Mørketiden

is here, since today. To celebrate that (and a bunch of other things) there will be a barbecue-party tomorrow. Talvinuotio ja lyhtymenot! Just lack the couch to burn and the mörkö to sit on it. But the crowd probably qualifies as the mysterious small creatures who live their secret and important life.

Otherwise I use working hours in wondering about methane bubbling up from the arctic ocean, the fact that this has not become major news, the effects of introduced species and that a lot of our "knowledge" is built on quite random basement... For example, nobody really seems to know what the reindeer eat in the wild. Yes its been studied which plants they choose when they can select from a bunch of species. And yes it has been studied (and certainly know for ages by people who have been herding their animals) in which vegetation types they eat. But to really look at if large number of reindeer can impact the vegetation in such a way that it has something to say to plant diversity and vegetation composition and then indirectly to other herbivores, it would be important to know which plants they really eat in the nature. And knowing this, how much else of what we "know" is based on not-that-solid background? Another thing is that the knowledge does not always get to play a role in decision-making.... Research is sometimes so hollow.