Tuesday, March 16, 2010

SIGNS OF SPRING

It was one of those old fashioned winters we haven't had here since, well, the kind we had around here when I was a kid. With snow on the ground almost from beginning to end. Beautiful.

And now with Spring only days away, the transition is happening in that same old fashioned way, with the last bits of snow being washed away by rain or melted away by warmer temperatures and sunny skies.

But there are still signs of climate weirding (caused by "climate warming" but it's too difficult a concept for some, particularly and most obviously rightwingers to get that when you trace a line created by average temperatures over centuries, there's a steeper and steeper incline towards the end of the 20th that continues to ascend into the present, but because that impacts the weather worldwide in different ways, more moisture more snow in some areas etc. it baffles these people into the "see, it's cold where I am so ipso facto no warming" et-endlessly-cetera).

Like when I took a walk in the local park today under brilliantly blue skies and saw the snow was all gone where it had been only days ago (and had the weather last weekend been cold enough to cause the rainstorm to have been a snowstorm we would have gotten over three and a half feet of snow! as it was winds were clocked at over seventy-five (75!) miles an hours at times and caused some deaths in nearby Jersey towns and many uprooted trees etc. including minor damage here and there like on the front porch of my apartment where two year-round, screwed-in screens were ripped from the porch and from their frames and tossed around the neighborhood)

I also saw signs of spring like the duck pond being thawed out and some ducks floating in it and the sound of familiar birds from my childhood as I walked under the still bare branches of the variety of trees they planted to create this lovely park. Until under one tree I had to look up because I heard screeching that seemed familiar and yet out of place at the same time, and there was one of the many green parrots that make Northern New Jersey their home now and have since the "global warming" trend started rising more rapidly in the last decade.

Now that's nothing like the old fashioned springtime thaw of my boyhood. Nobody from Jersey in my time was accustomed to hearing the sound of screeching parrots in New Jersey! But my youngest is. I mentioned I saw one today and it was like old news. Oh yeah, the parrots. They're always in that tree dad. At twelve years old he's never known the Northeast USA to be parrrotless.

[And as I've pointed out in other posts about this in previous seasons, these are not freed pets as some rightwingers like to picture it, these are parrots native to Mexico that have slowly made their way North as temperatures have risen, just as Spring comes earlier and summer stays longer (on average my rightwing friends, you remember that concept from grammar school?) every year, giving them more and more reason to either move further North each year and/or return earlier.]

10 comments:

JIm said...

It is particularlly difficult to accept the man caused global warming argument when scientific supporters have committed fraud, deception and destruction of evidence.

Elisabeth said...

Climate change is frightening, Michael, and destabilizing.

I can't help but think as I read this beautifully expressed post that your surgery may be like a metaphor of climate change for you personally.

This is not to underestimate the significance of climate change.

Harryn Studios said...

it was definitely good to see the winter/spring contrast over the past few weeks - and you're right, it did remind me of when i was a kid when the seasons were much more distinct - every year; and one of the reasons i enjoy living in the northeast - or used to ...

even a hundred years ago all this talk of climate change wouldn't have been going on because we had so much less invested in real estate and infrastructure - human beings will hopefully adapt, but the consequences will be devastating and irreversible to the global economy, food sources, and eco systems ...

to the nay-sayers, to whom it doesn't matter; that spin the evidence and misguided behavior of a few desperate activists to advance their own agendas, will have to assume the losses with everyone else anyway ... apparently, we've already crossed the tipping point ... probably the same people who denied the threat of a militant militia in the hills of a third world country ... what becomes more of a threat to national and international security than having our resources diminished at a tremendous cost burden when a little prudence can prevent it?
besides, shouldn't prudence be mandated as a system of rationing resources during a war on terror - its been done before ...

one of the advantages to living in the rurals - beyond enjoying the seasonal changes, is talking to farmers at the local country store who have worked their fields for generations ... when i hear them say they've never seen anything like this before, it worries me more than all the scientific and political data i've come across ...

happy St. Patty's day ...

Lally said...

Yeah, the truth is a few scientists and researchers among the vast majority (I read one survey that had the figure at close to 99 percent!) who believe from theirs and others' research and experience that climate change is happening as a result of global warming caused by and/or contributed to by human actions (or inaction as the case may be) altered some minor research data. But the facts are still clear and causing major disruptions to climate patterns throughout the world that is already taking a toll in loss of land or loss of arable land and populations including deaths from disasters and famine etc. Did anyone see the photos of that vast chunk of the Anartic that broke of recently? That great ice mass is diminishing rather rapidly and already contributing to rises in se levels and further temperature rising as well.

Lally said...

woops, missed a few typos near the end, sorry...

JIm said...

Mike the typos are nothing compared to the science you missed.

JIm said...

Happy St. Patty's Day. Unfortunately there will not be enough shamrocks to go around,

Irish Shamrock Shortage Has St. Patrick's Day Celebrations on Shaky Ground

FOXNews.com

Delayed growth in Irish clover fields due to severe winter weather sparks widespread concern in Ireland as a shamrock shortage dampens St. Patrick's Day revelry.


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Harryn Studios said...

oh - and a little on the ice mass - since it will be verifiable in the near future ...
any idea of how that is going to impact the migratory patterns of sea life and the effect on fishing industries and economies that depend upon it - a lot of re-routing and burning more fuel to get there i guess ...

i keep thinking of the Steve Martin movie where he says "God, give me a sign" - the windows blow open, furniture is displaced, paintings on the wall twirl, etc - and oblivious to it all, Martin shrugs away ...
only difference is - that's comedy ...

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Regardless of one's viewpoint, there can be no argument that in the past century and a quarter, mankind has plundered the planet as if there is no tomorrow with deforestation, pollution, toxic waste, toxic living condtions, genocide in the name of profit and countless other atrocities and wrongs, including irresponsible population growth in the name of orgasm and tax deductions. We (humanity)is plummeting toward the ground with the illusion that we are flying, and the idea of green consciousness, zero population growth and the like is a case of live and learn. Every choice and deed have consequence. Hybrid cars (and only driving when necessary), recycling, alternative energies, less consumption, reforesation, less irresponsible intercourse, less greed, more sharing, more tolerance, more realizing we are all connected and responsilble for each other on this planet, across man-made (not God made) borderlines, including other species (where's the manhood in shooting a deer standing still in the forest at 100 yards with a high powered semi automatic rifle? If you're going to hunt, do it with a knife and earn your food and stop acting like you're at war and the innocent fellow creature is the enemy)...we can, should and must do what we can to improve, something is better than nothing and everything we do in our individual lives affects the whole and affects future generations - remember this when you toss a cigarette but out the window or when you're choosing to spend a little more and buy something like printer paper that's 100% recycled or not.

how's that for a disjointed run-on sentence?

JIm said...

Robert,
Hunting with a longbow is nice intermediate step between a rifle and a knife. It takes a lot to get within 20 yards. The average range for a longbow deer kill is about 15yards. All the odds are with the deer.