Is Something That Is Coming Down In Our Air Causing Some Of Our Issues?

For the last couple of days, there has been a noticeable orange-red tinge outside. It doesn’t just seem like it’s just up in the sky, it seems like it is overlaid on everything outside in general. Kind of like those old tin pictures that have a brown tint to it.

This just the latest in a string of things that adds to some personal research I’ve been working on for several months that may possibly connect many strange occurrences that have been observed by myself and others. Here’s the idea and how it started to form (in short):

Back at the end of May 2011, I noticed something going on with plants, trees, etc. It looked like they *might* be trying to change to fall colors already. The tops of them it looked like they were turning a reddish color, except it never went to a full red and something just didn’t look right about it, but I couldn’t put my finger on what was strange about it.

My curiosity peaked, I started to pay attention the trees & foliage everywhere I went. Back in July, I made mention of the trees in another thread, Something is just off…:

Besides other things that have already been brought up, all I can add at the moment is that I've noticed how dry the leaves are on many of the trees. From a distance, they look like they're trying to turn red/brown as if it's Fall. But when I actually go look at them up close I see that they are actually brown and dry. And it's not all of the leaves, just the top part of some of the leaves. The two trees outside of my bedroom window have half of the leaves dried up dead and crunchy and the rest are green and look perfectly healthy

But, I was still trying to make sense of it so I didn’t mention it again. I did some research online about the different things that can afflict plants and trees, but nothing was matching what I was seeing. It almost seemed like it was something drifting down on top of them that came from above, like some fine powder or mist…but if so, what?

I did find some things on micronutrient toxicity in plants (which is not entirely common) but it does have similar symptoms to what I was seeing such as bronzing or leaves turning reddish-brown to brown. But there wasn’t a lot of information on it (mostly on the deficiency of nutrients…not the toxicity of them), and certainly nothing that related to widespread areas across different types of trees & plants.

Source - Understanding Plant Nutrition: Correcting Low Media pH

In marigold, micronutrient toxicity usually appears as a bronzing, or as speckled necrotic spots that progress into an overall chlorosis and necrosis.

Source - How to Avoid Micronutrient Toxicity Syndrome

Among geraniums, some growers have observed that red, some pink and Aurora-type colors are more prone to MTS and that green-leaf cultivars are more susceptible than dark-leaf cultivars. Other differences in susceptibility to iron toxicity and symptom development have been found within groups of African marigolds and holiday cactus.

(Note: I'll add pics I've taken in another post to keep this one shorter)

But even if this is what I was seeing…why, what, and from where? I was totally stumped, and starting to feel like I was waaaay over thinking this. While reading a totally unrelated thread, a random comment made by someone triggered an idea. It was something about the makeup of a planet and one of the things listed was iron oxide. For whatever reason, it made me think of space (outer) and then iron…and then rust…and then red…and then orange-red… and then what I was seeing with the plants/trees. Was the source coming from above?

A completely outlandish idea, but I thought I’d humor myself. So holding this thought in my mind, I tried looking at the oddities I was observing in the world around me with this new perception and seeing how it might fit into answering some questions.

I have always looked at the world in a curious manner…it’s just my nature (I even work as an Analyst). I come up with all kinds of hypothesis and ideas in my mind and see how or if they fit into other puzzles, especially before I share with anyone else. But usually, in the end, they don’t pan out and I drop it.

But this one? It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. The more I apply it to other things I’m trying to figure out, the more plausible it becomes. Until finally, I decided it might be worth sharing. I was waiting until I had all of my sources together and research done before sharing, but if I do that then this thread will never happen because more and more things are figuring into it.

So instead, this thread will be an ongoing one as I find more things (and as I have time to share what I’ve already been gathering). Also I encourage (greatly welcome) the personal observations you have seen in your own life and information you would like to contribute.

My research collected so far is at home on another computer, so I’m pulling things from memory and what I can find quickly while taking breaks at work. Not how I originally wanted to start this, but it will have to do. Here are some additional things I’ve been looking into further regarding this topic, and will add more and the research I have so far as time allows:

Orange goo on Alaska shore was fungal spores

Further tests with more advanced equipment showed the substance is consistent with spores from fungi that create "rust," a plant disease that accounts for the color, said officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

(I nearly choked when I read the above article) Additional avenues:

--> The animals dying earlier this year
--> Odd animal behaviors observed (wild & domestic)
--> Health affects on us (Increased illnesses, change in human behavior, increased sensitivies, etc.)
--> Odd orange red tint/color outside that I'm seeing?
--> References in old stories/myths/legends about red dust/skies, etc. If it happened before, maybe there will be clues to help identify what it is. A long shot, but could potentially help.

Ultimately, I want to know what it is and the implications of it. That’s been my motivation for spending so much time on this (because as a single mom and professional I have little time to spare). It’s just a burning curiosity and I want to see where the information takes me whether good, bad, or indifferent.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing about your own personal observations.

reply to post by onthelookout


I see you did not share any pictures with us..
so I looked around on the web for orange tint surrounding..

does it look like anything like this ?
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/00c0fde14ed1.jpg[/atsimg]

Here are some of the photos of plants and trees back in July. I was try to get a variety to give a good idea of how widespread it was and the variety of plants and trees that were showing these problems. However, I don't have a good camera, and I didn't get the pictures of trees that truly showed what I was seeing.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/cd6450145097.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3c6b5dc1400d.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ed38e75f128b.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/33a873c41b6a.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4f6b313b62d7.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9ae41c081ba1.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/609db3b2bc4b.jpg[/atsimg]

This last one was to see how it was affecting mostly leaves at the top of the tree, and how light the color was. They never got darker than that...much different than the red they turn in autumn (besides the fact that it was summer). But, it would have been better if I could've hovered above them and taken the picture. Well...that and a better camera.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b462823c3796.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by Vandalour


Oh my goodness! That is extreme! It wasn't really like that. We've had overcast skies the last couple of days (I'm in the Seattle area btw), and it was more like I was wearing tinted glasses (which I wasn't). Or like I stepped into an old colorized film of light orangish-reddish-pinkish tint.

...the red tint could be because of so much drought - more dust in the air...

Hi Wyn Hawks,

While we have finally been seeing some sun this month, we have been getting more than our share of rain and clouds. We haven't been suffering the same weather as a good portion of the US has here in the Pacific Northwest. I have considered drought (over a longer period of time), but it isn't really fitting in with what has been happening. But I wouldn't take it off the table either.

Plants having disease, bugs eating on them, etc. is normal. I haven't noticed any orange tint to the sky, unless the sun is setting.

But sandstorms turn the air a red color. Maybe there is just a lot of dust blowing around where you live.

Originally posted by onthelookout
):

Back at the end of May 2011, I noticed something going on with plants, trees, etc. It looked like they *might* be trying to change to fall colors already. The tops of them it looked like they were turning a reddish color, except it never went to a full red and something just didn’t look right about it, but I couldn’t put my finger on what was strange about it.

.

This one sentence caught my eye.
Earlier this year, around may...My wife and I had a conversation about local flora fruiting and flowering in may rather than in the fall.
Puzzled us both.
I wrote it off as photosensitivity issues and the position of the plants relative to the shade around them and due to it being natural plant growth (just about anything is possible in nature), but it still shouldnt have been possible in that context... so it was a puzzle.

Now Im curious....has anyone else noticed anything like this?

...just on a lark, i googled red oxygen... found these (links below)... maybe one of the ats geniuses can tell us if any of that has anything to do with the red tint in your area - like if its possible due to "stuff" from japan that got caught up in the airstream...

en.wikipedia.org...

www.rsc.org...

Great thread, interesting read. I am excited to see where this goes. My father and I have been discussing the leaves for quite a while now...noticed it here for some time.

I forgot to mention this as well....I have been noticing EXTREMELY orange/reddish light as well. Its hard to describe..but sometimes in the evening its ORANGE outside...everything...a deep orange..I have commented to neighbors and family about how odd it is.

@ mnmcandiez -
Yes, bugs & diseases are common. However, my concern came from how much and how widespread I've been seeing it as well as the variety of species of plants and trees that seem to be afflicted from the same thing. Many landscapers have been pulling out bushes, trees, etc. left and right all over our city and neighboring towns.

Because Western Washington State is mostly forests (including the area I live in), sandstorms aren't typically an issue here. Interestingly, we just had rain a couple of days ago and these last couple of days is when the tint was more noticeable than usual.

@BadNinja68 -
Yes, exactly...May is just too soon for changes like that regardless of the cause. Was it just those plants, or did you notice it elsewhere? What region/state are you in?

@Wyn Hawks -
Thank you for the links, I will look into that further. I've been curious as well whether there was a link at all to what happened in Japan earlier this year.

Originally posted by SouthernRain55
Great thread, interesting read. I am excited to see where this goes. My father and I have been discussing the leaves for quite a while now...noticed it here for some time.

I forgot to mention this as well....I have been noticing EXTREMELY orange/reddish light as well. Its hard to describe..but sometimes in the evening its ORANGE outside...everything...a deep orange..I have commented to neighbors and family about how odd it is.

edit on 8/31/2011 by SouthernRain55 because: added last paragraph

I noticed this earlier this year. after the sun would fully set in the west, clouds coming in from the east were very brightly illuminated orange/pink/red/sandstone colors. since the monsoonal flows let up, I haven't noticed it again. I chalked it up to being particulate matter from the arizona duststorms.

@ SouthernRain55 -
I'm glad to hear from someone else who is seeing the orange tint - Would you mind sharing your general location (region or state if that makes you more comfortable). It may be of some use to us if you do.

-----

I will add additional information later this evening when I get home and onto my computer where my research is located.

scary and its seemingly worldwide....and i really you are wrong about the orange goo as nature uses fungal spores to control animal and insect populations

@ SouthernRain55 -
I'm glad to hear from someone else who is seeing the orange tint - Would you mind sharing your general location (region or state if that makes you more comfortable). It may be of some use to us if you do.

-----

I will add additional information later this evening when I get home and onto my computer where my research is located.

I live in West Virginia...mountains and wooded area.
I was sitting outside this evening and I remembered a video that my friend had emailed me about the bird deaths...I located it in my old mail and have included it.
I have no idea if this has any connection or not, but thought it couldn't hurt to share. When I recalled them mentioning something 'unknown' in the air...I thought of this thread.

reply to post by onthelookout


This may or may not be the case, but I've been stating for years that our continued effects on ocean ph will force some of the microorganisms to evolve and migrate via waves & winds onto land where they can survive and find new hosts. I think that many people are suffering from undiagnosed fungal infections, but who knows what else is novel in the air these days.

One way or another, our actions will come back to bite us in the arse, and depopulation will commence, directly or indirectly.

When I was initially trying to brainstorm ways to look further into the idea of something (specific...not general such as pollution, etc.) in the air causing issues with multiple things, I tried to think of what things it would affect. Something filtering down to us from above could affect our plants/trees, water supply, our lungs/breathing, other health issues, the animals, etc.

But not knowing what exactly I was looking for, or from where, I just picked what had originally triggered the idea to see if it was even feasible - Iron Oxide (I was liking the reddishness it had made me think of). Note: I'm not saying this is what it is, it's just one of many roads I went down in my research.

*If* Iron Oxide found it's way into the air (where & how..I haven't the foggiest idea...I just started with the premises that it had in my "What If" scenario), in what ways could it affect us & the environment?

Thinking I was totally in left field, I was actually shocked with one of the first things I came across:
Source - Harmful Effects of Iron Oxide

Large amounts of iron oxide can cause serious environmental issues. In mining states like Pennsylvania, iron mines flooded with water spill gallons of iron oxide into ponds, rivers and lakes; this can poison fish and pollute the environment. The iron molecules react with oxygen to create a solid iron oxide known as "yellow boy," which sinks to the bottom of rivers and waterways to pollute them. "Yellow boy" chokes out aquatic life and kills fish and plants.

I wasn't even thinking along the lines of it being even remotely related to fish dying, such as we had earlier this year, so this was surprising for me (although I'm not thinking this was the cause). So I continued along this line.

The next surprising find for me was the effects of iron on humans. Ailments associated with Iron include things such as Diabetes, Cancer, Nervous Systems Diseases (i.e. ADHD, Autistic Characteristics, Parkinson's Disease, as well as violence and anti-social behavior), etc.

Source - Chronic Acquired Iron Overload - A Disease of Civilization

There was so many intriguing possibilities with the health effects of Iron that a whole thread could be dedicated to it. But I'm trying to cover many areas, so I'll leave this part for now and most likely do additional posts on this. But for now, here's one more article regarding Iron Toxicity.

Well Water Iron Toxicity Symptoms

I also looked into iron toxicity in dogs & cats, because I did have some problems with one of my cats last November that resulted in nearly $1,000 in vet bills...but seemingly no cause we could find. She suddenly started vomiting about 8 - 10 a day. After a vet visit, she would start to recover and when she felt better enough to eat/drink she would get sick again. This went on for a month. After food changes, x-rays, etc. The x-rays showed some abdominal inflammation...but expected for what she was going thorugh. I was beyond frustrated.

Then, I noticed that it was happening immediately after she would drink out of the faucet. She's done that her whole life...so why did she suddenly have problems in November? Was it something in the water? (Which led to some other research I did into water...another story). So I gave her bottled spring water...and voila...no more pukey. I emailed the vet to let her know just in case it helped similar cases. Which it did. So I was already wondering what *new* thing recently got into our water systems.

Source - Iron Toxicity in Dogs & Cats

Symptoms include: Vomiting, Diarrhea, Lethargy, Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage, Abdominal pain, shock, & tremors.

It was already mentioned in the OP how it could cause problems with plants & trees.

So, again, not saying it is Iron Oxide, but after I did this "What if" exercise, I saw how it was certainly feasible that something like it in our air could be connected to many bigger issues I've been trying to understand.

I have noticed the same thing in NW Oregon, that the leaves were turning brown earlier this year and also I saw many plants in the nearby wetlands with brown spots. That is not how they usually look. Yesterday, there were leaves blowing around my yard, and it is much too early for fall. I wonder if they are the dead looking leaves I saw on the trees, or if it is really fall. It seems like we had very little of summer this year.

The rest of the country may be having heat waves, dust storms, floods and bad weather, but up here in the Pacific Northwest, it had been cloudy when it should be sunny, and cool when it should be warm. We have had more rain this summer than we usually do. I had several plants that were sick and weak, and they got little brown spots, which is not normal, as usually the problem here is a white fungus caused by too much rain, but not sure why that happened.

Volcanoes can make the sky look orange, and are several volcanoes in Russia and Alaska that are erupting or have been erupting, so I wonder if that is the reason for the orange tint you are seeing. However, there are always volcanoes erupting up that way, so that would be normal, and probably happens every year. Maybe the eruptions are larger than usual this year, but I am not sure if that would make the sky look different in Seattle.

I have not noticed anything unusual lately. The sky at sunset has been pinker than usual, but that has been for the last several years and I just thought it was from pollution. I would be closer to Portland than Seattle, but I will update if I notice anything different.

Did you see the sun halos earlier this year? They were pretty neat, and on those days the sky did look kind of orange or even pink. I saw one on Mother's Day, and one in July, and I know there were several in Seattle. I have never seen one before, but I know that they do occur every so often in the NW. I was up on Mount Hood when I saw one and the sky was really pink or even orange. It was really noticeable, especially from the mountain and people were commenting on how different it looked outside.

Link to article and picture of sun halo in Seattle

I have noticed this on my trees and it's something new for sure. could it be the peak in solar activity or maybe even the geo-engineering? keep us posted.

I live in the south Sound. We have noticed the leaves on our apartment's plants. They are very dry and brittle (my daughter plays with them and can easily turn them to dust). Also,these leaves are falling, but the nearby bushes and trees leaves are green.I think these leaves have come from the top of the plants. It's been like this all summer.
Some of the plants have recently started to change to fall colors, but I think it's because of the fall like weather we're now having.
I have noticed the sky, especially during last week's heat wave. Everything did have a faint brown tint and looked pale. The contrast I enjoy in the PNW, wasn't there. I thought it was due to pollution in the air or maybe the handful of fires around the sound. Although it didn't look like a typical forest fire sky.
I noticed the browning of the leaves, like in your photos, earlier this summer, but I thought it was due to too much water and cooler summer temperatures. Since then, I've ignored the leaves, except when my daughter plays with them.