[cogitator]

There have been several studies (including one cited by climate change skeptic Patrick Michaels, principal author of the World Climate Report, that indicate early occurrence of spring. This study seems to confirm that trend and describes the ecosystem consequences.

[cogitator]

Link to the Nature article:

Ecological responses to recent climate change

Abstract: There is now ample evidence of the ecological impacts of recent climate change, from polar terrestrial to tropical marine environments. The responses of both flora and fauna span an array of ecosystems and organizational hierarchies, from the species to the community levels. Despite continued uncertainty as to community and ecosystem trajectories under global change, our review exposes a coherent pattern of ecological change across systems. Although we are only at an early stage in the projected trends of global warming, ecological responses to recent climate change are already clearly visible.

(It's got 97 references. Holy cow.)

[timestax]

Bull crap, it's been cold here in Ohio,Ky,Indiana area, NO sign of the nebulous "warming"!

[Paradox]

I can buy into global warming. I think its a natural occurance.

[WhiteGuy]

Cool!

Here in Central Ohio, we had a very mild winter.

I love it!

What ever we're doing, Lets do more!!!!

[lds23]

The Skeptical Environmentalist

Not everyone buys into the enviromentalist groupthink. And those who don't, get vilified.

[discostu]

3 years ago it snowed in Tucson on Easter Sunday. The hottest day ever in Tucson was 12 years ago.

The climate fluctuates, this happens, one year doesn't necessarily predict the next, one area doesn't necessarily reflect another. The only thing we know for sure is that ice ages last longer than temperate times so we should count ourselves lucky.

[Big Mack]

I bet these ecoterrorists also insist in evolution. Survival of the fittist. Those species that can cope will continue, those that can't, well..., that's evolution.

[boris]

Interesting you should mention the World Climate Report:

"This temperature update presents the NASA satellite measurements of monthly temperature anomalies-—the difference between the observed values and the 1979–1998 mean values. Global satellite measurements are made from a series of orbiting platforms that sense the average temperature in various atmospheric layers. Here, we present the lowest level, which matches nearly perfectly with the mean temperatures measured by weather balloons in the layer between 5,000 and 28,000 feet. The satellite measurements are considered accurate to within 0.01 deg C and provide more uniform coverage of the entire globe than surface measurements, which tend to concentrate over land.

"February 2002: The average global temperature departure was 0.206 deg C, with a Northern Hemisphere departure of 0.307 deg C and a Southern Hemisphere departure of 0.106 deg C.

"Below: Monthly satellite temperatures for the Northern Hemisphere (top) and Southern Hemisphere (bottom). Trend lines indicate statistically significant changes only."

Not only is the "increase" in the northern hemisphere much less than the rate predicted by the global-warming doomsters, it is (partially) offset by a distinct cooling of the southern hemisphere. In any event, nothing in this report or anywhere else can demonstrate that any warming trend--or cooling trend--is of human origin.

Much more likely to be of natural origin; e.g., changes in the solar "constant."

But these people are pursuing a hidden agenda, which is socialist and Luddite. They want to cause a precipitous rash of bad decisions based on panic--decisions which would never be adopted if cool reason held sway.

In sum, my response: Get back to us when you have a few millennia of solid, corroborrated data...then we might begin to decide if there's a problem.

--Boris

[ElkGroveDan]

Earlier arrival of migrant birds, earlier appearance of butterflies, earlier spawning in amphibians, earlier flowering of plants - spring has been coming sooner every year since the 1960s, researchers reported Wednesday.

Typical liberal environmental science. It is all anecdotal with no firm statistical analysis

[finnman69]

They predict some species will vanish because they cannot expand into new areas when their native climate heats up.

HELLO!?!?!?! Have not 99.9% of all thr species of plant and animal life that have existed on the Planet Earth become extinct before man existed?

[Snuffington]

Without knowing more detail about the study, I cannot comment on its accuracy. But I do note that the article says nothing about human causation of warmer global temperatures.

Since we know the earth goes through natural warming and cooling cycles, and that we are currently in an interglacial period when one would expect natural warming, why does global warming carry a more ominous tone than a study confirming that the sun will rise, winter will arrive, and the tides will indeed come in?

[Rodney King]

Ecosystems around the globe are showing the effects of climate warming. Earlier arrival of migrant birds, earlier appearance of butterflies, earlier spawning in amphibians, earlier flowering of plants - spring has been coming sooner every year since the 1960s, researchers reported Wednesday.

Good! Spring is life. Only a moron would want more dead winter.

[rockfish59]

hey al, i've got your global warming hangin'!

[Phantom Lord]

What happened to the "coming ice age" that was all the rage in the 70's and early 80's?

[Bob J]

Ask the enviros to prove this is anything other than normal cyclical warming a cooling. The effects may be genuine, but the professed causes are highly speculative and in most cases, self serving.

[Stand Watch Listen]

Ecosystems around the globe are showing the effects of climate warming. Earlier arrival of migrant birds, earlier appearance of butterflies, earlier spawning in amphibians, earlier flowering of plants - spring has been coming sooner every year since the 1960s, researchers reported Wednesday.

Hmmmmmm....yet the Europeans Summers of 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998 were much cooler/colder than the norms.

Hmmmmm...yet November - December 2000 set many low temperature records for the nations's Northeast, the Midwest.

Hmmmmm...yet the 'scientists', the 'environmentalists', in the late 1960's to mid 1970's, were advising and warning this nation of the 'coming ice age'.

[A Vast RightWing Conspirator]

They predict some species will vanish because they cannot expand into new areas when their native climate heats up.

It's MIGRATE stupid, not EXPAND.

Anyways, does this mean that WARMING IS BAD?

And, if so, does this also mean that COOLING IS GOOD?

Because if both WARMING and COOLING are bad and the only thing we should be happy with is exactly the kind of weather we are having now, than, it will always be bad. There's no way the climate can remain stationary.

[Redcloak]

Here's some "required reading".

These handwringers look to be building on Mann's "hockey stick" graph. Mann's tree ring approach, however, manages to completely miss historic events like the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. (Which is especilly odd when one considers that Mann's sample is limited to the northern hemisphere where these events were particularly pronounced!) It's simply not a valid way to measure global climate.

[Deguello]

"They predict some species will vanish because they cannot expand into new areas when their native climate heats up."

Not to worry, if it does warm up a little bit we can send ya'll some mesquite trees for your new climate.

[Blood of Tyrants]

So what? It means warmer winters and longer growing seasons. It doesn't upset me. Ancient records show periodic warming periods about every 800 years or so.