The Science Was Settled, Except... Reforestation Raises Global Warming?

The NY Times continues to disorient their readers with a new Unsettled Science piece and a bit of a plug for Ronald Reagan; this time we hear from the Tree Deniers:

To Save the Planet, Don’t Plant Trees

By NADINE UNGERSEPT. 19, 2014

Apparently it is all about the albedo and the air pollution caused by, yes, trees.

 

NEW HAVEN — AS international leaders gather in New York next week for a United Nations climate summit, they will be preoccupied with how to tackle the rising rate of carbon emissions. To mitigate the crisis, one measure they are likely to promote is reducing deforestation and planting trees.

...

Deforestation accounts for about 20 percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide. The assumption is that planting trees and avoiding further deforestation provides a convenient carbon capture and storage facility on the land.

That is the conventional wisdom. But the conventional wisdom is wrong.

In reality, the cycling of carbon, energy and water between the land and the atmosphere is much more complex. Considering all the interactions, large-scale increases in forest cover can actually make global warming worse.

This is counterintuitive...

I'll say. As trees grow they act as a carbon sink but:

Besides the amount of greenhouse gases in the air, another important switch on the planetary thermostat is how much of the sun’s energy is taken up by the earth’s surface, compared to how much is reflected back to space. The dark color of trees means that they absorb more of the sun’s energy and raise the planet’s surface temperature.

Climate scientists have calculated the effect of increasing forest cover on surface temperature. Their conclusion is that planting trees in the tropics would lead to cooling, but in colder regions, it would cause warming.

In order to grow food, humans have changed about 50 percent of the earth’s surface area from native forests and grasslands to crops, pasture and wood harvest. Unfortunately, there is no scientific consensus on whether this land use has caused overall global warming or cooling. Since we don’t know that, we can’t reliably predict whether large-scale forestation would help to control the earth’s rising temperatures.

And...

Worse, trees emit reactive volatile gases that contribute to air pollution and are hazardous to human health. These emissions are crucial to trees — to protect themselves from environmental stresses like sweltering heat and bug infestations. In summer, the eastern United States is the world’s major hot spot for volatile organic compounds (V.O.C.s) from trees.

Trees cause air pollution? Wait for it...

As these compounds mix with fossil-fuel pollution from cars and industry, an even more harmful cocktail of airborne toxic chemicals is created. President Ronald Reagan was widely ridiculed in 1981 when he said, “Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.” He was wrong on the science — but less wrong than many assumed.

OK, I had, and have a hard time believing trees can outdo cars, but still - two plugs for Reagan in one Saturday? OK, polluting trees shouldn't be news (2003, 2004) but I try to learn something new every day.

Chemical reactions involving tree V.O.C.s produce methane and ozone, two powerful greenhouse gases, and form particles that can affect the condensation of clouds. Research by my group at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and by other laboratories, suggests that changes in tree V.O.C.s affect the climate on a scale similar to changes in the earth’s surface color and carbon storage capacity.

While trees provide carbon storage, forestry is not a permanent solution because trees and soil also “breathe” — that is, burn oxygen and release carbon dioxide back into the air. Eventually, all of the carbon finds its way back into the atmosphere when trees die or burn.

Interesting - if trees are burnt the sequestered carbon is back where it started in the atmosphere. But if trees rot and produce methane, that is worse in the short run, since methane is a shorter-lived but more active greenhouse gas.

The Big Finish:

Planting trees and avoiding deforestation do offer unambiguous benefits to biodiversity and many forms of life. But relying on forestry to slow or reverse global warming is another matter entirely.

The science says that spending precious dollars for climate change mitigation on forestry is high-risk: We don’t know that it would cool the planet, and we have good reason to fear it might have precisely the opposite effect. More funding for forestry might seem like a tempting easy win for the world leaders at the United Nations, but it’s a bad bet.

So much for settled science.

SINCE YOU ASK: I score it as extremely unlikely that Reagan actually said "“Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do"; I suspect that was a Ted Kennedy paraphrase. This is from the Times in 1980:

The 2004 research paper provides this Reagan quote:

Reagan said: "Approximately 80 percent of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation."

At a Snopes message board I glean this:

Here's what Reagan said, in September 1980: "Approximately 80 percent of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources.''

A month later, he denied what he had said: "First of all, I didn't say 80 percent. I said 92 percent, 93 percent, pardon me. And I didn't say air pollution, I said oxides of nitrogen, And I am right. Growing and decaying vegetation in this land are responsible for 93 percent of the oxides of nitrogen.''

September 1980, above, probably ought to be August. However, Google has an archived news story that jibes with 93%:

Layers of fact checkers...

As to the Reagan comment in the Times story that he Smoky Mountains got their name due to "oxides of nitrogen from decaying vegetation", I will say hmm; Dr. Ozone summarizes an explanation I also find elsewhere:

The Cherokee Indians referred to the Appalachian Highlands on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee as the "Place of Blue Smoke," so the Smoky Mountains probably had a blue haze long before pollution by industry and automobile exhaust. Haze is due to light scattering by very small particles. Those particles can be of natural or anthropogenic (human) origin. The Great Smoky Mountain haze was probably due to emissions of terpenes [organic compounds with formulas (C5H8)n] by trees. The terpenes may have reacted with natural levels of ozone to form light-scattering particles. 

So not really oxides of nitrogen, which are no laughing matter. But as to when that science was settled and what report Reagan might have read, who knows?

Comments

[narciso]

Yes, you are, Leoni's supposed to be a former CIA Analyst, so goes the thumbnail sketch of her character,

there's something about ISIS, that doesn't quite gel, is it just social media, you take one of their money men, the Kuwaiti mr, Chips,
as I've dubbed him, he makes Awlaki reticent by comparison, he's being rallying support since the spring of 2011,

[Beasts of England]

Possibly, Captain. A few minutes left...

Great performance by the Fighting Dabo's true freshman QB!

[DrJ]

Kim,

I read the editorial, and I agree that it is very good. And it brings back memories of Bob Park sending out emails on behalf of APS back in the early days of the Internet 30 years ago.

I look forward to their revised opinion. Perhaps it will filter through to ACS.

In other news, MrsJ's Vista box had become extremely unstable. Simple things like cutting and pasting cause it to crash; there was no way to update any of the programs or Vista itself.

The CPU-memory interface was fine, as was the disk system. There was no malware on the box. The registry was fine. So I checked and reinstalled where necessary the basic system software and now all is well.

The reward was a Vietnamese dinner at Pho King Good up the road from us. First time there, and it was pretty darned good.

[miss Marple]

Nytol.

[Captain Hate]

MSU did their best to give it away. Even in defeat the Mad Hatter lives a charmed life.

[DrJ]

CH,

Sorry, MSU only can be the Spartans in East Lansing. I'm sure GMax agrees.

[Beasts of England]

He's an enigma, Captain. Maybe that's why he's one of my favorite coaches.

[Strawman Cometh]

Alan Dershowitz is on Red eye with Gutfeld. He mentioned the incident, but he wouldn't say Pussy Riot. But he did say Moby Dick.

[Dave (in MA)]

Please tell me he's not in the Leg Chair.

[Climate Science is not settled. When it will be, even kim doesn't know.]

Ho, ho, it's in the memeorandum sidebar now.

[Captain Hate]

I like any coach who eats grass, Beasts. His winning percentage is completely incomprehensible since he's one of the worst clock managers at the end of either half I've ever seen in Div 1.

[Beasts of England]

True that, Capt.!

[Strawman Cometh]

I got an add for a high-risk tree removal service. Mrs and were discussing taking out 3 '85 foot white oaks. I'd like to get them lumbered out.

[Captain Hate]

The Fighting Dabos should be up by like 20 except for the fact that the refs have been horrible and either Dabo recruits idiots or his coaching produces idiots. Very very talented idiots.

[Dave (in MA)]

Heh.

The most busted name in news.

[Beasts of England]

Going to OT in Tallahassee.

[Danube on iPad]

Can anyone rule out the possibility that gamblers have crossed the palms of several Clemson players? I can't recall anything quite like this.

[Captain Hate]

It pains me a lot to say this but I think Clemson fans endure more soul destroying frustration than Maryland fans.

[Strawman Cometh]

I had the same thought DoT

[Beasts of England]

Clemson had so many chances. Wow.

Nytol.

[Ignatz]

The only thing I didn't like about Koonin's article was he seems to assume the effect of more CO2 is bad, the only question being how bad.

[cathyf]

What the hell is that thing below the waist? Don't tell me its what I don't want to think it is?

You gentlemen with more sensitive constitutions might want to scroll on by the following information:

What Mrs Obama is wearing under there is quite familiar to any woman over 45-50 who still possesses her uterus. She is wearing a gigantic sanitary napkin that can catch up to a quart of blood if necessary.

Which I'm sure is WAY more than any guy wants to know. (Women of a certain age, on the other hand, are going to be interested in a brand-name recommendation...)

[Bori]

"The only thing I didn't like about Koonin's article was he seems to assume the effect of more CO2 is has to be bad, the only question being how bad."

He totally dismisses the idea that higher levels of CO2 might actually be beneficial.

[daddy]

Will It Play In Peoria?

Apparently not:(

Curtain, reviews come down on taxpayer-funded climate change musical

The play, which is actually entitled "The Great Immensity," and was produced by Brooklyn-based theater company The Civilians, Inc. with a $700,000 (Taxpayer funded) grant from the National Science Foundation, ended its run early amid a storm of criticism from reviewers and lawmakers alike. It opened a year late, reached just five percent of its anticipated audience and likely fell short of its ambitious goal of informing a new generation about the perceived dangers of man-caused climate change.

Plus, it apparently wasn't very good.

But other than that Mrs Lincoln, how'd you like the play?

[Miss Marple]

Good morning!

Late-night TV reporting:

ISIS is growing very quickly. Walid Phares said they have doubled in the last 2 months to 30,000 and are probably going to double again. He also said they will begin drafting young men in areas they have conquered.

Security expert on the same show Greta hosted (which will probably be repeated tonight) said that the quality of their video productions indicate they are getting help from professionals, like people who have worked in news or the music industry.

And Alan Dershowitz was on Red Eye and was quite funny. He also said all of the attacks on the First Amendment are now coming from the left.

[Miss Marple]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11111584/GCHQ-employs-more-than-100-dyslexic-and-dyspraxic-spies.html

British intelligence uses dyslexics for analyzing data.

[peter]

that explains the UK's great limitary strentgh

[Miss Marple]

peter,

HA!

[Extraneus]

Dem rep under fire over video with lewd reference to Maine GOP senator, sex act

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Maine is under fire from Republicans for promoting a video containing a rap song that makes a sexual reference to Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Rep. Michael Michaud’s campaign says it did not pay for or oversee the contents of the video, and is lashing back out at Republicans for making it a campaign issue.

But the trouble started when Michaud retweeted the short video, a documentary-style clip on his campaign that was made by a Maine multimedia company.

The video includes a song by local rapper Spose. It lyrics include the line: "I'm the King of Maine. I've got Susan Collins giving everyone brain" -- a slang term for oral sex.

The Maine Republican Party on Friday denounced the video and demanded Michaud apologize to Collins and “all Maine women” for his “endorsement” of the video.

[Centralcal on iPad]

Good morning. Hey, Miss Marple you have a cameo appearance in today's Pieces! Another fine job by Clarice.

[Miss Marple]

Thanks for letting me know, centralcal!

I will mosey over there and read it. I had to get a second cup of coffee first.

[JiB]

Clarice's Pieces

[Miss Marple]

http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2014/09/19/dr-ezekiel-emanuel-to-me-and-others-dont-live-past-75/

Ron Radosh replies to Zeke Emanuel

[jimmyk]

JiB's link to Pieces doesn't work. Try this:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/09/gird_your_loins_its_the_war_on_women_again.html

[Beasts of England]

4.0 miles - booyah, baby!

[jimmyk]

And, having read it, Clarice is especially brilliant this morning--merciless to those who deserve no mercy.

[Miss Marple]

jimmyk,

I agree, and I especially like the Boxer example, as I have thought her a poisonous witch for many years.

[jimmyk]

And please excuse the dangling participle in my 8:00. On my first cuppa Joe :)

[rse]

Daniel Greenfield really nails it in this post on how the US has become a rationing society instead of a productive one in order to allow for the power of planning. http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-rationing-society.html

I have been working for a while on the e-Governance assumptions after I finished the book Innovative State written by Obama's designated Chief Technology Officer. People and the private sector essentially exist to be yoked by the public sector using the data flowing out of the Web 2.0. I just learned yesterday that the same Tim O'Reilly that the book kept hyping that I had not heard of is who coined the term Web 2.0.

[Beasts of England]

Nice pieces, Clarice! And I like Miss Marple's video game idea. Kinda like Schoolhouse Rock, but with explosions!

[jimmyk]

I looked at that Annenberg Survey that Miss M commented on. Too bad they didn't offer any kind of a breakdown of who the ignoramuses were: Ds versus Rs, public schools vs private/home, etc. I suspect the results would have been revealing.

[Jim Eagle]

I think I have told this Boxer story before but I had to brief her once when she was a Congresswoman representing a district in which we had a number of employees as her constituents. In fact, a number of those constituents were passive hostages in Iraq during Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. They were hiding all over the place and some in plain sight until we could find a way to get them out.

I had to spend 5 minutes explaing to her that there was a country called Iraq because she was insistent that it was Iran who invaded Kuwait. Idiot.

[clarice]

Thanks!!

[Centralcal on iPad]

I have to say, no other state quite does vile, like California does vile - Boxer, Pelosi, Waxman, and on and on and on.

[clarice]

Yes, cc--jimmyk, I bet if we pressed we'd find out the survey takers did ask and knew.The almost one-third matches nicely with the Dem core constituency.

[narciso]

yes, the one's who don't know the earth goes around the sun, a key constituency, much of this is the result of mind arson, as rse has dubbed it,

[Jane]

SBW,

Don't know how old you are, but you can't immigrate to Oz after age 55.

[peter]

Great Pieces, Clarice. The opening question, about how Obama could have been reelected, got me thinking about a colleague of mine, an intelligent, hard-working attorney. She is otherwise reasonable and rational in nearly all aspects of her life, and we often discussed work-related issues. She was raising two teenagers on her own because her husband had cheated on her, and she divorced him. A completely ethical and virtuous person, and yet she fell for the Dem's war on women thing hook line and sinker as she told another colleague that she voted for Obama, because, what if she got pregnant and needed an abortion,as if Mitt Romney's election would have made it any more difficult for someone to obtain an abortion in New York State, and completely leaving aside the reality of her situation which is that she works so hard and spends so much time taking care of her kids when she is not working that she does not have time to date anyone. But somehow the Dems figured out precisely what hot button to make her go vote for someone who is antithetical to almost all of her own values.

[clarice]

This is very much like the Sultan's view:http://americanthinker.com/2014/09/crony_capitalism_and_progressive_desperation.html

[clarice]

peter,Remind such people that Nader (believe it or not) did the best job on the abortion angles, noting no one could or was going to undo Roe v. Wade despite all the jawing about it.It should be a non issue to any sentient person on either side of the abortion issue.

[Captain Hate]

I had to spend 5 minutes explaing to her that there was a country called Iraq because she was insistent that it was Iran who invaded Kuwait. Idiot.

She's the dumbass who upbraided the military guy for calling her "maam" which is a term of respect, no? JiB's story should go viral.

In case anybody thought last night was an isolated case:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/09/21/against-florida-state-clemsons-clemsoning-was-the-most-clemsoning-clemson-ever-clemsoned/

http://www.lostlettermen.com/article/clemsoning-enters-urban-dictionary

[narciso]

the Dems still outspent Romney 2/1, but there is something in the water, that makes people receptive to this idiocy, it starts with South Park and ends with the View,

[Jim Eagle]

CH,

I am laughing so hard at the Clemsoning links that I am tearing:) Incredible.

[jimmyk on iPad]

"I bet if we pressed we'd find out the survey takers did ask and knew.The almost one-third matches nicely with the Dem core constituency."

I'll even go out on a limb and speculate that we know, because had the dummies even been evenly split between Ds and Rs they'd have said so. Kind of like when there's a bombing or beheading and the religion of the perp or suspect is omitted, or when a politician is arrested and the story fails to name the party.

[Captain Hate]

Abortion is an emotional and moral issue and defies calm rational discussion. The donks as shameless opportunists who will say anything for their advantage, naturally play this well.

[jimmyk on iPad]

Even a SCOTUS with 9 Clarence Thomases would at most rule that abortion law is up to the states, so someone in a blue state has no excuse. But I would also hear 20-somethings in NYC saying things like, "I really preferred Romney, but he would have taken away the right to abortion."

[Threadkiller]

rse:
Common Core, Choice, and Charter Schools…For the Desperately Uninformed!

http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/09/common-core-choice-charter-schoolsfor-desperately-uninformed/

[peter]

and in so doing, doom themselves to another four years of no growth economy and geopolitical chaos

[Ignatz]

--that explains the UK's great limitary strentgh

Posted by: peter | September 21, 2014 at 07:24 AM--

That is a truly great pun.

[Threadkiller]

http://pamelageller.com/2014/09/breitbart-new-afdi-ad-campaign-tells-truths-about-islam-and-jihad-that-government-and-media-ignore.html/

[jimmyk on iPad]

TK, that charter school link is a bit over the top. Federal control and CC is a big problem, but the collapse of public schools strikes me as a positive side effect if it were to happen. The idea that no one controls charter schools is a bit wacky, given that parents decide whether to send their kids there. The market controls them.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

FNS panel, pre Juan, are ridiculing 404 and Lurch's ISIS actions.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Juan: The public loves what 404 is doing.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Man, waking up at the butt-crack of 10 is hard.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Why does Ailes employ a dunce like Jim Gray to talk about sports matters?

[Threadkiller]

My kids charter switched to Common Core in a surprise move at the end of last year, Jimmy.

What I gathered was not so much "no control" but local control becomes Federal control.

The parents only market choice is based on how far they drive to get to a better appearing school.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Julie Pace, complete idiot, wants 404 to weigh in on the NFL. Granted, he at least lines his two brain cells up to concentrate on this; but what a trite thing to expect of a CinC.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Juan at least understands that the players hate Goodell.

[Threadkiller]

Part of that "low bar" Beckel was talking about, CH.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Preznit Training Wheels.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Oh dear God, Rove and Trippi. Will Rove admit how the GOPe has Tupoloved themselves?

[Miss Marple]

Captain Hate,

Rove will never admit he is wrong. It is the same strategy he counseled Bush to follow, which we all saw how well it worked.

[Miss Marple]

eBay irritations: 3 instances of shipping labels program not working this week, one instance of search engine being down so that people cannot find your stuff, and now I want a correction on my ratings because I was lied to by customer service, which I am now on hold with.

Then I will get a very nice but clueless Filipino that I probably will have difficulty understanding.

I am ready to move to Etsy.

[Rick B]

Clarice,

The Lindzen link is wrong. The comments to today's Pieces provide a decent illustration of the heightened interest among men versus lowered interest among women evident in most surveys regarding this election. There are lots of hot males, no Vulvarians in the first 80 comments. That's the sound of the Democrat death knell this year.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Rove should be drummed out if the Rs don't control the Senate after the dust clears (Wallace pointed out that Looziana probably won't be decided until December) since he fought hard for RINO dominance. The usual GOPe apologists will deflect all criticism from The Architect.

[Miss Marple]

http://therightscoop.com/isis-even-has-a-terrorist-video-game-now/

Clarice!! ISIS is stealing my ideas!!

[jimmyk]

The parents only market choice is based on how far they drive to get to a better appearing school.

Yes, I didn't mean to suggest CC/Feds aren't a problem for charters, only that they are no more (and possibly less) a problem for them than for public schools, which will go along like sheep, or more likely enthusiastic nazis. The writer seemed to suggest that public schools were in the vanguard against federal encroachment, which strikes me as laughable.

[matt]

So Princess Shopping Cart was down at St. Jude's telling the chirrun how hard it is to be the First Lady.

Eleanor Roosevelt must be rolling in her grave.

Moochelle is just as much a narcissist as her husband.

[rse]

jimmy-the markets do not control them. The public money gets used to get the privates and charters all on the same page. I have said I could write this where markets could work because I know now who has the power to control the classroom and what they impose.

The idea in education and healthcare globally is to let private companies provide public services so there is an illusion of markets, capitalism and choice when the opposite is really true. This is a global template though.

My kids are at a public charter and what parents are finding is that the charter binds them but gives no recourse when it is violated. One parent took videos from the Governance Council meetings to State Attorney General's office. They showed constant rejection of the agreed upon rules. The attorney general said he had no power to enforce charters and that he could not force the accreditors to step in and that the school board no longer had operational authority under the state law passed after the Atlanta cheating scandal.

I am about to write about this but charters are a component of this broader vision where there is active coordination between public and private to meet everyone's needs. I have numerous 2014 books laying this out plus Accenture has really opnely laid out the new vision in rather shockingly graphic ways.

[Centralcal on iPad]

Speaking of single women voters, this ad is pretty darned good!

@josephcurl: Here's a killer new ad from AFP. 'I'm stuck with Barack for two more years... but I'm not stuck with his friends.' https://t.co/I2dfo4Dbs6

[jimmyk]

Well, maybe I am over-generalizing from local experience, but in NYC, and Manhattan in particular, the charters are extremely competitive with other options, and parents are heavily influential. CC and the feds may enforce some uniformity, but these schools like the Success Academy have managed to put together very good programs, from what I understand. We aren't directly involved, but we have friends who are incredibly particular and discerning about schools who are very happy, but would pull their kids out in an instant if the school started watering down its content or teaching BS.

[Jane]

CC I caught the end of that ad on TV. I liked it a lot.

[Threadkiller]

Success has gone Common Core and they tout how well their "scholars" do on the exams.

[clarice]

Miss M, you should have trademarked the idea instead of futzing with ebay.

Rick B, wouldn't that be great--maybe some ads targeted at men wouldn't hurt.

BTW here's a fab ad aimed at women who bought into that Hope and Change and abortion folderol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNwCDIGuMK4&feature=youtu.be

[clarice]

Great minds, CC..

[jimmyk]

Success has gone Common Core and they tout how well their "scholars" do on the exams.

Again, perhaps they have to do that. My point is not that CC and fed control isn't a danger for charters, but that public schools, by virtue of their monopoly position and direct government control, are even more so. So the idea that we have to save public schools as the vanguard for all that's good because charters are going common core strikes me as outlandish.

[Threadkiller]

I hear you, Jimmy. I took it as "don't give up local control if you want to effect change." Not so much go along to get along.

[Jane]

I actually saw the end of a different ad - there were several women in it, I think. (I rarely actually look at the TV screen)

[narciso]

Carlos Slim's has it's usual catalog of category error, Flathead not understanding what
pluralism is, Bruni, removing all doubt with the rumor about the Huntress, and Cruz's dustup at Hezbollah central, but there is a special dose of crazy, as an inset, a moonbat
'Contract' beginning with a $20 hour living wage, some dhimmi genuflection toward the Palestinians, and a demand for a 13 member Supreme Court,

[Centralcal on iPad]

Well, dang, Miss Marple - you are showing up everywhere this morning (scroll to very end of link):

@TwitchyTeam: Is this #ClimateMarch sign the least self-aware thing EVER? (Hint: Yes. Yes it is) [photos] http://t.co/5ZisrhMjfB

[Jim Eagle]

Big puppets:) LOL. MM

[Jeff Dobbs]

Newt hread

[sbw]

Jane: Don't know how old you are, but you can't immigrate to Oz after age 55.

My wife can immigrate. Then I can join her as her eyecandy.

Either that or let's get moving on St. Janes!

[narciso]

Now what was particularly strange, was there was only an author, John Haywood, and no sign of who could put up 2 pages in Carlos Slim's

[Jane]

SBW,

I think we should buy Rottnest Island and move there. The Peacocks have 10 foot wing spreads and live in trees.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Rottnest+Island+Peacocks&client=firefox-a&hs=2M8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=-xgfVPjfCYaHyATZ34DAAg&ved=0CC0QsAQ&biw=1418&bih=672

[sbw]

Are they good natured, though.

[Jane]

Yes, and so are the Quokka's my favorite.