Professor Mike Larkin: Visit to Los Angeles, UCLA and the Mojave Desert in the summer of 2013

Highlights were the Getty Center and Museum (Getty Center ) and the Joshua Tree National Park.

The Getty Center (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty_Center ) is an astonishing complex of buildings perched high on a cliff overlooking the whole of the Los Angeles. Its $1.3 billion cost comes as no surprise when you observe the limestone cladding. It is constructed from Travertine stone from the quarry at Bagni di Tivoli, 20 kilometers east of Rome. This quarry has been worked for over two thousand years. (http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/newsletters/11_2/news2_3.html)

The Joshua Tree national Park is high in the Mojave Desert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Tree_National_Park ).
It is a unique and fragile habitat of 790,636 acres of Joshua Tree forest. The Joshua Tree is a type of Yucca (Yucca brevifolia) found only in this region (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Tree) . It is confined to growth mostly in the Mojave Desert between 400 and 1,800 meters elevation.
There is concern that the forest will not survive even small changes in climate. This is one of the most outstandingly beautiful places on the planet. We must curtail CO₂emissions and global warming if only to save this unique place.