Pirate's Cove

Funny stuff from Columbus

A handful of citizens on Seventh Street rubbed their eyes more than twice when they looked out their windows Tuesday morning and saw a flock of 200-300 robins.

That's right – robins – the first harbingers of spring were huddled together in trees and on snow-covered rooftops more than a month before spring appears on the calendar. Professor Ron Johnson of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln predicted the birds' appearance on Feb. 23 and was surprised at the early arrival in Columbus.

Johnson, also an extension wildlife specialist, said that some research done in Colorado credits the robins' early return to that hot political potato – global warming. Most robins migrate in flocks, and when the birds sense the days lengthening and temperatures rising, they head north.

Lacking the ability to check forecasts along the way, the birds arrived in Columbus during a chilling reminder that we are not totally in the grasp of global warming – Al Gore's “Inconvenient Truth” notwithstanding.

Indeed, those shuddering robins are experiencing an inconvenient truth of their own – winter in Nebraska is brutal once more. Snow and more snow and temperatures falling to zero and below with wind chills in the -20 neighborhood.

This would be Columbus, Nebraska. LOL!

Seriously, the climate change zealots see everything as a harbinger of global warming, even abnormal snow and low temperatures. Should I mention the issues of Time and Newsweek that stated that an Ice Age was coming? Na, that would be petty. In this case, the robin's, who aren't exactly known as an intelligent species, messed up. Perhaps it was having a mild winter till recently, because the cold arctic air wasn't coming down through Canada. Things change.

Check the comments at that story, too. Funny stuff.

Even the frogs aren't immune from global warming hysteria

The familiar melody of ribbits, croaks and chirps is disappearing as a mysterious killer fungus wipes out frog populations around the globe, a phenomenon likened to the extinction of dinosaurs.

Scientists from around the world are meeting Thursday and Friday in Atlanta to organize a worldwide effort to stem the deaths by asking zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens to take in threatened frogs until the fungus can be stopped.

The aim of the group called Amphibian Ark is to prevent the world's more than 6,000 species of frogs, salamanders and wormlike sicilians from disappearing. Scientists estimate up to 170 species of frogs have become extinct in the past decade from the fungus and other causes, and an additional 1,900 species are threatened.

"Right now with global warming and the garbage heap we put in the atmosphere, there are going to be risks," said Rabb, one of the country's leading conservation scientists. "That's why we'll need people from other professional fields — epidemiology, climate change."

Now, I am not a scientist, but, perhaps the cause could be simply pollutants on land, sea, and air, not a silly feeling that Man is causing global warming? I will be more then happy to admit that Man is a dirty creature, polluting what we touch. We have done better as of late, but, not enough. And, we should do more. The sad thing is that the climate change hysteria is getting in the way, along with the wacko's that push it, of real environmentalism. The average person tends to avoid getting involved with extremists and nuts.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson's Website, Chaotic Synaptic Activity, 123beta, Big Dog's Weblog, basil's blog, The Pink Flamingo, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, and Conservative Thoughts, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.