are and not having more means they are not “men”. After the babies are born they are the wife’s responsibility.

Are there solutions? Probably, but not in our lifetimes. People have to stop worrying about their country borders and spending billions on defense. Interesting that the old show StarTrek never mentioned countries, they were just from the planet Earth. (Kirk was from Iowa).

Wonder if we will ever evolve to that level?

” I think the “Environmentalists” mean “Save Mankind,” ”
“At least that will solve the “over-population” problem, huh?”

Environmentalists want you dead. Mankind is a sin of Mother Earth.
Watch on google video; Michael Crichton on Environmentalism as a Religion

=====================

“Kirk was from Iowa”
Born in Montreal Canada, where they beat on each other with real hockey sticks, not just hockey stick charts. Star treck Kirk was in numerous fights. Humanity is domesticating itself, in the likeness of a contended cow, newer to evolve to the violence of Star Treck !

The earth is 6000 years old, not 3000. At least it was 6000 years old 1000 years ago which makes it, uuuuuhhhhhhhh? I was never too good at math. That tree was created by Satan to fool you all! People need to spend more money on indestructable bibles that are attached to the body somehow. You can donate to my ongoing research of such a thing. E-mail me.

while studying volcanos that cause quakes that cause storms.,,.ull notice the wierd weather storms r over the area of the quakes of the usa ,..,i beleave quakes cause storms of great wind speeds .,need to look at quakes n storms n now the volcanos r causing the quakes
am i the only one that thinks this .,we shall see

Yes, Shatner is from Montreal, “Kirk” was from Iowa.

Yes, it was a violent show. Many deaths, ships blown up, planets destroyed. The point I was trying to make was that the planet earth was considered one big country. In only a very few episodes were country names mentioned, and then only in a historical tense. Even here today, we have 10s of thousands on the verge of death in Burma because the military leaders won’t let in all the aid that is being offered.

Can someone please explain how an earthquake causes a storm in the atmosphere?

I recently had a teacher in geology who had both a degree in Geology and Climatology. And one of his main hot topics was global warming and whether or not the human race was causing it. There is no doubt that we are making some of the impact by putting pollutants into the air. But to say that we are actually heating the earth i think is a little absurd. He said as a person with a degree in Climatology that the earth is indeed going through a change but as a geologist said that it has happened before, that we are coming out of a mini ice age. We are just going through a natural change in the global climate just as it has been doing for millions of years.