So states a study published in the journal Science. Author
Mark Urban (really?), an “evolutionary biologist” at the University of
Connecticut, based his calculation on a meta-analysis of 131 previous studies that made predictions
about how various species would fare in a warmer world.
An article in the Los Angeles Times
about the study reported, “If current trends continue, the Earth’s temperature
will wind up 4.3 degrees Celsius higher than it was before the onset of the
industrial era.” Yes, and if current trends continue, soon it will never be dark again in the
northern hemisphere. For months on end now, it has been staying light later by
a minute or two every night and getting light earlier in the
morning, as well! I fear there will be little or no need for lighting of any
sort soon. This would cause the lighting industry to collapse and might be the
death knell for many owl species. Bats could face extinction, as well.
Too short a time period to
extrapolate and make predictions, you say? Back in the 1970’s experts were
shouting that, if current trends continue,
the Earth was facing another ice age.
Still too short? Over the course of the Pleistocene Era, starting about 1.8
million years ago, glacial ice sheets thickened and advanced, pushing their way
across much of the land mass of the Earth. This “ice age” lasted until about
11,700 years ago, although many scientists claim that we are technically still
in it. Primitive homo sapiens of the time surely were thinking, over the course
of hundreds or thousands of years, “If current trends continue, we are so
totally screwed. The whole damn planet will be covered in ice.”
As it was, many large mammals and
other vertebrates died off during this time, due to the brutally harsh
conditions. How many more species would have died off if those present trends continued and the ice sheets just kept expanding?
I’ve heard scientists say, time and
again, that the tropics are home to the most plant and animal species and are a
“treasured laboratory of diversity.” Are there more species on land and in the
seas around the equator or in the arctic and Antarctic?
The 131 studies that
were…studied…in this study, admittedly didn’t take into account “complex”
factors such as how climate change may alter the way species interact with each
other, nor did they attempt to predict how species might evolve and adapt to
the changes.
Despite the admitted uncertainties
faced in making these types of dramatic predictions, many scientists purport to
believe we must act immediately to try to limit global warming/climate change,
usually by drastically reducing emissions. Ready…Fire!!...Aim. Always a good
plan!
Many dates in the Midwest have a
record low temperature that is 60, 80 or even 90-plus degrees colder than their
record high. Often times the records were only a few years apart, with some of
the record cold temps in the last few years. Plants and animals managed to
survive.
This year, a lake I fish often had its ice go out
35 days earlier than two years
ago. And that date of two years past was the latest ever recorded. The
lakes fish and the region’s flora and fauna are doing nicely, thank you.
I know that many “experts” will
claim that I’m simply…well…not an expert
and am not fully cognizant of the various complexities of planetary life. Well,
most, if not all, of them aren’t either…and at least some admit it.
I will go with the historical
record and logic- every time- over the catastrophic “predictions” of the
experts. There is now and always will be
climate change. (If there wasn’t, we’d be in trouble. That would mean, for
example, that the sun expired or the Earth stopped rotating). It is
not, however, largely “man-caused.”
A temperature increase of one or
two degrees- or even 3 or 4.3 degrees- is not going to be the end of the world. The planet’s temperature has risen- and
fallen- by that much, almost cyclically, at various times in the past.
If, however, the sun expired… so
would we.
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