As I write this here in NYC, there are green plants everywhere, and I can see mosquitos bouncing off the window glass. Regardless of cause, be it cyclic, man-made, or natural (or caused by aliens beaming microwaves at us in an attempt to conquer the planet), global warming is an observable fact that only the deepest in denial can ignore. Bears not hibernating is a pretty obvious sign that things aren’t normal.
Bears have stopped hibernating in the mountains of northern Spain, scientists revealed yesterday, in what may be one of the strongest signals yet of how much climate change is affecting the natural world.
In a December in which bumblebees, butterflies and even swallows have been on the wing in Britain, European brown bears have been lumbering through the forests of Spain’s Cantabrian mountains, when normally they would already be in their long, annual sleep.
“If the winter is mild, the female bears find it is energetically worthwhile to make the effort to stay awake and hunt for food,” said Guillermo Palomero, the FOP’s president and the co-ordinator of a national plan for bear conservation. This changed behaviour, he said, was probably a result of milder winters. “The high Cantabrian peaks freeze all winter, but our teams of observers have been able to follow the perfect outlines of tracks from a group of bears,” he said.
So if it isn’t global warming, what is it?
Just to head off any one claiming it, solar variance theory has been totally debunked to a degree, that I will make you look insane and stupid if you bring it up, so don’t bother.
“Regardless of cause, be it cyclic, man-made, or natural (or caused by aliens beaming microwaves at us in an attempt to conquer the planet), global warming is an observable fact that only the deepest in denial can ignore.”
Puh-leaze, looking out your window and checking the local weather is possibly the worst example to use when opening a global warming story. I suppose that here in New York City last year (dec 2005), when it averaged 10 degrees cooler than normal, would have been a great opening for a global cooling story.
First off, the earth’s climate definitely fluctuates and even recent, recorded history talks of mini ice-ages and the opposites. Why, possibly the sun’s output, possibly earth axis stuff, volcanos, hard to tell, but the science is there.
As to man made global warming, from the science I have read, I do agree that it has some effect, but the moral imperative to eliminate greenhouse gasses comes down to:
* we need to stop polluting our earth in general
* start using renewable energy (for all kinds of great reasons)
…totally debunked to a degree
That’s like being a little bit pregnant isn’t it? 😉
Bah….it’s not global warming…it’s Bear No-Doz!!! Just a bunch of adolesent bears wanting to see what they miss every year….you know how teenagers are.
Even migratory birds and seasonal bugs are out of sync.
I have never had such a warm December, and the grass is still growing green on my front lawn. Reminds me of my cousin in North Attleborough, Mass.
Except that I’m in Montreal!!!
Look forward to droves & droves of mosquitoes next summer. Early.
#6 has it right, but I’ll go one step further and say that it hasn’t been proven that humans can make the problem worse enough to mean anything.
In the end, why can’t “It’s nice to breathe clean air as opposed to dirty air” be enough in regard to many of the issues pegged as causing global warming?
Oh something is definitely not normal. For instance… where did all the Hurricanes go this year? The North Atlantic Oscillation should mean things are colder but so far here in England the leaves were on the trees well into November, we’ve had a handful of marginally frosty nights and most days you can wear just a shirt outside and be comfortable. Theres no snow in the Alps, no snow or ice in Sweden according to my auntie who his usually knee deep in the stuff and Moscow thats normally frozen solid in temps of -29c is a balmy 4celsius.
I wonder what will happen when all that melted fresh water now flooding into the North Atlantic switches off the Gulf stream. AT the moment is 30% down on its normal output.
Bears not hibernating?
Where’s Stephen Colbert’s THREATDOWN when we really need it?
J/P=?
This article and the drawn conclusions are not very scientific.
The schools in this country are to blame for such a large portion of otherwise intelligent people to have no clue how real science is done.
Global warming is a fact, but has nothing to do with regional variances that always occur. An illustration of this is El Nino in the late 1990’s and was a weather pattern unrelated to global warming.
I have a hard time with scientists that say bears hibernate. REAL scientists know bears sleep for long periods of time but don’t hibernate.
Check the woods for a meth lab.
I was just reading (BBC – http://tinyurl.com/yepm33) that Australia is rethinking its position on global warming. Like the US, they refused to sign the Kyoto Accords, but now apparently John Howard’s government wants to “lead” in taking mitigation steps. They are in Year 5 of a terrible drought, which may account for why the political wind has shifted.
But the debate goes on, because Australia suffered a similar period of drought in the late 1800s. That time it lasted for decades, something present day Australia would be hard-pressed to handle.
I’m with the people who feel simply cutting down pollution ought to be reason enough. Global warming has compelling supportive evidence but why lean so hard on the issue most easily spun as “just a theory” by corporate artists and the suckers they spin to?
Lemme guess – a few do-gooding, enviro-friendly yuppies are inconvienanced becasue the bears arent going into hibernation at the usual time this year and they cant go hiking now because they’re the non-pepper-spray carrying type.
What if the bears are actually trans-dimensional beings who just happen to be plotting terror on a world-wide scale, and APPEAR to be restless? Did you consider that?