Climate change could send venomous snakes slithering north

Toronto Star ^ | March 7, 2016 | By Raveena Aulakh

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Climate change could see a new risk slithering into Canada: snakes.

New research has found that rising temperatures could drive several deadly species northward to new areas, bringing them across the U.S. border with Canada. By 2050, some snakes could make their way as far north as Alberta, Quebec and southern Ontario.

Researchers at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute used climate models to predict the ranges of more than 75 poisonous snake species across the Americas.

For this study, researchers looked at different scenarios for each of the snake species - one in which the world cut down its dependency on carbon fuels and the other in which it didn't and it continued to warm.

For Jeremy Kerr, professor of biology at the University of Ottawa, snakes face greater risks from humans than vice-versa.

"For snakes, much like other species, it is adapt or die," he said.

For Kerr, the real message of this study is that "climate change is a dangerous experiment that creates real impacts in terms of biological diversity and we will be better off not changing climate than thinking about models of managing snake bite risks."

[Twinkie]

I’ve got to be sure you get this message! PLEASE REPLY!
FOOD GRADE DIATOMACEOUS EARTH is the ONLY kind us
humans, or animals should consume!! POOL GRADE is purely
POISONOUS!!

A bag of the food grade is cheap enough & it’s not worth
risking the pool grade!! Your hospital bill would soon
outstrip any “savings” you might experience!

[subterfuge]

Okay, got it. But if it is poisonous, why am I putting it in my pool?

[Twinkie]

It’s not like arsenic. - Please look up diatomaceous earth
from higher authorities than Twinkie. (It is probably SO
DILUTED in your huge pool that you don’t swallow a whole
lot of poison as a general rule just splashing around.)

I give a bit of the food grade to my dog & cat for the worms
they get. Dog gobbles it up in canned tuna or salmon; but
the cat is finicky & getting her to eat it is not as easy.
I did get a little bit down her mashed up in salmon mixed
with milk last night. - The commercial pills are just about
impossible to get down the cat’s gullet; so the DE is a
little bit better. Dub the Dog will gobble down any old
horrible gunk except maybe carrots unless they’re mashed up
in some other goop. - Brutus the Cat is a fanatic about
being OUTDOORS, another chance for her to eat some critter
that’s full of worms! I’m old & these animals are wearing
me down. It’s like having little kids! I stuck a 10-cent
price sticker on the cat this morning & Fang said she was
overpriced at that! :o)

[subterfuge]

Ok, thanks!