The Rational Druid

This is the second part of the atrocious article that appears in the August 2011 issue of Touchstone. As before, my comments are shown below in red. ----------------------------------------------------- With the production of electromagnetic waves by radio masts etc., it has been shown that certain tree species such as pines suffered badly, while others have shown accelerated growth. Where's the proof? The only article I could find was a very shaky one from 1996 in Latvia (doi:10.1016/0048-9697(95)04921-5). If this is what you are talking about, then you need a lot more evidence before you can say anything conclusive. Electromagnetic 'contamination' has increased 100 times in the last thirty years. How do you define 'contamination'? You can't use loaded words like this without some kind of definition. What this shows is that not all electromagnetic energies are destructive; understanding their level or hertz is informative, especially for us humans. By le...

In the July 2011 issue of Touchstone, an article appeared that seems to be the culmination of woo and pseudo-science. It seems to touch on almost every bad idea. I finally had enough and decided to take this particular article and make an example of it. Below, I've added my comments in red deconstructing the enormous number of logical and factual errors. Feel free to leave comments or email me. Note: I think most of the "astronomical evidence" discussed below may have come from the web site at http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/peterr/annex/PhenomenaReported1/PR.html . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this age of scientific reductionism, those of us who talk to trees are deemed strange and alternative: when the trees talk back to us, then we're mad, and simple. Condescension and pity are the labels of the day. Things, however, are changing. No longer is magic seen as impossible, or as clever tricks organised and performed by...